RALEIGH – Patricia Everhart, a homemaker from Lexington, says that she’s had a lot of luck playing the lottery’s Millionaire 7’s scratch-off game. Her claim was backed up on Thursday after she won prizes of $20, $40, $500 and $1 million.

“I bought one of the Millionaire 7’s tickets a while back just because I thought it looked pretty,” Everhart said. “The first one I bought won me $50 and I’ve been playing them ever since.”

The lucky streak started on Thursday morning when Everhart bought three Millionaire 7’s tickets at Carlton’s Hampton Road Grocery on Hampton Road in Clemmons.

“I went to get my nails done and I started scratching the tickets,” Everhart said. “I won forty dollars and five hundred dollars, which felt good.”

Everhart returned to the store and used $40 of her initial winnings to purchase four more of the $10 tickets.

“This time I waited until I got home to scratch off the tickets,” Everhart said. “I was standing on my back porch and I scratched off a twenty dollar win. Then when I saw the million dollar prize, I just started crying tears of joy.”

Everhart is the seventh player to win the $1 million top prize in the game. She said she plans to use her winnings to build a new home, buy a new Ford F150 truck and invest the rest.

“It just doesn’t feel real,” Everhart said. “I asked my husband when I woke up this morning if I was dreaming, but he said ‘Honey, it’s true.’ It’s so exciting.”

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. Everhart chose the annuity and received her first check, worth $34,628 after required state and federal withholdings. She will receive a check annually for the next 19 years.

“I always thought that I’d eventually win big and now I have,” Everhart said. “It feels amazing.”

Everhart beat odds of 1 in 960,000 to win the game’s top prize. As of Friday afternoon, three more $1 million prizes and three $100,000 prizes remain to be claimed in the game.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. 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 $52 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Davidson County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.