Stephany Marchese, the winner of a $1 million Powerball prize with nine of her coworkers at a Staten Island, N.Y., nursing home, has very simple advice for those eyeing this Friday's $400 million Mega Millions jackpot.
"Play, play, play," Marchese, 61, said. "It took $2 and a dream for us. Just play. You never know."
Marchese is a member of the self-titled "The Fabulous 9," a group of three friends and six coworkers at the Eger Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Egertville, Staten Island, who have been pitching in $10 each per month for the past 20 years for lottery tickets.
In October, the "Fabulous 9," discovered they had a winning Powerball ticket and yesterday the group received their prize, a $1 million jackpot broken down into a lump sum for each of $69,226, or "60 and some change," according to Marchese.
"I cried because I was so happy," she said. "I plan to do a little for everybody and take a little vacation and pay off some obligations I have and save."
Marchese, a married mother of two and grandmother to one, has worked at Eger for the past decade and started buying Powerball tickets with the group 15 years ago. She had a very quick answer when asked if this coming Christmas will be a good one for her and her family.
"Yes it will. Believe me you," Marchese said.
Though they range in age from their 40s to their 60s, according to Marchese, one thing all members of "The Fabulous 9? have in common is that they showed up for work today.
The other members of group who collected a check Tuesday were Annette Alexis, Mauleen Gomez, Fatumata Massalee, Marva Prevost, Roseanne Pucciarelli, Linda Rizzo, Deborah Scalera and Lucille White, according to The New York Lottery.
Marchese says the group never had a formal contract should they win but just relied on a rotation of who would buy the tickets, always used Quick Pick to select the numbers and had a mutual understanding that they would equally split the winnings.
She also says there was no co-worker envy when they each returned to the 600 employee-nursing home the next day more than $60,000 richer.
"Everybody is happy. We're all happy. It's a blessing," Marchese said.
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I bought my 1 quick pick ticket.
I am not a big lottery spender, but I did spend $5 on Quick Picks for this very nice Jackpot!
Pennsylvania needs to finally win a Mega Millions Jackpot!
No big winner since the first tickets were sold here in 2010.
Well they said fabulous nine but i only see eight in the picture all looking cute. But the first lady in that pic is extremly hot so this is my offer for her am going to win the next $400,000,000 and am going to offer her half of it $200,000,000 for a 30yr marriage prenup with no divorce option and she has to quit her job because i need a full undivided attention and if she is still married well we will pay her husband $1million dollars to sign all divorce papers within 7days. And with her nursing experience it means am always going to be in good hands 24/7 ye i think it's a good deal for both of us even if she is a gold digger its ok am digging for treasures too but maybe not exactly gold but better .lol
Go back to sleep. The first girl works for NYLotto.
Well thank you for the update and new information but that doesn't change my offer or feelings at least i know she loves to work for a lottery company meaning she dreams of big pay day too perfect storm for a perfect deal .Maybe this deal will go thru faster than i think lol
Lmao
What A Great Reply
15 years is a long time to play in a lottery pool
Glad it worked out for them
Am not saying that winning the mega millions is easy but if she is added as an incentive in my equation to win that maybe all i need to change the scale of luck to tilt down on my favour . You may not believe how far a little sweet incentive can go to making big money. lol
You marry her, then you can't play the lottery. Lottery employees and their family can't play the lottery.(well, you can play, but if you win it is invalid.)
So you'd have to make her quit her dream job, and then she'd resent you for life.
Whats up JBL. Kind of looks like you have been hanging around Pedro lately. With $200M, you can own the DR and get all the action you want. No single action is worth that much, even if it is made of platinum. The lady in the picture might look enticing to you now, but looks aren't everything. What if she stinks or sucks in real life?. Try and find real love, and it would not cost you as much, and you will even end up very, very happy. Good luck.
I think she'll take your offer. Read somewhere she likes to Riverdance, so as long as you pay for dance lessons and travel expences, this might work out.
Joe, I agree with your taste. She is beautiful.
Getting tired of settling for inexpensive prostitues?
Actually i don't settle for that. The last time a prostitue walked up to me at a gas station i actually declined her offer but i did pay for her beer because i was grabbing some beer too .I didn't want her to feel too bad and then she said i need $10 for gas too and i said ok i will give you $10 too and she was happy. l was happy i finally got rid of that B.tch and her pimp shows up saying he needs $10 for gas too WTF . All this happening just because i drove thru dallas texas maybe next time i use a detour route lol
Why the heck is someone who made only $60k after all that effort, immediately going to 'help others' or whatever? YOU JUST HELPED YOURSELF. That's fine. Help yourself. Look, if I win the $400 million (I won't) I'm not gonna be incredibly stingy with it, but at the same time, why must someone who is a lottery winner become a one-person charity? Notice how celebrities do it. They put in a few thousand of their own money, then challenge their fans to match the donation cumulatively or something. Because if every multi-millioniare was REQUIRED to 'give back' then nobody would ever keep their money.
Charity is a wonderful thing if it comes from you out of pure desire to help others, but I get the sense that massive charitable donations are an unofficial but assumed 'tax' on people who collect major windfalls. Like if they don't state they're gonna give a big chunk of the money away, then they're greedy. When I first did a 'lottery budget' I realized I put everybody I could think of before myself. Before I even began to label stuff "$X for ME" I'd earmarked 55% to give away to family, friends, relatives and charitable causes. The harsh truth is I did this because I anticipated the resentment and the constant nagging of me to do something 'more' i.e. not for myself with the cash. In fact, the thought of buying anything for myself seems like it'd illicit disapproval from others.
