Deli worker wins million-dollar jackpot — again

A NEW YORK woman who won $1 million (€780,000) from a state lottery game four years ago has hit the jackpot again.

Valerie Wilson, who works at a suburban Long Island deli, said she won another million on a lottery scratch-off game last month.

“The first time I couldn’t believe it,” Ms Wilson told Newsday. “This time I said: ‘God’s on my side.’”

Ms Wilson, 56, beat some long odds to pull off her double victory.

In 2002, her winning ticket in the Cool Million scratch-off game, which has since been discontinued, was a shot of 1 in 5.2 million, according to the New York State Lottery. Last month, she beat odds of 1 in 705,600 when she got the million-dollar prize in the New York lottery’s jubilee scratch-off game.

Overall, her chances of winning both games were a slim one in 3,669,120,000,000.

A lottery spokeswoman verified Ms Wilson was a Cool Million winner in 2002, but declined to confirm her latest win until a planned news conference. There have been only two previous repeat million-dollar-plus winners in the lottery’s history.

Ms Wilson still has not quit her job at Emma’s Deli and Catering. Despite her unexpected bonus, Wilson plans to keep working until at least December, making sandwiches and ringing up sales.

The prize will be paid out in $50,000 (€39,450) instalments over 20 years. Ms Wilson said she used her first winnings to help buy homes for her children.

“This one is going to be for me,” she said. “I’m going to live a little bit.”