The Winning Continues on Long Island

SCHENECTADY, NY (01/07/2010)(readMedia)-- The New York Lottery today awarded prize checks valued at more than $6,000,000 to three of Suffolk County's newest instant game winners. The Lottery's Yolanda Vega joined with Lottery jackpot announcer Ralph Buckley to present checks to a pair of friends from a senior housing community in Ridge and an assistant gas station manager from Shoreham.

Shoreham Gas Station Assistant Manager Wins $5,000 A Week Set For Life Prize

David Reed of Shoreham was on his way home from Bingo on December 18, 2009 when he pulled into the Shoreham Mah grocery store on Route 25A in Shoreham and decided to buy a couple of Lottery tickets from the store vending machine. The 27-year-old gas station assistant manager said he went with a familiar choice.

"The Set For Life ticket is my favorite game because I usually win," he said. "But I never thought prizes like this existed, until now." Reed won the top prize on the $10 Set For Life game that offers players a guaranteed minimum prize of $5,000,000 to be paid over 20 years with additional annual payments of $5,000 a week for life. Reed said he planned to use the prize money to buy a car and finish college with the goal of pursuing a career in healthcare. "This is life changing," he said. "It's nice to know my family won't have to struggle and I can reach my goals."

Reed claimed his winning Set For Life ticket at the Lottery's Garden City Customer Service Center on December 21, 2009. He will receive his prize in 19 annual payments of $ $260,000 each before taxes with one additional payment of $ $60,000, before taxes to realize his guaranteed minimum payment of $5,000,000. After the 20th payment, Reed will continue to receive an annual net check totaling $171,678 a year for the rest of his life. Asked if he had any advice for other would-be New York Lottery millionaires; Reed said, "You can't expect it to happen. It just does."

Navy Veteran, IRS Typist Share $1,000,000 Prize on Lottery's New York Millionaire Ticket

Eighty-two-year-old Erwin Krebs and 74-year-old Nancy Fraccalvieri became fast friends when they met two and a half years ago at the Ridge, NY-based senior housing community they both call home. The two friends share a number of common interests, including a love of art and a knack for playing Lottery games. Their shared hobby paid off on December 13, 2009 during Krebs' weekly visit to the King Kullen store on Middle Country Road in Middle Island for some Kaiser rolls and a couple of Lottery tickets.

"I bought a New York Millionaire ticket because I've always wanted to be one," said Krebs, a World War II Navy veteran who took part in the Normandy invasion and went on to become a baker/chemist in the research and development department at Pepperidge Farm. "I can afford to buy tickets so that's what I do for enjoyment," he said.

Krebs said he and Fraccalvieri have a standing agreement that if either one ever won a jackpot Lottery prize, they would split it with the other. "I scratched the New York Millionaire ticket when I got home from the store and saw the words 'Jackpot and 1 Million' printed together, and my first call was to Nancy," he said.

Krebs and Fraccalvieri, a retired typist for the Internal Revenue Service, claimed the $1,000,000 winning ticket together on December 15th at the Lottery's offices in Garden City. The $1,000,000 prize on the New York Millionaire ticket is paid in 20 annual installments of $50,000 each. Krebs and Fraccalvieri opted to split the prize evenly with each receiving an annual check for $25,000, before taxes or $16,507 net. Krebs said his future plans include going on vacation, and "doing things I haven't done yet." Fraccalvieri said she planned to help family and maybe take a cruise.

The New York Lottery continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery, earning more than $36.7 billion in education support statewide since its founding over 40 years ago. The Lottery contributed nearly $2.54 billion in fiscal year 2008-09 to help support education in New York State, which was over 12 percent of total state education funding to local school districts. The Lottery's ongoing commitment to education also includes the awarding of more than 1,100 Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) Scholarships annually to high school students pursuing their higher education in New York State. Since 1999, the Lottery has awarded more than 11,500 scholarships representing a total commitment of almost $50 million.

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