RALEIGH – David Kincaid, a taxidermist from Granite Falls, plans to use the $200,000 he won playing the 20X The Cash game to pay off his wife’s car. He purchased the lucky ticket at the PD Grocery on Sawmill School Road in Granite Falls.

“I was scratching my ticket in my easy chair at home,” Kincaid said. “I won the prize on the number 19. I always thought my lucky number was 24, but I believe that’s changed. I’m happy, happy, happy!”

Kincaid also plans to use his winnings, worth $136,001 after state and federal taxes were withheld, to pay bills and help others. He is the first player to claim the top prize in the 20X The Cash game.

“I feel a lot of things,” Kincaid said as he held his check for the first time. “Great. Wonderful. Fine. Fantastic. Excited and heavenly. This truly is a life-changer.”

20X The Cash, a $5 game, is part of the lottery’s new multiplier-themed suite of instant scratch-off games that launched on Aug. 6. The games are 50X The Cash, 20X The Cash, 10X The Cash and 5X The Cash. As of Monday afternoon, five more top prizes remain to be claimed in the 20X The Cash game.

As of June 2013, the lottery has raised 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, college scholarships and financial aid based on need and digital learning initiatives.

To see how more than $17.8 million in lottery dollars have made a difference in Caldwell County, go to the Where the Money Goes webpage at http://www.nc-educationlottery.org/beneficiary.aspx.