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I was just thinking the same thing. Anyone who buys $20 tickets, I'm surmising, is not really that financially savvy. The best thing they could do is treat themselves to maybe a nice long vacation, pay off their mortgage and credit card debt, then take everything that's left over to an experienced broker/cfp.

My guess is the money will be gone in three years or less.

Lucky couple holds winning $1M ticket

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
By MEGAN DeMARCO
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A customer of Grove News at 119 Newark Ave. in Jersey City, beat astronomical odds and turned a $20 lottery ticket into $1 million yesterday.

The customer, who has not been identified, won $1 million from "$1,000,000 Fortune," a New Jersey Lottery instant scratch-off game, store manager Arif Patel said.

Just how lucky was the winner? With just six winning $1 million tickets out of 1.2 million printed, the odds are 200,000 to 1.

A woman with her husband came into Patel's store and bought one ticket, which isn't cheap at $20 a pop. When she started scratching off the ticket, her husband started asking questions about the game. "I figured something was wrong," said Patel.

Instead, Patel, who's never had anything close to this size payoff - was taking part in a once-in-a-lifetime event. "It's very rare," he said.

N.J. Lottery spokesman Dominick DeMarco said the lucky winner will receive a check in the mail two to three weeks after filing the paperwork, either in the store or at the N.J. Lottery headquarters in Trenton.

The check though, will not be for $1 million, DeMarco said, but for $650,000, the remaining amount after the federal government takes its cut.

DeMarco said his agency strongly encourages big-money winners to sit down with a financial planner to avoid the shock of seeing the following year's income tax bill in April.

"It cuts down on surprises," he said. "It's supposed to be life-changing money for the good."

As of yesterday afternoon, the happy customers had not yet come back to the store to fill out the required paperwork.

That's terrific. Hopefully it's a fellow JC resident that won it.

Jersey City lotto customer wins $1M

by Megan DeMarco
Monday June 16, 2008, 2:00 PM

A customer at Grove News, 119 Newark Ave., won $1 million from an instant scratch-off New Jersey Lottery ticket this morning, store manager Arif Patel said.

Patel said a woman started scratching off the $20 ticket for the $1,000,000 Fortune game in the store and her husband started asking questions about the game .