New York's Newly Minted Millionaires Receive Their Lotto Prizes

A family of four, a chef, a young adult and a 60-year-old construction worker are officially part of an exclusive club.

Though at first glance it may seem like this group is quite eclectic, they share a common trait that stands out above the rest — they are newly-minted millionaires.

Having won the lottery in recent months they were officially presented by the New York Lottery with their new winnings totaling $23.4 million Wednesday.

The Panagopoulos family, from Flushing, Queens, is now $6,200,000 richer thanks to a joke. Vasilios, the family’s patriarch, purchased the ticket after his family members asked him to “play one for us” as he left to play his daily numbers.

A few days after purchasing a ticket for the Feb. 28 LOTTO drawing in East Elmhurst, his son, George, realized he won the lottery.

“My father left the ticket on the dining room table and I decided to check the numbers online a couple of days later. It was all very weird really. It’s really too much too handle all at once. We were all asking, ‘So what now? What do we do now?’”

George said his father, a retired restaurant owner, gifted the family a life-changing LOTTO ticket.

“We’re all one unit,” he said. “It’s very important to my father to see us all happy. He has always been very giving.”

Each of the four members of the Panagopoulos family will receive a net check totaling $635,026 after required withholdings.

George said the family plans to invest their respective winnings.

“There’s been some talk about opening a new restaurant with the younger generation leading the way. We’ll see.”

Thirty-one-year-old James Fannon of East Islip also has a pretty good idea how he’ll spend his $1,000-a-week winnings, which total $34,934 a year for the rest of his life.

Fannon, who received a jackpot winning Win $1,000 a Week for Life scratch-off ticket in a Valentine’s Day card given to him by his parents, said the first thing he plans to do is “buy a new car.”

Though Fannon and the Panagopoulos may have an idea on what they want to do with their newly won cash, a few of the recent winners are still too stunned to know how they will spend the money.

“I haven’t decided how I will spend the money. I will start with paying off my bills,” Zhao Yang Liu of Flushing, Queens, said.

Liu, 46, won the $7,000,000 Cash Blowout scratch-off game.

Though Liu said he’s been playing the game for a while, luck finally managed to smile his way.

“I scratched the coin symbol and knew I won right away,” Liu explained through an interpreter. “I tried to remain calm. I put the ticket in my pocket and headed straight home,” adding he called his wife right away.

For his lucky win, Liu will receive his winning as a one-time lump-sum payment, which ends up totaling $4.43 million after withholdings.

Sixty-year-old Peter Hess of Brookhaven, another LOTTO jackpot winner, may be millions of dollars richer, but the construction worker also has “no immediate plans” for his newly obtained prize money from the Jan. 6 drawing.

One thing he knows for sure — he intends to share it with his sister, Carol Murphy.

“When I realized I had won, I went straight home and called my sister in California,” Hess said.

He and his sister will each receive a check totaling $2,113,982 after required withholdings.

The New York Lottery is North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.27 billion in fiscal year 2016-2017 to help support education in New York State.

The Lottery’s contribution represents approximately 14 percent of total state education funding to local school districts.