HOPE grad wins $575,000 on eve of Thanksgiving

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

ATLANTA – A Stone Mountain woman won a half-million dollar jackpot prize on the eve of Thanksgiving. Efia Miles, 32,was preparing Thanksgiving dinner with family when she realized she'd won $575,226 from matching all five winning numbers in the Nov. 25 Fantasy 5 drawing.

A 2003 lottery-funded HOPE graduate of Georgia State University, Miles said she began playing Fantasy 5 a month ago. She purchased her ticket at Shell Food Mart, located at 2701 Candler Road in Decatur, using a combination of family birthdays. Winning numbers from the Nov. 25 Fantasy 5 drawing were: 7-12-16-29-38.

The televised drawing was aired in the living room while Miles and her family cooked in the kitchen. She checked the numbers online shortly after midnight, she said.

"I told my mother, 'Mama, this is it,' " Miles said. "Even now, it's still like I'm in disbelief."

Currently an online customer service representative, Miles also has worked as a social worker helping people with HIV and AIDS. The lucky lottery winner plans to purchase a new home for her mother and anticipates paying off bills. She also has plans to purchase a car for her niece and will save the remainder.

Georgia Lottery retailers selling winning jackpot Fantasy 5 tickets receive a retailer incentive bonus of $2,000. The retailer incentive bonus increases by $2,000 each time Fantasy 5 rolls. If more than one winning jackpot ticket is sold, the retailers selling the jackpot winning tickets will share the bonus. Shell Food Mart will receive a $10,000 retailer incentive bonus.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $11.2 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia's HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia's Pre-K Program. More than 1.2 million students have received HOPE, and more than 940,000 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

For more information, please visit the Media Center on the Georgia Lottery Web site at:
www.galottery.com

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Tandi Reddick
Media Relations Manager

P 404.215.5062
F 404.215.8983
media [at] galottery [dot] org

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