A North Carolina lottery winner is striking it rich again. Cristien Breton of Salisbury claimed a $100,000 prize on a scratch-off ticket last week, only about a year after landing a $2 million jackpot in 2024. This latest North Carolina lottery win comes with a plan Breton says is bigger than himself: he wants to direct the money toward helping underprivileged children get ready for the school year.
Breton claimed the prize on Friday and will take home roughly $72,000 after state and federal taxes. He said, “I’ve been very lucky. I want to help take care of the community. It feels awesome. I am definitely blessed.” He also said, “I could not believe it happened again.” The earlier jackpot came from a $20 scratch-off ticket in August 2024, and after taxes that win left him with $858,006.
His back-to-back wins have put him in the rare position of becoming a repeat lottery winner in a short span of time. The first prize, Breton said, helped support his mother, and he has tied that experience to his decision to keep paying it forward. In this case, the new money is intended for children in the community, with school season approaching and many families facing extra expenses for supplies, clothing, and other basics.
The ticket behind the latest win was part of the North Carolina Education Lottery’s $100,000 Cash Payday game. According to lottery information, the instant scratch-off offers more than 80 prizes of $100,000, and 56 of those prizes were still unclaimed. That makes Breton’s result even more striking, since the game still has a large number of top prizes waiting to be found.
