RALEIGH – Greg Hughes had a $5-winning lottery ticket in his pocket when he stopped at the Liberty Food Mart on Alamance Church Road in Liberty. He cashed it in and added $5 more to it to try his luck on a $10 ticket for the Millionaire 7’s game – and won $1 million.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw it,” he recalled. “I just kept staring at it.”

A $1 million prize in the game can be claimed in 20 annuity payments of $50,000, or a one-time payment of $600,000. Hughes opted for the lump sum, worth $415,203 after required state and federal withholdings.

Hughes, a driver for a sanitation company, said that collecting his prize money just before Christmas makes the season even merrier.

“Everybody’s going to get their present now,” he said with a smile.

As of Friday afternoon, five more top prizes of $1 million – and many other prizes – remain to be claimed in the game.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion for the state last year. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference for specific education programs across North Carolina and in Randolph County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.