A lifelong joy of playing bingo led Katherine Robinson of Apex to buy a Big Bucks Bingo ticket Tuesday, resulting in a $162,826 Fast Play jackpot win.

She won the prize a day before her 68th birthday.

“What a great birthday present,” Robinson said.

Robinson, a retired middle school teacher, bought her lucky $10 ticket at the Publix on Kelly Road in Apex.

“I got so excited I couldn’t even believe it,” she said.

Robinson said her love of bingo goes all the way back to her childhood.

“When I was a teenager I used to go to bingo games with my mother,” she said. “I’ve always liked to play bingo, it’s so much fun.”

The Fast Play rolling jackpot grows with every ticket purchased. When Robinson bought her Big Bucks Bingo, it had just reached $162,826. Because she bought a $10 ticket, she won 100 percent of the jackpot.

Robinson arrived at lottery headquarters Wednesday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $115,626. She said she planned to use some of the money to replace windows in her house.

On Thursday morning, the Fast Play jackpot was $42,000 and growing. The odds of winning a Fast Play jackpot are 1 in 320,000.

Ticket sales from scratch-offs make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $65.1 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Wake County in 2021, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.