Trip for Hoagie Rolls Leads to $1,000,000 Lottery Scratch-Off Win

ROCHESTER, NY (04/05/2012)(readMedia)-- A last minute trip to the grocery store for a package of hoagie rolls proved to be a life changing moment for Carol Pursel of LeRoy, Monroe County. On the way out of store, the 57-year-old mother of two caught a glimpse of the new The Color of Money scratch-off ticket in the store's Lottery vending machine. Pursel, the officer manager at her husband's auto repair shop in Limerock, decided to try her luck on the new ticket.

"I scratched it in my car and saw that I had a match on the Jackpot amount," recalled Pursel. "I ignored it thinking maybe it was a mistake, but then I figured I should go back in the store and check." Pursel took her ticket to the Customer Service counter where they verified it was a $1,000,000 winner. "I asked them, "so what do I do now?'"

Pursel matched the number 29 on the upper and lower sections of her The Color of Money scratch-off game, making the working mom the first Lottery player statewide to win the $1,000,000 top prize. The $5 game went on sale March 6.

Pursel purchased her winning ticket on March 12 at the Tops Markets on West Main Street in LeRoy. She claimed it at the Lottery's Customer Service Center in Rochester on March 15. "I put off claiming it until I had a chance to talk to my accountant to prioritize where the money will go."

The top prize on the Lottery's The Color of Money scratch-off is paid as $50,000 a year for 20 years. Pursel will receive a net check totaling $33,090 through 2031. "My daughter is getting married this summer, so some will go toward that," said Pursel when asked about her plans for the prize. "It will certainly come in handy all around."

About the New York Lottery

The New York Lottery continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing over $3 billion in fiscal year 2010-2011 to help support education in New York State. The Lottery's aid represents over 15 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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