Deidra Graham of Greensboro is the first player to win $200,000 playing the new 10th Anniversary Spectacular scratch-off game.
Graham has been a caregiver for her grandmother for the last five years and never imagined something like this would ever happen.
“I’m still in shock,” Graham said. “I feel like I’m floating, that I’m going to wake up and it won’t be real.”
Graham doesn’t play the lottery regularly, but was at her dad’s favorite place to get tickets when she decided to buy one herself. When she scratched the ticket, she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“I kept asking Is this for real?” Graham said.
She claimed her prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $138,501. She plans to use some of the money to get a new bed.
Graham bought the $5 ticket at the Buy Quick Food Mart on West Cornwallis Road in Durham.
10th Anniversary Spectacular launched on Tuesday with four top prizes of $200,000. Three top prizes remain.
Ticket sales from games like 10th Anniversary Spectacular made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. For details on how over $207.8 million in lottery funds has made a difference in Guilford County, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.