Man wins $2m on scratch card from NY Lottery

VESTAL, NY – A Vestal man’s life is changed forever after his morning ritual pays off to the tune of $2 million. George Metritikas, 49, says he’s not quitting his job any time soon despite winning a massive prize from a New York Lottery scratch card ticket.

With an oversized check in hand, Metritikas is all smiles and now 2 million dollars richer, “I was surprised. I was happy.”

He’s been a maintenance worker at Wegmans for the last 5 years. On his breaks he always buys himself a lottery ticket or scratch-off. This time he decided to play the $500,000,000 Extravaganza ticket.

“I went over and got these scratch offs. The $20 dollar ticket was sitting right on top,” Metritikas explained. The $2,000,000 prize was the first item he scratched off. “I left looking for my boss. It was about 9:35 in the morning and I was really excited.”

The lucky winner chose to receive an annual check for the next 20 years. With taxes taken out, that’s about $66,000 a year.

Metritikas says while this is an unexpected sum of money, he plans on holding onto his job. One which he loves.

Metritikas is the 10th Broome County resident to win a lottery prize of one million dollars or more in the last 10 years as well as the first lottery winner in the county for 2011.