Check presentation part of day-long celebration of Lottery’s 50th anniversary & partnership with Stewart’s Shops

The New York Lottery’s Yolanda Vega lead a celebration at a Poughkeepsie Stewart’s Shops location and presented an over-sized prize check worth $10 million to a Town of Poughkeepsie couple that won the top prize on the Lottery’s special 50th Anniversary instant game, $10,000,000 Cash.

To celebrate the New York Lottery’s golden anniversary and significance of the historic prize – the largest-ever scratch-off cash prize in state history – the Lottery and Stewart’s Shops teamed up and offered special deals, promotions and more throughout the day at the location.

The lucky winners of that $10,000,000 check were James and Sylvia Silverence. James purchased the couple’s life-changing ticket while stopping at the Stewart’s Shops on Vassar Road to cash in some winning Lottery tickets.

“I went into the store and had $125 to claim,” explained Silverence. “The lady ahead of me had purchased four of the $10,000,000 Cash tickets and hadn’t won. There were six tickets left so I put in some extra money and got them all.”

James brought the tickets home and gave them to Sylvia to scratch. “I have a special way I like to scratch tickets,” she explained. “I scratched the corner and it was a 23 which is James’ birthday. I saw I had the winning number 23 too, but I didn’t scratch off the prize right away.”

Sylvia took a closer look at the ticket and that’s when things started to get exciting. “I noticed it looked like script where the prize is, not numbers,” she continued. “I immediately started scratching it off and saw the word jackpot. So I covered up the word jackpot, brought it over to James and showed him the matching numbers.”

“When Sylvia showed me the matching numbers and moved her finger to reveal the word jackpot we both just started screaming,” he recalled.

The $10,000,000 top prize on the $10,000,000 Cash ticket is paid out as a one-time lump sum payment, making it the largest-ever scratch-off cash prize in state history. More top prizes on the $10,000,000 Cash ticket are still available.

The Silverences opted to split the jackpot with each receiving a net check totaling $3,309,000 after required withholdings.

When asked what it feels like to win $10,000,000 on the Lottery James said “It’s incredible. You never think you’re going to win, but half the part of scratching a ticket is the hope of winning.”

Sylvia summed it up nicely. “It’s unreal. Amazing!”

The Silverences plan to use their winnings to help out their family and build an addition to their house.

The New York Lottery contributed more than $41,342,478 in Lottery Aid To Education to school districts throughout Dutchess County during fiscal year 2015-2016.

About the New York Lottery

The New York Lottery continues to be North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.30 billion in fiscal year 2015-2016 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.