After teaching math for 35 years, Gerald Weathers of Shelby knows enough about numbers to be shocked when he beat the odds to win a $200,000 lottery prize.

“You always hope you’ll win when you enter,” Weathers said. “But you never actually think you will. This time it paid off.”

Weathers beat odds of 1 in 6.6 million to win the top prize in the lottery’s Holiday Second-Chance Promotion.

“I was really shocked when I got the email telling me I won,” Weathers said. “I’m tickled to death.”

Weathers claimed his prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $139,002. Weathers plans to give some of the money to his church and family, then put the rest in savings.

Everyone who purchased a holiday scratch-off ticket could use them to get entries into the Feb. 8 second-chance drawing at no additional cost. The drawing also awarded five prizes of $5,000 and ten prizes of $500.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games made it possible for the lottery to raise more than $634 million for the state last year. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in Cleveland County, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.