This is another reason the lottery needs to go anonymous. If you win anonymously and if you can keep the information to yourself, then your charirtable expenditures will be at your whim alone, not because of societal pressure claiming you're "obligated" to be generous.
I don't know why but this story reeks of desperation on the source's part. No offense to them but if I wanted advice from a lottery winner for the current MM jackpot I'd be looking to past winners who won similar prizes or at least part of actual JPs and not the second tier prize winning group that after taxes and splitting it nine ways makes their win look like loose change found under a couch cushion.
The thing with advice is : you should make a determination whether it's good or bad for you. Its one of those things that you could live with or without depending whether it makes an impact in your life.
For instance- any advice related to the lottery from that character who shows up on tv telling people not to buy QP's should be wholeheartedly ignored..Supposedly he won 7 times.
* Can't recall his name but he has a beard and wears polyester suits.
You mean the infamous Richard Lustig. The guy who went on GMA saying never buy QPs while sitting next to a huge JP winner by QP. Whoops!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kboJcNQ_dWc
Please don't put him on TV again during this MM run, please!
Yeah, I get your drift on the 'helping' with the circumstances here.
Look, I'm not knocking 60 grand. But...it's 60 grand. It's not getting stretched all that far.
I am surprised someone did not say this already....instead of "play play play", the advice should have been "PowerPLAY play play." lol
Yeah JonD- that's the guy. His statement on " Dont buy QP's" makes him a certified Clown.
Yeah JonD- that's the guy. His statement on " Dont buy QP's" makes him a certified Clown.
Is that the same guy who tries to hawk his books at every available opportunity and who says he has the proven winning formula but refuses to say exactly how much he's won or how much he spent on tickets to win whatever it is he's won?
If that's the same guy he really needs to just go away. Seems like a scam artist to me.
He's not a scam artist, he's just an idiot!
Did you see the video? As he says, "Never buy Quick Picks....Have you won yet?" (awkward pause) Yeah, the lady next to him won $112M Mega Millions JP with a Quick Pick! Whoops!
OMG!!! That stuff never gets old. Even the guys on set are laughing!
If you ever have a bad day, just watch that clip.
You don't get out much, do ya?
I've been running a lottery pool in my office for around 10 years now so this story gives me hope. The best we've done is around $100 in one round, but never a jackpot level prize. We have 11 people and we buy a mix of Powerball, Lotto, and MegaMillions tickets, with the occasional Millionaire Raffle ticket when that game is on. Maybe tomorrow will will be our night.
When's the next tea party?
(I wouldn't mind digging in his couch)
I don't know what they're so excited about. If I'd been playing for fifteen years and sixty and some change was all I had to show for it, I'd be ticked. A couple of million might change your life. Sixty grand won't.
60 grand isnt small, I understand that if you're playing the big game the goal is to win the jackpot but a second tier prize and split 9 ways isn't bad at all. Not many people can say they've split a million dollar prize. congrats to them.
Yes I agree, glad they kept it going.
Congrats on their win but a million dollars split 9 ways after taxes is what $40,000? Don't quit your day job!
As to your post JoeBigLotto, i quess if a good looking woman even stoops to smile at you from clear across a room your ready to crawl on your hands and knees through bob wire, manure, and mud for 20 miles just to hear her poot through a walkie talkie right? No wonder guys like you stay broke!
1 ticket 1 winner! And remember, never own when you can rent!
Congrats on their win but a million dollars split 9 ways after taxes is what $40,000?
It might not change your life Peter Pan, but it will sure buy you alot of Cactus Jerky.
Every lotto and lottery winner all have one thing in common. They all bought a ticket.
I will agree to congrats to them. I will not be one to split such though since uncle sam gets a hefty sum prior. besides over time they each invested close to 10k to get rewarded for 40k..after 20 years? Seriously that is one time where I'd say investing the ten k would have been wiser....
If $40,000 will change your life then that tells me all i need to know about your saving habits. Or was it the divorce settlement? Anyhow, you must be one of those 90%+ people that couldn't get $10,000 out of a bank account tomorrow morning if your life depended on it! Cut up your credit cards and quit making the Starbucks shareholders richer every morning.
As for "Cactus Jerky" you get enough of that brown nosing ridge boy all the time don't you?
$40,000 could easily change someone's life it has nothing to do with spending habits though if they're debt free then even better. You wouldn't have to take out any college loans for one or at least you'd lessen them significantly depending on what direction you're going with higher education.
"If $40,000 will change your life then that tells me all i need to know about your saving habits. Or was it the divorce settlement? Anyhow, you must be one of those 90%+ people that couldn't get $10,000 out of a bank account tomorrow morning if your life depended on it! Cut up your credit cards and quit making the Starbucks shareholders richer every morning."
Wow, that sounds like the voice of experience talking (projecting) there.
Don't worry veggie, I'll buy ya a decent cup of coffee if you're that broke.
Now put that Maxwell House coupon away, son...
Tasters Choice @ Costco today. Everywhere i looked: Boots & Tights haha!
Remember the Jack Palance commercials? "I don't need some fancy cologne to tell me im a man......"
Real Men wear SKIN BRACER!