Emanuael Mills of Henderson took a chance on a scratch-off ticket in the $5,000,000 Fortune game and won a $100,000 prize.

Mills bought his lucky ticket on Thursday at the Raleigh Road Convenient Mart on Raleigh Road in Henderson. He scratched the ticket later at home and discovered his big win.

“I looked at it and said there is no way it is a $100,000 so I put it away,” Mills said. Later, he showed the ticket to a friend and she convinced him he had a big win.

After required federal and state tax withholdings, Mills took home $70,756. He said he planned to use the prize money to catch up on bills.

“I play just for the fun of it,” Mills said Friday as he claimed his prize. “I like to scratch the whole ticket and see if I am a winner.”

The $20 game began in August with three top prizes of $5 million and six prizes of $100,000. Two $5 million prizes and four $100,000 prizes remain to be claimed.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $700 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.