Scott Edwards of Julian and Perry Charles of Lexington made a pact a long time ago to split any big lottery wins with each other, and that promise was kept Tuesday when Charles won a $361,527 Fast Play jackpot.

“I’d just gotten off of work,” Charles recalled. “I looked at the amount you could win and thought to myself, ‘Man, I want this!’”

Charles chose to wait until he got home to see if he’d won. When he saw that he had, he called Edwards and kept his word.

“I was lost for words,” said Edwards. “I was kind of in shock too because to me that’s a lot of money to win. And I know that anything he says is just the truth. So, I knew when he told me that he wasn’t pulling my leg.”

Edwards knows his friend well – especially after 35 years. “He’s what you call a true friend,” he said. “Kinda like family.”

The two met while working at Winn-Dixie. “He was my boss!” Edwards laughed. Charles added, “We always talked about if we would hit something big, it didn’t matter if we went in together to get the ticket or if we got it separate, we were gonna share it with each other.”

Charles bought his winning $5 Double Win ticket from the Mast Food Mart on Old U.S. 64 East in Lexington. When he bought his ticket, the Fast Play jackpot stood at a record $723,054. A $5 ticket receives 50 percent of the jackpot amount. The odds of winning a Fast Play jackpot are 1 in 320,000.

Eles chegaram à sede da loteria na quarta -feira para receber seu prêmio e, depois de retenções federais e estaduais necessárias, receberam US $ 128.361.Ambos disseram que estavam ansiosos para pagar algumas contas.

O jackpot Rolling Fast Play cresce com cada ingresso comprado.Quando um jackpot rápido é vencido, ele começa em US $ 20.000.Na tarde de quinta -feira, o jackpot custava US $ 398.188 e cresce.

As vendas de ingressos de jogos de arranhões possibilitam a loteria para arrecadar mais de US $ 900 milhões por ano para educação.Para obter detalhes sobre como o dinheiro arrecadado pela loteria faz a diferença em seu condado, visite www.nclottery.com e clique na seção "Impacto".