RALEIGH – Katie Wheless, a waitress from Bunn, plans to purchase a new car for herself and her fiance after winning a $1 million prize playing the $10 MONOPOLY game.

Wheless’ work shift had ended on Monday afternoon when she decided to go to the Eagle Mart on Bickett Boulevard in Louisburg to buy refreshments. While there, she decided to purchase two $10 MONOPOLY tickets.

“I won $15 on the first ticket and was feeling pretty good,” she said. “I scratched off the second one and I couldn’t believe it. I looked at it over and over.”

Wheless could have claimed the $1 million prize in annuity payments of $50,000 a year for 20 years, but she chose a $600,000 cash option. She plans to use a portion of her winnings, worth $408,003 after taxes were withheld, to save for the future.

As of Tuesday morning, three top prizes remain to be claimed in the $10 MONOPOLY game.

The $10 MONOPOLY game is part of a suite of games that launched on March 26. All four games, priced at $1, $2, $5 and $10, are eligible for monthly second-chance drawings featuring cash prizes up to $10,000. Every entry is also automatically applied towards a MONOPOLY Super Entry. The MONOPOLY Super Entry Drawing will feature a $1 million prize. A “super entry” consists of a non-winning ticket entry from each of the four new MONOPOLY games. On-line entry forms and additional information can be found at www.lucke-zone.com.

Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Franklin County education programs received more than $12.4 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and college scholarships and financial aid based on need.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.8 billion for these initiatives statewide.