STATE: Stop before work wins Richmond County woman $164,281 Fast Play jackpot

Published 5:41 pm Monday, March 8, 2021

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A stop to kill time before work won Shavonia Johnson of Rockingham a $164,281 Fast Play jackpot.

“I was excited!” she said. “I’ve never won such a big amount before. I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

On her way to work as a CNA/Med Tech on Friday, Johnson stopped at the Quality Mart on North Sandhills Boulevard in Aberdeen and purchased a $5 Blizzard Bingo ticket.

“It was a new game,” she said. “So, I wanted to take a chance with it.”

Her lucky ticket beat odds of 1 in 240,000 to win 50 percent of the jackpot amount.

“When I scanned it and it said the message, I was like, ‘Wait a minute, am I doing it right?’” she recalled. “So, I told the cashier, ‘I think I got to go to Raleigh. I think I won!’”

Johnson claimed her prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $116,230.

“I’m gonna pay off my car first,” she said. “I’m gonna bless my mom and my children. And continue to get bills out of the way.”

Fast Play’s rolling, progressive jackpot increases with every ticket sold until it is won.

Printed on each Fast Play 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 tickets.

Ticket sales from games like Fast Play make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million per year for education. For details on how $3 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Richmond County in 2020, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.