NY Lottery Fan Gets Early Christmas Present - 11-25-09

November 25 - Christmas came early this year for Falconer, New York resident Sandy Olson, after she won $1 million from a New York State Lottery Super 9s instant scratch game. 'It's thrilling, like being an 8-year-old kid waiting for Christmas morning,' said Olsen as she confirmed her windfall this week.

The lucky lottery lady, who reportedly bought her Lottery Super 9s instant game ticket on Thursday, November 5, is reportedly the year's first NY State Lottery millionaire from Chautauqua County. As a result of her good fortune she'll receive an annual payment of $33,000 ( after taxes) for the next 20 years.

Prior to winning the $1 million grand prize, according to Olsen the most she ever won on the lottery before now was $100. But now she'll find it very hard to top her most recent lotto payday. She also admitted that she played the lottery just about every day as it is one of her biggest sources of entertainment.

She said, 'I play a large variety of tickets and the Super 9s instant game just happened to be one of the ones I picked that day. When I started to scratch off the prize, I started seeing letters appear and I remember thinking to myself why are there letters. Then I realized what they actually spelt was jackpot.'

As to what Olsen, who has two children, plans to spend her lottery winnings on, she said she intends to put some of the money away for her children's college education, use some of the money to pay for some much-needed repairs to her home, as well as donate some of the money to local charities.

But she also said that she would like to take a long vacation in the near future and keep some of the money aside for her retirement. And while this year's Christmas stockings may bulge a little bigger in the Olsen home, the lucky lottery winner said that Christmas would pretty much remain unchanged this year.

Olsen won the second of only four New York State Lottery Super 9s instant scratch game $1 million grand prizes, which means the odds of her winning were 1 in 2.5 million. Top-prize winning scratch tickets are distributed randomly to over 16,000 licensed lottery retail locations across New York State.