Champakbhai Patel, a resident of Salisbury in Rowan County, is the second player to claim a $1 million prize in the Holiday Millions game.
Top prize winners in the Holiday Millions game have the option of claiming their prize as a 20 year annuity or as a lump sum. Patel chose the $600,000 lump sum, which had an after-tax value of $408,006.
As of this morning, one $1 million prize remains to be claimed in the game. Players can enter their non-winning Holiday Millions tickets into a drawing at www.lucke-zone.com for a chance to win $3 million, the largest second-chance prize the NCEL has ever offered. The date of the drawing has not been scheduled.
Ticket sales for games such as Holiday Millions have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.58 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Rowan County education programs received more than $32.5 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk 4-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.