Mamaroneck Secretary Wins Top Prize on "$1,000,000 Match" Lottery Scratch-Off Game

MAMARONECK, NY (06/30/2010)(readMedia)-- The New York Lottery today introduced 71-year-old Margery Falco of Mamaroneck, Westchester County, as a top prize winner of the $1,000,000 Match Lottery scratch-off game. New York Lottery Draw Team member Gretchen Dizer presented Falco, a secretary for the Village Harbor Master, with her over-sized check just two weeks after Westchester County Lottery millionaire Steele Schussler's $1,000,000 payday on the $500,000,000 Extravaganza instant game.

Falco bought her ticket on June 14th at Soji Stationery on Palmer Ave. in Mamaroneck. The grandmother of seven said she had her reasons for selecting the $1,000,000 Match instant game over all the other scratch-off games on display at the store. "I always seem to win something on this ticket," she said. "I buy four at a time because one out of the four is always a pretty good winner for me." Falco used the cash prize she won on a previous $1,000,000 Match ticket to purchase her $1,000,000 winner.

A longtime member of her office's not-as-lucky Lotto club, Falco said she decided years ago to take her luck into her own hands. "I seem to win more often on my own," she said.

Falco said her initial reaction to winning $1,000,000 was pretty predictable. "I was shocked, of course!" she said. "I called my sons and they had to take me back to the store to verify the ticket before I would believe it was true." Falco plans to use her winnings to help family. "My family has been very good to me," she said. "I would like to return the favor."

Falco claimed her prize at the Lottery's Customer Service Center in Manhattan on June 16th. As with most Lottery instant games, the $1,000,000 prize on the $1,000,000 Match game is paid as $50,000 a year for 20 years. Falco will receive an annual net check totaling $33,015 through 2029.

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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