Press release from the North Carolina Education Lottery:
Ivy Martin of Asheville is the second player to claim the $100,000 top prize in the Black Onyx 7’s game. She purchased the lucky ticket at the Hot Spot on Sweeten Creek Road in Asheville.
“I saw a seven and I knew I had won something,” Martin said. “Then I scratched off the prize and I didn’t think it could be real. When I took it back to the store and they told me I had to claim it at the lottery headquarters, it clicked for me. This feels great.”
Martin said she plans to use her winnings, worth $68,001 after taxes were withheld, to pay bills and breathe easier. As of Thursday afternoon, three more top prizes remain to be claimed in the Black Onyx 7’s game.
Since the lottery began, North Carolina has received more than $2.9 billion to support education programs. The lottery completed its seventh straight year of record sales and record earnings for the state on June 30, 2013, recording a 5.8 percent increase in sales and an estimated 4 percent increase in earnings. Lottery dollars support teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction and repair projects, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and college scholarships and financial aid based on need.
To see how more than $40.5 million in lottery dollars have made a difference in Buncombe County, go to the Where the Money Goes webpage at http://www.nc-educationlottery.org/beneficiary.aspx.
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