New Yorker Wins $1 Million in Scratch Lottery

A Brooklyn man became a millionaire thanks to a lucky lottery ticket he bought at a corner store in Harlem, according to the New York Post.

Rodney Henderson, the lucky winner of this story, will be able to enjoy his Strike It Rich! New York Lottery, receiving 20 annual payments of $30,612 each, according to an official press release.

Lottery officials said Henderson bought his golden ticket at 477 Food, which is owned by Arkan Food Corp. at the corner of West 134th Street and Lenox Avenue.

Henderson declined to comment on the situation, but Maged Ahmed, a 49-year-old clerk at the store, expressed his surprise and delight: “We didn’t even know about it until now! They didn’t even send a letter.”

Ahmed doesn’t know Henderson personally, but he hopes this win will encourage others to buy tickets from the shop. “If they think the store is lucky, they will come to make them even luckier,” Ahmed said. “More people will come and more people will ask to play.”

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Not surprisingly, others are also jealous of Henderson’s luck. Bobby Carter, Whole Foods employee, admitted: “Yes, I’m jealous! Why not? I play loto every day. I don’t have time to work all my life.”

However, Carter sees a positive side to the store: “Now you will have more customers!” he told Ahmed.

The New York Lottery is the largest and most profitable lottery on the continent, and in the last fiscal year, officials say it raised $3.7 billion to support public education in New York State.