Plattsburgh Library Aide Wins $200,000 Powerball Prize

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2nd Place Powerball Winner Christine Suruda

SCHENECTADY, NY (08/26/2010)(readMedia)-- The New York Lottery today announced that Christine Suruda, a library aide from Plattsburgh, is the most recent in a series of $200,000 second place Powerball prizewinners in New York. She claimed her big winner earlier today at the Lottery's Schenectady Customer Service Center.

The Lottery has awarded $2,000,000 in second place Powerball prizes to New Yorkers since July 1st. One of those ten winners, Randy Moore of Jamestown in Chautauqua County, collected his $200,000 Powerball prize just two short weeks before Suruda.

"I play family birthdays," the still-shocked winner said. "The funny thing is that three of our numbers came out not long ago when we were on vacation in New Hampshire. We missed a $7 win." Suruda only plays Powerball when the jackpot gets big but is dedicated to her special set of numbers.

"I was just reading the Sunday paper when I saw the numbers for Saturday," said this book lover. "I recognized my numbers -- our birthdays -- and went to get the ticket and could not believe it." Suruda was one of three New Yorkers to win second place Powerball prizes for the August 21st drawing. They missed the $79,000,000 jackpot by just the Powerball. Those numbers were:

7 - 10 - 12 - 22 - 27 - (26)

"I bought this ticket at the same store I always go to," said Suruda. That store, Express Lane, is on Broad Street in Plattsburgh. She has been playing weekly for ten years.

Powerball is a multi-state draw game with drawings on Wednesday and Saturday. The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 35.11. The odds of winning a second place Powerball prize like Suruda's are 1 in 5,138,133.

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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