Annabelle Raby of Plymouth tried her luck on the new CA$H PLU$ game and became the first winner of a $200,000 top prize.
“It still hasn’t hit me that I won,” she said Monday as she claimed her prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh.
Raby purchased her winning $5 ticket from the Speedway on U.S. 17 South in Elizabeth City.
“I almost passed out when I scratched off the ticket!” she recalled. “I was shaking and my heart was beating really fast.”
She took home $141,501 after required federal and state tax withholdings.
“I am gonna get a car,” said Raby. “I don’t have one and I know I need one.”
CA$H PLU$ launched in March with six top prizes of $200,000. Five remain to be won.
Ticket sales from scratch-offs like CA$H PLU$ make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have helped all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.