Cohoes Waitress Becomes First Albany County Lottery Millionaire of 2011

SCHENECTADY, NY (02/03/2011)(readMedia)-- Sixty-year-old Deborah Hollenbach of Cohoes, Albany County, has received tips of all sizes throughout her career as a waitress. Last month, the IHOP server received the tip of a lifetime when she won the $3,000,000 top prize on the Lottery's Magnificent Millions instant ticket. The newly minted millionaire said she was shocked when she realized the size of her prize.

"Complete shock," said Hollenbach. "I've always dreamed of winning big, but when it actually happened I didn't know how to react."

Hollenbach bought her $3,000,000 winner on January 22nd at the Stewart's Shop on State Street in Schenectady. She claimed her prize on January 24th at the Lottery's Customer Service Center in Schenectady.

"I won a few dollars on some other Lottery tickets and decided to go to my favorite Stewart's Shop to cash them in," said the mother of four. "I bought two tickets with the winnings and scratched them in the car before I left. When I saw all those zeros on the second ticket I scratched, I froze for a split second and then ran back in the store to validate it. They scanned it for me and sure enough it was a winner!"

Hollenbach took her jackpot winning ticket home with her for the weekend until she could claim it at the Lottery offices on Monday morning. "I really couldn't sleep all weekend knowing I won. I just kept looking at the ticket over and over in disbelief," she said.

As with most instant games, the top prize on the Magnificent Millions instant ticket is paid as an annuity. Hollenbach will collect her $3,000,000 prize as $150,000 a year for 20 years. She will receive an annual net check totaling $99,045 through 2030.

The new Lottery millionaire says she doesn't have specific plans for her winnings. "It's all still sinking in right now, but one of the first things I'll buy is a new truck. I can't wait to see the salesperson's face when I pay cash for it!"

The New York Lottery continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery, earning more than $39.3 billion in education support statewide since its founding over 40 years ago. The Lottery contributed nearly $2.67 billion in fiscal year 2009-2010 to help support education in New York State, which was over 12 percent of total state education funding to local school districts.

Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education. It takes into account both a school district's size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding.

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