Marcos M. is a landscaper from Orange, NJ.
He depends on dry weather in order to get in a day's work. One rainy Monday morning, when the weather interfered with his grounds-keeping duties, he took the opportunity to run a few errands.
He stopped into the Double Dee Liquor store, 354 Main St., Orange in Essex County, to buy one of his favorite instant games, $5,000,000 Fortune.
"I've been buying them almost every day since it came out," he said. The first ticket he purchased was not a winner. He decided to try again, but the second ticket he bought was also not a winner.
Third time's the charm, he thought, and purchased one more ticket.
After scratching the game card Marcos realized that number 16 was a winning number on his ticket. He uncovered the prize amount but wasn't certain whether he was actually seeing it correctly. He checked the ticket multiple times before putting it into his pocket and buying one more ticket just for good measure. That too was a winner.
The final ticket won $50 but the third winning ticket had significantly more zeros on the end
of the prize amount.
Marcos’ third ticket was a $5,000,000 top prize winner. Marcos will be putting some of his winnings aside for his young children's education, helping his family and looking for a home of their own.
Our second $5,000,000 prizewinner for the month is Xinchao Ma of Paramus. He purchased a $5,000,000 Cash Extravaganza ticket from Coronet Variety on 138 W. Pleasant Ave. in Maywood.
When he went to scratch his ticket, Ma could not believe his eyes when his number 29 matched the winning number to reveal the $5,000,000 prize. Ma validated his ticket at the retailer and immediately brought the ticket to Lottery Headquarters to claim his prize.
Freddie R. of Newark enjoys playing Lottery games when he has the spare cash to do so. Recently, he won $656 playing Pick-4 with Fireball on a straight bet, so he went into the Home Liquors on 641 Springfield Ave. in Newark and purchased five different instant tickets.
Once Freddie arrived home, he began scratching his first ticket, while sitting with his brother. "After scratching it, I said, I just won $200,000 and dropped the ticket on the floor," Freddie said about the moment he discovered his ticket was a winner.
His brother picked up the ticket and said, "No bro, it's not $200,000 it's $2 million."
The first ticket was the only one he needed - the $20 Platinum Diamond Spectacular ticket was a $2,000,000 winner!
When asked how he will enjoy the winnings, 62-year-old Freddie, replied that he was previously concerned about retirement - but he isn't any longer.
He will make plans to retire next year from his job as a furniture mechanic. Freddie has enjoyed numerous wins over the years including a $500 win from a $1 instant ticket.
This win, though, is the biggest so far. Freddie plans to keep on playing and hopefully, keep on winning.
Congratulations to all of the New Jersey Lottery game winners.
The chart below lists all of the Instant Games top-prizes won, of $10,000 and above, for the month of June. Instant Games players won nearly $101 million in prizes during the month.