Lottery Winners from Long Island, Brooklyn Collect $3,000,000 in Cash Prizes

SCHENECTADY, NY (09/08/2010)(readMedia)--

The New York Lottery today awarded a total of $3,000,000 in prizes to four New York City Metropolitan area winners, including a repeat Lottery millionaire from Cedarhurst, Nassau County. The winners won their respective fortunes on a mix of drawings and instant games.

Cedarhurst Man Wins a "Sweet Million" Just Three Years after Claiming Another $1,000,000 Prize

In November 2006, Teamsters heavy equipment operator Richard Giordonella of Cedarhurst vowed his family would have a "very good Christmas" thanks to the $1,000,000 prize he won on the Lottery's $500,000,000 Extravaganza instant game. Now, three and a half years later, the 51-year-old Giordonella once again has family in mind when considering how he's going to spend his second $1,000,000 jackpot prize won on the Lottery's Sweet Million drawing held earlier this month. "I'm thinking about a new car to replace the 15-year-old Ford Bronco in our driveway," he said, adding jokingly, "And maybe a new boat, if I'm allowed."

For Giordonella, winning just seems to come naturally. "Everyone always asks me why I keep buying tickets after I won the million a few years back," quipped the father of two. "You don't know what's going to happen," he said. "I never dreamed I would win the first time around; let alone a second time. It just happens."

Giordonella won his latest $1,000,000 prize from the Sweet Million drawing on August 5th. "This was only the second time I bought a ticket for that game," he said. "My wife liked the commercials and I liked the odds." The winning numbers for the August 5th Sweet Million drawing were 5 - 14 - 18 - 23 - 28 - 38. The odds of winning the $1,000,000 jackpot are 1 in 3.8 million.

Giordonella purchased his winning Quick Pick ticket the day before the drawing at Turnpike Enterprises One on Rockaway Turnpike in Lawrence. After driving around with his $1,000,000 winner stowed loosely in his truck for more than a week, Giordonella returned to Turnpike Enterprises on August 11th to check his numbers. "I was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day," he said. Giordonella will receive his $1,000,000 Sweet Million jackpot as a one-time, net payment totaling $660,300.

Giordonella's win follows five other Nassau County jackpot wins this year. Nassau is home to new millionaires Jose Reyes of Hempstead and Ivan Toro of Floral Park. Reyes won $1,000,000 on the Lottery's Win $1,000 A Week For Life instant game and claimed his prize on July 27th. Toro claimed his $1,000,000 New York Poker instant winner on July 22nd.

Other New Yorkers to claim multiple New York Lottery jackpot prizes valued at $1,000,000 or more include the Altunis siblings from Manhattan and London and the Angelos of Westchester and Putnam Counties. Cindy Altunis of Manhattan won a $1,000,000 jackpot on the $500,000,000 Extravaganza instant game in April, a year and a half after her brother, Kenan Altunis of London, England, collected his minimum $35,000,000 prize for the Lottery's Win $1,000,000 A Year For Life scratch-off game. Eugene Angelo Sr. of Carmel won a $5,000,000 LOTTO jackpot in August 2007 almost 11 years after claiming his first LOTTO jackpot worth $2,500,000.

Honduras Native Wins Top Prize on One Million Bucks Instant Game

Emilio Ponce, a native of Honduras who immigrated to New York ten years ago, won the $1,000,000 top prize on the New York Lottery's One Million Bucks instant game. The Huntington Station resident said he's been playing the Lottery in New York almost as long as he's been a resident here. "You just have to keep trying," he advised.

Ponce bought his jackpot winning One Million Bucks ticket while on a short vacation at home. "I went back to work the next day and told my boss I had won the Lottery. He was excited too."

Ponce and his wife Elsa have no immediate plans for the money but insist paying bills will top their list of priorities. "I own a house and I have children," he said. "This will certainly help in both cases." Looking ahead, Ponce said he and his wife may start their own restaurant. "This is so exciting," he said. "Winning the Lottery is not like anything else."

Ponce purchased the family's winning One Million Bucks ticket on August 3rd at the 7-Eleven on the Smithtown Bypass in Smithtown. He claimed his prize the following day at the Lottery's offices in Garden City. Ponce will receive his prize as 20 annual payments of $50,000 each (net $33,105).

Ponce's One Million Bucks win makes him the seventh Suffolk County resident to win a Lottery jackpot prize valued at $1,000,000 or more in 2010. Other area Lottery millionaires include James Kazanecki of Mastic Beach who won $5,000,000 on the $500,000,000 Extravaganza instant game; Robert Johnson of Sound Beach who $1,000,000 on the $500,000,000 Extravaganza instant game; Christine and Jordan Weber of Babylon who won a guaranteed $1,000,000 on the Win $1,000 A Week For Life game; brothers Jose and Miguel Melgar who split a $3,000,000 Fat Wallet instant win; Yaphank's Kristi Spillet who won $1,000,000 on a Harley Davidson scratch-off ticket; and Richard and Mary Morrison of Miller Place who won a $165,000,000 Mega Millions jackpot.

Brooklyn Couple is First Statewide to Win $1,000,000 on New Mega Millions/Powerball Instant Game

Elizabeth and John Witkowski of Brooklyn celebrated a Mega Millions/Powerball instant ticket jackpot win just eight days after the New York Lottery launched the game. Their $1,000,000 win makes them New York's 70th millionaires of 2010, and the first to claim a top prize on the new $5 game.

"We bought the ticket because it's new," said Elizabeth of her July 28th purchase. "We always buy the new tickets."

These lucky parents have seen a lot in their 24 years of marriage but never a Lottery jackpot. John, 56, is retired from his job delivering petroleum oil in New York City. Elizabeth, 61, a housewife, is the Lottery devotee of the house.

On the day they won, she explained, "I went to our neighborhood deli specifically to buy a ticket and I scratched off the ticket when I got home. When I saw that my number, 19, matched a winning number I knew I won the jackpot prize." Witkowski bought her winning ticket at John's Deli on Nassau Avenue in Brooklyn.

"My heart was beating when I scratched it, I was shocked," she said. "I almost had a heart attack." Theirs is the 271st New York Lottery Jackpot won in Kings County since the Lottery began and the 13th in 2010. The couple opted to split the prize. Each will receive 20 annual payments of $25,000 each (net $15,595) through 2029.

Still adjusting to their millionaire status, the Witkowskis said, "We're still in shock." One thing is clear in their minds, "We have never been to Vegas and we are gonna go!" They claimed their ticket on August 9th at the Lottery's Garden City Customer Service Center.

Released on July 20th, Mega Millions/Powerball is a $5 instant game with a top prize of $1,000,000. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 4.57.

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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