RALEIGH – For the second time in less than a month, a Charlotte-area player has won $1 million on a Millionaire Jingle Bucks ticket.

Charles Mobley was in his kitchen when he scratched to reveal that one of his winning numbers matched with one of the numbers to win a prize. When he saw how much the prize was worth, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“I paused for a second,” Mobley recalled. “Then it finally hit me – I won $1 million.”

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. Mobley opted for the lump sum, worth $415,203 after required state and federal withholdings. Mobley, a North Carolina native who has lived in Charlotte for 20 years, said the prize money would help him “make a better life.”

Mobley bought his lucky $10 ticket at Raceway on Brookshire Boulevard in Charlotte.

On Nov. 14, another $1 million prize in the game was awarded to brothers-in-law from Union County. Van Hill of Indian Trail and Wayne Clifton of Monroe had an agreement that they’d share the prize should either of them ever buy a big-winning ticket. Hill did exactly that at the Market Express on Old Monroe Road in Indian Trail.

“True to his word, we’re sharing the prize,” Clifton said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, one more top prize 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 in Mecklenburg County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.