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Sick of traffic, man stops and buys lottery tickets... and wins $5 millionNews Story
Thank goodness for bad traffic. A Long Island, New York, electrician got sick of waiting in a traffic jam, so he pulled over at a gift shop to buy scratch-off tickets and won $5 million. Thomas Mainella, 62, was driving home from work in December when he hit a road detour in Plainview. Rather than suffer though the bumper-to-bumper headache, he pulled over at Sunny's Cards and Gifts to pass the time, he said. He bought six Get Set for Life scratch-offs, sat down and started to play, he
Mar 12, 2014, 8:17 am - Lottery News

Bronx woman hits $2M Powerball prize with fortune cookie numbersNews Story
So you thought the lucky numbers inside those Chinese fortune cookies were a joke? Don't tell that to Emma Duvoll, 75, of the Bronx, New York. Duvoll played the lucky numbers from inside a fortune cookie on a Powerball ticket for the Feb. 1 drawing with a $193 million jackpot. When she matched five numbers, Duvoll won $2 million, the New York Lottery said Thursday. I was surprised, but pleased, Duvoll told lottery officials. She purchased the winning ticket at the Hannaford marke
Mar 6, 2014, 4:43 pm - Lottery News

Store clerk's mistake helps N.Y. man win $10 millionNews Story
On Saturday, Jan. 18, 53-year-old Jerry Kajfasz went to the Depew One Stop on Broadway, his normal day-off haunt, where he bought some cigars and his favorite scratch-off New York Lottery tickets. Nothing unusual there. But the clerk mistakenly started to hand Kajfasz a $20 Win for Life Spectacular ticket. Kajfasz corrected the clerk, got the tickets he wanted and left the store. That mistake set up a series of events that led Kajfasz, his wife, Anne, and their two children, Jackie and
Feb 27, 2014, 8:23 am - Lottery News

NY's Lotto no match for Powerball, Mega MillionsNews Story
Lotto is still losing its mojo. New York's venerable twice-weekly Lotto drawing continues its long-term decline in an age of multi-state mega jackpots. Even as overall lottery revenues grew, receipts from Lotto dropped from $137.5 million in 2005 to a projected $44 million for the state fiscal year ending March 31, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent budget proposal. Lotto is simply less alluring than the six-figure jackpots of Powerball and Mega Millions, which are sold around the nat
Feb 3, 2014, 3:16 pm - Lottery News

22 N.Y. coworkers' complicated journey to claim $1 million prizeNews Story
Claiming a big lottery prize is a little more complicated than you might expect, especially if you are splitting the jackpot with a large group. Step One: Hire an attorney. That was the advice Ray Wills got last month after he learned that he and 21 other Syracuse city workers with whom he regularly plays the lottery had won $1 million in the Dec. 13 Mega Millions drawing. Wills, an engineering technician who has worked for the city for 10 years, is the group's ringleader. Once he convince
Jan 24, 2014, 8:27 am - Lottery News

NY lottery winner contemplates moving to ParisNews Story
Bill Bracken grew up in Averill Park, spent much of his life on Mount Desert Island in Maine, and now lives in Vero Beach, Fla. At least for now. Maybe I will move to Paris, the 74-year-old Bracken said during a New York Lottery press conference Tuesday morning at the local Cumberland Farms just before he received a giant ceremonial check for $3 million. I have been many times, because I am an artist. I would like to go back. He will have that opportunity and also plans to pay off his
Jan 16, 2014, 3:00 pm - Lottery News

Man found $1M lottery ticket while raking leavesNews Story
It was a lucky '13 for five $1 million New York lottery winners. The newly flush quintet came forward Friday to collect its winnings, with the checks expected to arrive just in time for 2014, state lottery officials said. Three hailed from New York City and two from Long Island, and all took a lump sum payout after taxes. The winners included Long Island landscaper Marvin Rosales-Martinez, who found the answer to his fiscal prayers was blowing in the wind. The 27-year-old Hicksville
Dec 27, 2013, 9:09 pm - Lottery News

Lotto-winning coworkers' advice for $400M Mega Millions jackpotNews Story
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,
Dec 12, 2013, 9:11 am - Lottery News

NY deli owners stole $1M lottery ticket, cops sayNews Story
A Long Island deli owner and his son were charged Saturday with scamming a customer out of a $1 million lottery ticket. Nassau County police say a 34-year-old man who doesn't speak English bought the ticket Thursday at the Peninsula Deli Grocery in Hempstead. The man scratched off his card, saw that he was a winner and handed it to 26-year-old Karim Jaghab to get his winnings, police said. The ticket was worth $1 million, but Jaghab gave the man $1,000 in cash and kept the ticket, polic
Nov 23, 2013, 9:38 pm - Lottery News

N.Y. man accused of pulling box cutter on clerk after lottery mistakeNews Story
A man who had losing lottery tickets due to a store clerk's error stood accused this weekend of threatening the clerk with a box cutter on Long Island. The clerk did not want to talk about what happened around 7 p.m. Friday at the Food Express, at 391 Jericho Turnpike in Syosset. But police said regular customer Michael Sullo, 43, of Syosset, took out some losing lottery tickets and demanded to be reimbursed. Sullo plays the same numbers every day, and that day, his numbers had won $250
Oct 27, 2013, 9:13 am - Lottery News