RALEIGH – Last summer, Carlton Simpson had a friend who told him about Carolina Cash 5. The Durham man liked the idea of a game where the jackpot is always won by a ticket sold in North Carolina, so he started to try his luck in the nightly drawings.

Monday night was Simpson’s lucky day. The numbers he chose matched all five in the evening drawing, beating odds of 1 in 575,757 to win the $358,867 jackpot.

“It’s like I’m dreaming,” Simpson said Tuesday afternoon as he claimed his prize money at lottery headquarters. “I’m speechless, really.”

Simpson purchased his winning ticket, worth $248,292 after taxes, at the C-Mart on East Club Boulevard in Durham.

Another Durham player, Barbara Clinton, collected $150,000 in lottery winnings on Monday. She won on a lucky White Hot 5’s scratch-off ticket she bought at the Bragtown BP Family Fare on Roxboro Road in Durham. After state and federal taxes were withheld, Clinton received a check for $103,488.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion for the state last year. For details on how more than $71 million in lottery funds have made a difference for specific education programs in Durham County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.