RALEIGH – Meghan Lamberth of Maiden plans to use the $150,000 prize she won playing the lottery’s new Green & Gold game to pay off her and her husband’s car loans. She is the first player to win the top prize in the game, which went on sale Feb. 4.

Lamberth was on her lunch break on Friday when she stopped into the Plaza Drive BP on East Plaza Drive in Mooresville to purchase two $5 Green & Gold tickets.

“I went out to the car and started scratching and won $5 on the first ticket,” Lamberth said. “Then I started scratching the other one and thought I had won $150. Then I saw the three zeroes and my hand started shaking.”

Lamberth walked into the store and asked the clerk to scan the ticket to verify her good luck.

“I asked her if it was real,” Lamberth said. “She scanned it and the machine played a little song, then she whispered ‘It’s real’ and told me to sign the back of the ticket. I was still shaking. She even had to hold the pen for me.”

After state and federal taxes were withheld, Lamberth received $103,801. Four more $150,000 top prizes remain to be claimed in the Green & Gold game.

“This is just unbelievable,” Lamberth said as she collected her winnings on Monday afternoon. “I may splurge and get a new purse.”

As of December 2013, the lottery has raised more than $3.19 billion to support education programs. Lottery dollars support teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction and repair projects, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, need-based college scholarships and financial aid and digital learning initiatives.

To see how more than $42.7 million in lottery dollars have made a difference in Catawba County, go to the Where the Money Goes webpage at http://www.nc-educationlottery.org/beneficiary.aspx.