Peter Gee, 59, was announced as the sole winner of $18 million in the New York State Lotto on Aug. 9 at Empire City Casino in Yonkers.
“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Gee said of winning. “It was like, 'Wow.' If you’ve never felt adrenaline, win the Lotto and you’ll feel adrenaline.”
Gee said that, on July 7, he went to the post office on Albany Post Road in Croton-on-Hudson to mail a letter. He asked his wife, Ruth, to go to the deli next door to buy a Lotto ticket, rather than his usual Powerball, with the numbers he'd selected: 6, 10, 19, 22, 37 and 43.
He opted to take the one lump-sum payment of $12.9 million before required tax withholdings, with the net take-home totaling more than $8.5 million.
Gee worked as a U.S. Postal Service employee for 36 years before retiring. He and his wife have no children. When asked whether his wife was retired he said, "No, she’s not yet, but she will be."
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