Joe Pierce makes change for a customer at Pointer Express on Kibler Road in Van Buren today. Price is the first $100,000 winner in the state's new lottery. (Photo by Carrol Copeland/Stephens Media)

LITTLE ROCK — The winner of the first $100,000 ticket in the Arkansas lottery said today he plans to buy a new house for his wife and two children, one of them a daughter born five days ago.

“It was absolute disbelief,” Joe Pierce of Van Buren said about winning the prize on a $5 scratch-off ticket. “I had to show it to several people to have them confirm that I had won because I just couldn’t fathom it.”

Pierce, 34, purchased the ticket Sunday evening while working at the Pointer Express convenience store on Kibler Road in Van Buren.

“It kind of got slow and I was taking a little break and I thought, ‘I’ll play just for fun,’” he said.

He said he first purchased a $5 ticket and won $5. He then used the $5 winner to purchase a second $5 ticket that produced the $100,000 jackpot.

Pierce, who has worked at the Pointer Express for less than two months, said he plans to drive to Little Rock early Tuesday to cash the ticket at the lottery’s headquarters. He said he wanted to cash it today but did not because he thought the redemption center would be closed for Columbus Day. The center was open.

Pierce said he plans to be at the center “first thing” Tuesday because he has to be back in Van Buren by 2 p.m. to start his shift at Pointer Express.

“They’re not giving me time off,” he said.

He said he will use part of his winnings to make a down payment on a house and spend the rest on his children. His older child is 13.

Since the lottery went into effect Sept. 28, more than $19 million in tickets have been sold.