Instant games and Cash 5 pay off big this week

This week brought our very first top prize winner in the $5,000 a Week for Life! game. Maha Natour of Raleigh purchased the winning ticket just a few miles down the road from lottery headquarters. Two hours later, she walked out with a check for more than $2.4 million. She and her husband plan to use a portion of her winnings to purchase a home.

Victoria Williams of High Point is the second player to win $1 million instantly playing the 20X the Money scratch-off game. She purchased her winning ticket at the Pantry Shop on East Lexington Avenue in High Point.

Talk about luck! Robert and Paula Stallings of Lumberton plan to pay off their mortgage after matching all five numbers in the Sept. 22 Cash 5 drawing and winning the $319,680 jackpot. Funny thing is, they matched four out of five numbers in the previous night's drawing.

“We had just won $321 dollars the night before,” Robert Stallings said as he collected his prize. “So we decided to use some of those winnings to buy ten more Cash 5 tickets. This feels wonderful.”

Let's take a closer look at the week's prize totals for North Carolina draw games:

Pick 3 players won more than $2.5 million in prizes.
Pick 4 players won more than $1.1 million including 72 top prizes of $5,000
Cash 5 players won more than $614,000

Instant prizes totaling more than $16.8 million have been awarded this week. Here's a breakdown of some of the big winners:

- Albert Lahaye of Charlotte won $20,000 playing $4,000,000 Cash Blowout
- Joyce Brock of Beaulaville won $10,000 playing $5,000 a Week for Life!
- George Griffin of Rocky Mount won $10,000 playing $2,500 a Week for Life!
- Ashlie Hudson of Rutherfordton won $10,000 playing $2,500 a Week for Life!
- Gregory Smith of Wake Forest won $10,000 playing $$2,500 a Week for Life!
- Randy Wallace of Rockingham won $10,000 playing Maximum Green
- Gina White of Fayetteville won $10,000 playing $5,000 a Week for Life!

In all, the Education Lottery awarded more than $21.1 million in prizes to players of lottery games.

Have a lucky weekend everybody!