New York Lottery Winners
The New York Lottery is known for paying out big prizes across its wide range of games. As North America’s biggest and most profitable lottery, it generates billions of dollars every year for education, and has created many notable winners. Here’s a list of the top five biggest jackpots ever won in the Empire State.
$476 Million
Johnnie Taylor, a retired handyman from Queens, became New York’s biggest-ever lottery winner when he matched all the Mega Millions numbers with a ticket bought at Liberty Beer & Convenience in Ozone Park. There had previously been 20 consecutive drawings without a winner, and Taylor revealed that he even had to show his wife proof online that he had won. He took the cash option of $253 million and said he planned to travel, buy a new home, and donate a portion of his winnings to his church.
$432 Million
A partnership, known as Goodtimez, LLC., claimed this gigantic jackpot a couple of months after the winning draw. The lucky players – one from Manhattan and the other from Hillsboro, New Jersey – had purchased their ticket at Pronto Pizza on West 48th Street in Manhattan. They opted for the lump sum of $315 million.
$343 Million
New York's biggest Powerball win came after the jackpot had climbed to a mammoth $687 million. Two tickets matched all the numbers - one from the Empire State and another from Iowa. The New York ticket belonged to retired government employee Robert Bailey, who said he would spend part of his $343 million share on 'giving back to Manhattan'. Bailey, who bought his ticket at a deli in Harlem, also said that he would carry on playing the lottery.
$326 Million
An unplanned break due to bad weather proved to be incredibly lucrative for Harold Diamond, after he stopped off at the Valero on Route 302 to get out of the rain and ended up buying a Mega Millions ticket worth $326 million. Bailey, a retired elementary school principal from Wurtsboro in Sullivan County, said he felt ‘very blessed’ and wanted to use the money to take care of his family for generations to come.
$319 Million
A group of seven co-workers from New York State’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal landed this jackpot, worth more than $19 million to each player even after taxes. One of the members, Mike Barth, revealed that another customer had nipped in front of him when he bought his ticket from Coulson’s News store.
Other Big Winners
While the biggest prizes have been paid out in multi-state lotteries Mega Millions and Powerball, New York’s other games have also enjoyed their own historic moments.
Cash for Life
Cash for Life offers a top prize worth $1,000 a day for life, which works out at $7.3 million over 20 years and potentially much more over a winner’s lifetime. New York has had plenty of Cash for Life winners over the years, including Edna Aguayo of Queens in July 2014. She said that a psychic had told her at an amusement park 16 years earlier that she should buy a lottery ticket.
Lotto
The biggest NY Lotto jackpot of all time was worth $90 million and was won back in January 1991, with nine lucky ticket holders splitting the money. The record for the largest win on a single ticket went to maintenance man Degli Martinez, who landed $65 million on June 29th, 2007. He actually lost his ticket after being given a receipt by the New York Lottery that confirmed his win, so officials had to wait until the one-year claim period was over before he could be paid out to make sure that nobody else came forward.