RALEIGH – Ronnie Jackson, a retired Army soldier from High Point, won $40 on an instant scratch-off ticket on Tuesday evening. He then walked back inside The Pop Shoppe on Hickswood Road, collected his winnings and purchased a 20X The Money ticket that would turn out to be worth $1 million.

“It was crazy,” Jackson said. “I was in disbelief. It didn’t seem real at all.”

Jackson could have claimed the $1 million prize in annuity payments of $50,000 a year for 20 years, but he chose a $600,000 cash option. He said he may use his winnings, worth $408,003 after taxes were withheld, to pay off his mortgage or buy a new house.

“Wow,” Jackson said as he received his check. “This ain’t a bad day at all.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, one more $1 million top prize remains to be claimed in the 20X The Money game.

Since the lottery began, North Carolina has received more than $2.9 billion to support education programs. The lottery completed its seventh straight year of record sales and record earnings for the state on June 30, 2013, recording a 5.8 percent increase in sales and an estimated 4 percent increase in earnings. Lottery dollars support teachers’ salaries in grades k-3, school construction and repair projects, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and college scholarships and financial aid based on need. To see how more than $127.6 million in lottery dollars have made a difference in Guilford County, go to the Where the Money Goes webpage at http://www.nc-educationlottery.org/beneficiary.aspx.