Macon mom rings in New Year with $171,000

ATLANTA – A Macon mother will ring in the new year with $171,000 in Georgia Lottery winnings. Karmin Baker, 49, won $171,852 from matching all five winning numbers in the Dec. 15 Fantasy 5 drawing.

Using her own combination of family birthdays, Baker purchased her ticket at S & P Food Mart, 855 Gray Highway in Macon. Winning numbers from the Dec. 15 Fantasy 5 drawing were: 10-15-18-25-38. She discovered her win while at work.

"I just cannot believe that I've won," the astonished mother of one said. "I called my husband, and he thought I was joking."

With her daughter going to college next fall, Baker and her husband, Bennie, plan to set aside money for her future. They also intend to make home repairs.

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. S & P Food Mart will receive a $4,000 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.