Players scratch and match for $21 million this week

Three players this week beat the odds to join the ranks of the lottery's $100,000-plus winners.

Meet Wendy Gibson, a medical coder from Raeford in Hoke County. She bought a $5 ticket for the $250,000 Cash Money game at the ALCO on Rockfish Road and took it home where she and her husband sat down at the kitchen table together. That's where they found out they won $250,000. “My husband scratched it off and threw the penny on the ground,” Gibson recalled. “I knew it must have been a big one. Then we looked at it together and it was real.” The Gibsons beat odds of 1 in 1 million to win the top prize.

Gary Baldwin Jr. beat even longer odds - 1 in 1.2 million - to win $200,000. Baldwin, a truck driver from Pikeville in Wayne County, bought his lucky $5 ticket for the $200,000 Extreme Cash game at the Kangaroo Express on South Church Street in Kenly. “I must have looked at the ticket ten times,” Baldwin said. “I started screaming and hollering when I realized how much I had won.” He plans to use a portion of his winnings to buy a new 2014 Chevy Silverado and pay bills.

Ronald Cass of Winston-Salem is the latest player to win the jackpot playing our state's jackpot game, Carolina Cash 5. A ticket he bought at the Wilco on Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem was the only one to match all five numbers in the Tuesday, Feb. 18 drawing, beating odds of 1 in 757,575 - and winning the $139,406 jackpot.

Also on Tuesday night, an Ocean Isle Beach woman won $25,000 playing Mega Millions. Reba Lea bought a $2 Megaplier ticket at the Minuteman Food Mart on Naber Drive in Shallotte. By matching four white balls and the Mega Ball with a Megaplier of five, she multiplied her $5,000 prize to $25,000.

Eleven players won $10,000 instant prizes this week. Other players scratched their way to big wins, too. Frank Mayo of Durham and James Jordan of Hamptonville won $15,000 each playing Bonus Jackpot. Cary resident Alan Cross won $20,000 playing Lucky Clover and it was a Lucky Loot ticket that led to $25,000 for Patricia Sessoms of Fayetteville. Richard Rumple scratched off his Junior Big Ol' Bucks ticket and won the top prize of $50,000.

Thanks for playing and reading the blog. Until next time, have a fun and safe weekend. See you soon here in the Lucke-Zone.