New York lottery and scratch card winners share their stories

THE odds were one in 3.8 million but this man won $3 million off a $10 scratchie. Another won $5 million. Five lottery winners share their stories.

A NEW York security worker may have to hire his own guard now.

Rafik Sulaiman, 59, was on a coffee break from his security-guard job at Rock Center when he went to grab a snack — and a $10 lottery ticket from a vending machine — at a nearby Pronto Pizza on West 48th Street. He got the last $10 “King’s Ransom” ticket in the machine — and lucky for him, it was a $3 million winner.

“There were no other tickets available,” Sulaiman marvelled at a press conference Thursday.

He cashed the ticket in for a $1.5 million net payout.

Mr Sulaiman, a father of three and grandfather of five, was among eight New York winners who recently raked in a total of $13.5 million in scratch-off and Powerball winnings.

Now-millionaire Rafik Sulaiman was just a humble security guard at world-famous Rockefeller Centre in New York.

Other winners include a stay-at-home mother of two, a 21-year-old Albanian immigrant and a 75-year-old man from Staten Island who’s bought a lotto ticket every day since 1978.

Euglen Muslli, a Bay Ridge resident who emigrated from Albania, bought a “$1,500 A Week For Life” ticket at a nearby deli after a haircut. Just before the 21-year-old got out the door, he realised he had scratched off the coveted four-letter word: “Life.”

Now he’s living the American dream.

“It was my dream to have money; a lot of money to spend on things I want,” the self-taught electrician said. “I never thought it would actually happen that I would win the lottery. But I had hope. God bless the lottery.”

Mr Muslli opted to receive a cash payout of $740,626 and plans to open a business and share with his family, who is “more happy than me,” he said.

But he wasn’t the only Brooklynite to win big.

Yes, it’s true. People really do win at the lotto.

A clerk at Smoke Stax III convinced Geraldine Pollice, a stay-at-home mother from Bensonhurst, to take a chance and buy a $20 Maximum Millions scratch-off ticket last month. The ticket won her $5 million.

Ms Pollice, 45, had handed a $20 to the clerk to buy a lottery ticket and said that much to her chagrin, she only received one “Maximum Millions” ticket.

“I said, ‘Twenty dollars? Really? I want some change,’ ’’ she recalled.

But the clerk insisted she take the ticket because the game was very popular. Ms Pollice made it to her car before she started scratching off the ticket and then realised she should have worn her glasses.

“There’s too many zeros,” she said she thought about the amount she’d won.

“I saw a match on the number 38 and then all zeros and thought, ‘This can’t be true.’ ”

Ms Pollice said she ran back to tell the clerk she thought she won $5 million.

He replied “See, I told you so,” she said.

Pollice and her husband, Fredinando, are going to use the money to buy a new house, support their 11-year-old with autism and save the rest for retirement.

You’d be pretty happy too if you won big on the lotto. Pic: Thinkstock.

Salvatore “Sal” Montante, 75, of Staten Island was driving back home from Brooklyn when he pulled off the Bay Parkway for a quick bathroom break. He bought a few lotto tickets, including two “Ruby 2s” to get the key for the bathroom and headed home.

It wasn’t until later that evening when Mr Montante couldn’t fall asleep that he scratched off the tickets. He matched the number 23, earning him an instant $1 million.

“It’s a special number to me. It was my wife’s birthday, and it’s my son’s birthday, too,” he said.

Mr Montante has bought a lotto ticket every day since 1978. He plans to use the money to go on a vacation, visit his brother in Italy who he hasn’t seen since 1981 and share it with his children.

John Sandrowsky, a Jet Blue aircraft maintenance manager, bought five sets of Quick Pick tickets and forgot about them. His wife, Jane, checked them and texted him: “You won the lotto,” he recalled.

“Can I retire?” he shot back. “No, but you’re going to be pleasantly surprised,” Jane told him.

Mr Sandrowsky told his boss he’s coming back, saying, “I’ve got the best job in the world.”

Like Sandrowsky, Timothy Brassil, 67, of Mount Vernon also won the $1 million Powerball second-place prize.

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was republished here with permission.