On Friday, a bonus $2 Jackpot 7’s ticket scored Luther Covington of Fayetteville a $106,310 Fast Play jackpot.

“I’ve been playing the lottery since it started and never won like that,” he said.

Covington received a free $2 Jackpot 7’s ticket from the Circle B on North Reilly Road in Fayetteville after he purchased a $10 Carolina Pick 3 ticket.

The Fast Play Jackpot 7’s ticket he got from the promotion, which ran from Oct.19 to Oct. 31 and gave players the chance to try Fast Play, turned out to be the lucky one.

“I took it to the scanner and it said I had to go to the North Carolina Lottery. And I said, ‘What?’” Covington recalled.

He didn’t look at the ticket again until Sunday when he was thinking about how much he may have won.

“I went back and took a picture of the ticket to the lady at the store,” he recalled. “And she said, ‘I think you won the jackpot, the $2 jackpot!’ It was very exciting.”

Covington claimed his prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $75,214.

“I’ll pay my car off and pay a few bills and put the rest in savings,” said Covington of his plans for his prize money.

Since Fast Play started in September, North Carolinians have won 11 jackpots. The rolling, progressive jackpot increases with every ticket sold until it is won. The odds of winning a Fast Play jackpot are 1 in 240,000.

Printed on each ticket is the amount of the jackpot when the ticket is sold and how much of that jackpot the ticket could win. Players can also win instant cash prizes on their Fast Play ticket.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million a year for education. For details on how $21.8 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Cumberland County in 2019, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.