Katie Knighten of Greensboro said she can afford to buy her own home now after winning a $143,237 Fast Play jackpot.

“We are renting the home we currently live in and we’d love to buy that,” Knighten said.

Knighten bought her lucky $5 Safari Bingo ticket on Sept. 23 from the Quick & Easy on Burlington Road in Greensboro. She is an employee at the store.

“I was ecstatic,” she said. “I called my mama crying.”

Knighten said she recently lost her father in August so the win holds extra meaning for her.

“We felt like it was blessing from him,” she said.

The Fast Play rolling jackpot grows with every ticket purchased. When Knighten bought her Safari Bingo ticket, it had just reached $286,474. Because she bought a $5 ticket, she won 50 percent of the jackpot.

Knighten arrived Wednesday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $101,714. In addition to the new house, she said she would maybe like to buy a new Toyota Tacoma.

On Thursday morning, the Fast Play jackpot was $144,000 and growing. The odds of winning a Fast Play jackpot are 1 in 320,000.

Ticket sales from Fast Play make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $33.2 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Guilford County in 2021, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.