MANHATTAN, N.Y. – The New York Lottery’s Ralph Buckley presented over-sized prize checks worth $15,000,000 to three lucky New York City residents, including a hotel worker who won the top prize of $1,000 a day on Cash4Life, a chef from Brooklyn who won the top prize of $5,000 a week for life on the Set For Life scratch-off game and a maintenance man who won the $3,000,000 jackpot on the scratch-off game Instant Millionaire.

Combination of Birthdays Help Queens Man Hit Cash4Life Jackpot

Manuel Moreira, of Briarwood, Queens, has claimed the top prize of $7,000,000 from the August 17, 2015 Cash4Life drawing.

Moreira, a hotel union worker, said he plays the Cash4Life game regularly and picks his own numbers using a combination of his and his family’s birthdays.

On the day of the drawing, Moreira stopped at Concord Drug after work to buy his tickets. The next morning before he went to work, he checked his numbers of the Lottery’s Web site.

Moreira said, “I didn’t believe what I was seeing. I was in a panic. I woke up my wife, and she saw how panicked I was and thought someone had broken into our house.”

Moreira said once he came to the Manhattan Lottery Customer Service Center, he started to believe he really had won big.

“At first, I really didn’t believe that I had won $7,000,000. But then when I got to the Lottery office and they verified it for me, it started to sink in. I’m really still in shock,” he said.

Moreira chose to receive his $7,000,000 prize as a one-time lump sum payment netting him $4,361,280.

Moreira said his plans for the money include taking care of his children, grandchildren and family, and maybe start looking for a new place to live. Moreira said, “This really is a dream come true.”

American Dream Fulfilled With Set For Life Prize

Rixue Chen of Brooklyn claimed the top prize of $5,000 a week for life on the Lottery’s Set For Life scratch-off game.

Chen said he bought two Set For Life tickets while picking up some medicine at the pharmacy and brought both home to scratch. The first was a non-winner. The second had a match on the number 26 along with the phrase “Set For Life” printed below. He knew immediately it was a $5 million winner.

“I was destined to be lucky,” Chen said about his win. “Destiny is the only word that comes to mind.”

Chen is employed as a chef at a family-run Chinese restaurant. He said he came to New York from China 10 years ago “to make money.” Having accomplished that, he plans to “live out the American Dream by buying a house, a car and doing some traveling.”

But all of that will have to wait until after September 26, his wedding day. Chen said there would be no changes to the wedding but they might take another look at their honeymoon plans.

Chen has opted to receive his prize in as a one-time lump sum payment of $4,059,100 before taxes, netting him $2,528,981.

Bronx Resident Has New Favorite Number Thanks to $3,000,000 Winning Ticket

Henry Caban of the Bronx has claimed the top prize of $3,000,000 on the Instant Millionaire scratch-off game.

Caban said his winning experience began when he took a break from his maintenance job and walked down the street to get a couple of tickets.

“The clerk said ‘we got some new tickets’ and I told him to keep them. I want the old ones – they’re the ones with all the prizes!” He then took his “old” tickets back to the locker room at work to scratch.

“I didn’t win anything on the first so I got to scratching the second and saw a match. I got a magnifying glass and called my buddy over because I thought something was wrong. I thought, ‘this can’t be.’”

Caban matched on the number 26 or what he calls, “My new favorite number.”

The father of one said he then called his daughter to share his news.

“He said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this,’ and I don’t remember anything after that,” explained Caban’s 35-year-old daughter, Bianca. The pair claimed the ticket the following day.

Caban has opted to receive his prize in as a one-time lump sum payment of $2,360,000 before taxes, netting him $1,470,374.

Caban plans to use his prize to take care of his daughter and grandchildren.

 About the New York Lottery

The New York Lottery continues to be North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.11 billion in fiscal year 2014-2015 to help support education in New York State.  The Lottery’s contribution represents 14 percent of total state education aid to local school districts. 

New York Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education.  It takes into account both a school district’s size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding.