Matthew Huber of Raleigh is “very grateful” and “very thankful” after winning a $1,860,203 jackpot in a Thanksgiving Day drawing.

“I thought I was still recovering from stuffing myself at Thanksgiving dinner,” said Huber. “I had to check twice. We don’t really play a lot, but we saw the Cash 5 jackpot going higher.”

What Huber saw was the Cash 5 jackpot growing to become the third largest jackpot in the history of the game.

He purchased his lucky $1 Quick Pick ticket for Thursday’s drawing using Online Play on the lottery’s website before heading to his family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

On Friday morning, Huber woke up to a lottery email alerting him of his win.

“It was mind blowing,” recalled Huber. “I thought, ‘oh my gosh!’ and then I called my wife over to look. It is something you never expect to see, but hope to see. It’s phenomenal, the best Thanksgiving”

Huber arrived at lottery headquarters Monday to collect his prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $1,320,934.

He hopes to save and invest his winnings to help others in the future.

Cash 5 is one of four lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets at a retail location or Online Play, either through the lottery’s website or with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. Cash 5 tickets are $1 and drawings are held every night. Monday’s jackpot is $164,000.

Ticket sales from draw games such as Cash 5 make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $64 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Wake County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.