Two Friends Plan to Split $115K Georgia Lottery Winnings

Two friends are having a ball since winning a Fantasy 5 jackpot prize. Thomas Hinton of Buford claimed his prize of $115,632 from matching all five winning numbers in the Aug. 7 drawing. He was one of 3 players to each win the jackpot prize from the Fantasy 5 drawing.

Hinton and Fanelli

Hinton explained that he and his friend, Angelo Fanelli, decided to purchase the ticket together.

“I bought it with my buddy, and we decided to do it,” he said. “It was intuition--male intuition that was working that day. Maybe it was premonition.”

Hinton purchased the Quik Pik at Jack’s, 1929 Highway 211 N.W. in Hoschton checked it online. Winning numbers from the Aug. 7 drawing were: 10-28-31-32-36. Winning jackpot tickets were also sold in Norcross and Albany.

“I didn’t know how to react,” Hinton said.

Married with two stepchildren, Hinton anticipates using a portion of his windfall as a down payment for a new home.

His friend intends to pay down bills, he said, and “he’s going to take me to dinner.”

“It’s exhilarating,” he exclaimed.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $12.7 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 1.3 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary pre-kindergarten program.

For more information on the Georgia Lottery Corp., please visit:
www.galottery.com and www.lotterybenefitsgeorgians.com