A man in New York is counting his lucky stars after winning the lottery for the second time in three years.
Juan Hernandez of Uniondale in Nassau County earned the eye-watering prize on Tuesday after he bought a ticket for the New York Lottery's $10 million deluxe scratch-off game - just three years after he cashed in on a lottery win with the state, USA Today reports.
Back in 2019, he won the top prize in the $350 million Cash Spectacular scratch-off ticket. Hernandez said in the statement he is "still trying to spend the $10,000,000" he won three years ago.
According to the outlet, the odds of winning the $10 million Deluxe scratch-off game is 1 in 3.52 million.
While it might seem a rare feat, it has happened before. In October 2021, a retired utility worker from Maryland bagged himself a $2 million lottery prize for the second time, while two women in North Carolina and Missouri respectively, both won the lottery twice on the same day - but with different amounts of money.
Per CNN, Hernandez said he opted to take the lump sum of his recent winnings, which means he won a total of $6.5 million "after required withholdings."
New York Lottery's website has listed three grand prize winners of $10 million that have been given out to the recipients, and one ticket is yet to be cashed out.
According to a press release issued by New York Lottery, proceeds from the lottery go toward supporting education in New York State. In the fiscal year 2020/2021, $3.59 billion was collected and distributed among schools throughout New York.
"New York Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education," it read.
This formula measures a school district's size and the district's income level.
"Larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding," it explained.
Hernandez's win comes after a Michigan woman discovered she won $3 million last month after checking her junk folder.
Laura Spears, a 55-year-old Mega Millions winner, revealed per BBC News that after purchasing a ticket, she was looking for a "missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account."
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