Brandon Mason of Jacksonville says he can go back to school now that he’s won $200,000.
He currently works at a call center, but what he wants is to become a barber.
“This can’t be real,” he said. Playing the lottery is a “once-in-a-blue-moon kinda thing.”
Mason bought his winning $5 Power 5s ticket at the Food Lion located at the Branchwood Shopping Center in Jacksonville.
He claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday. After federal and state tax withholdings he took home $141,501.
Mason won the last of five top prize in the Power 5s game. Since all top prizes have been claimed, the lottery will begin steps to end the game.
Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $700 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.