A friend’s story about winning prizes every now and then with scratch-off tickets led Jamiela Hardrick of Greensboro to try her luck Monday with two lottery tickets, and she won $5 on one and $100,000 on the other.
“It was my very first time, ever, buying one,” said Hardrick.
She said she bought a $5 Crossword 10K ticket and a $5 Mega Bucks ticket at the Sheetz on West Wendover Avenue in Greensboro. She won her $5 back on the Crossword 10K ticket and the top prize of the Mega Bucks game.
After taxes were withheld, Hardrick, 21, received a check for $69,201. She said she plans to use her prize money to help pay her way to college where she plans to study nursing.
As of Thursday, six more $100,000 top prizes remain to be claimed in the Mega Bucks game.
Ticket sales have made it possible for the lottery to raise more than $3.4 billion for the state. North Carolina Education Lottery net proceeds will be used this year to help pay salaries of teachers and teacher assistants, for pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, school construction and repair, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.
For details on how more than $154 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Guilford County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.