NEW CITY, N.Y. – Joseph Amorese of Easton, Pa. won the first of four top prizes available on the New York Lottery’s $7,000,000 Golden Ticket scratch-off game. The 46-year-old Verizon employee said he received the popular $25 game in a get well card he received from his father who lives in Congers.

“I don’t play the Lottery at all, but my father is a retired hospital administrator-turned-avid Lottery player,” Amorese said.

Amorese said his dad tucked the life-changing $7,000,000 Golden Ticket game inside a card as a way to lift his son’s spirits while Amorese recovered at home from surgery.

“I scratched the ticket and it was a good thing I was already sitting down because I was shocked. I was and still am in complete disbelief,” Amorese said.  The surprised winner won his fortune by revealing an “automatic win” coin symbol printed above the $7,000,000 prize printed below.

Amorese said he immediately called his dad for a reality check. “I sent him a picture of the ticket and he said, ‘Yup, you won $7,000,000!’”

Amorese said the phone call he made to his wife, Jodi, a social worker, went a little differently.

“I said, Honey, I think we won $7,000,000. And there was silence on the other end for a long time. She was too stunned to talk.”

The winning ticket was purchased at Just a Dollar located at 20 North Main Street in New City.

About the New York Lottery

The NY Lottery continues to be North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.17 billion in fiscal year 2013-2014 to help support education in New York State. The Lottery’s contribution represents 15 percent of total state education aid to local school districts.

NY 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.