Cash Spectacular, a $10-dollar scratch-off ticket, has the best return for players of any game North Carolina's lottery has ever produced, lottery director Tom Shaheen said Wednesday. Players apparently have caught on and started buying.

The game, which returns 73 percent of sales to prize payouts, is even boosting sales of other games, he said.

"Sales are increasing at a pretty good pace," Shaheen told the state Lottery Commission. "Yet, it's too early to say, 'Hey, everything's great.' "

In the fall, state leaders allowed the lottery to offer games with better prize payouts to get players excited about instant games.

It may be working, Shaheen said. As of February, sales revenue for the fiscal year is up more than $17 million from the year before.

It worked with Adam Burton of Pfafftown - the Cash Spectacular game brought him back to the store a few times.

Burton recently became a lottery player, in part because his 4-year-old son, Brennen, likes to scratch them. One of Burton's Cash Spectacular tickets hit $100. Burton took $50 in cash and five more of the tickets. He won another $50 and used it to buy more tickets. Two hit. One was for $15. The other was for $1 million.

Burton, a warehouse supervisor, will receive $34,000 (after taxes) every February for the next 19 years.