East Syracuse Mega Millions Player Claims $250,000 Mega Millions prize

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East Syracuse Mega Millions Second Prize Winner Dorothy Hall

Dorothy Hall, a New York State Certified Real Estate Appraiser, today claimed her $250,000 second-prize from the January 4th Mega Millions drawing. The East Syracuse native said random luck played an important role in her $250,000 change of fortune.

"I decided I was going to spend $20 on tickets [for the $380,000,000 jackpot]," she said. "But I didn't want to spend it all in one place. I drove around stopping here and there to buy tickets. The last place I stopped was the Nice N Easy. That's where I got my winning ticket."

The Quick Pick ticket that Hall purchased at the Kirkville Road Nice N Easy store matched the first five numbers drawn in the much anticipated Mega Millions drawing; earning her a $250,000 prize. Hall missed a shot at the $380,000,000 jackpot by one number – the Mega Ball. The winning numbers drawn for last night's near record Mega Millions jackpot were 4 8 15 25 47 and Mega Ball 42. Two jackpot winning tickets were purchased for the drawing in Idaho and Washington.

"I told my husband I wasn't interested in the jackpot," said Hall. "I just wanted the $250,000. I wouldn't know what to do with $380,000,000."

Hall plans to spend her prize on home improvements. "Life will be a little easier," she said. "That's all I wanted."

Hall is one of two Central New York Mega Millions players to purchase a second-prize winning ticket for the January 4th drawing. The other ticket, purchased at the Hess Mart on State Route 31 in Cicero has not yet been claimed.

Mega Millions is a multi-state lottery game with drawings on Tuesdays and Fridays. The odds of winning a second place prize are 1 in 3,904,701. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize on a $1 play are 1 in 39.89. The largest Mega Millions Jackpot to date is $390,000,0000; drawn in 2007. The jackpot was shared by two players in Georgia and New Jersey.

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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