Woman Hits $1M Lottery for the Second Time

Sunday, September 10, 2006 posted 04:30 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- A Long Island woman who won $1 million from a state lottery game four years ago has improbably hit the jackpot again.

Valerie Wilson, who works at a North Babylon deli, said she won another $1 million on a lottery scratch-off game last month.

"The first time I couldn't believe it," Wilson told Newsday. "This time I said, 'God's on my side.'"

Wilson, 56, beat some long odds to pull off her double victory.

In 2002, her winning ticket in the Cool Million scratch-off game, which has since been discontinued, was a shot of 1 in 5.2 million. Last month, she beat odds of 1 in 705,600 when she got the $1 million prize in the New York State Lottery's Jubilee scratch-off game.

Overall, her chances of winning both games were a slim 1 in 3,669,120,000,000.

A lottery spokeswoman verified Wilson was a Cool Million winner in 2002, but declined to confirm her latest win until a planned news conference.

There have been only two previous repeat million-dollar-plus winners in the lottery's history, according to the state.

Wilson said she normally buys about $40 worth of lottery tickets a week. Her latest winner was one of four $10 tickets she purchased on Aug. 30.

"I lost my husband in 1993, so I went to the cemetery and thanked him," she said. "I figured he had something to do with it."

The prize will be paid out in $50,000 installments over 20 years.

Wilson still hasn't quit her job at Emma's Deli and Catering, which is already primed to receive an inordinate share of fame.

Owner Erik Chopin is slated to be a contestant on this autumn's edition of NBC's weight-loss reality series, "The Biggest Loser."

Despite her unexpected bonus, Wilson still plans to keep working until at least December, making sandwiches and ringing up sales, while Chopin is dealing with the TV show.

"I was surprised the next day when she came to work," Chopin said. "We were saying, 'How can someone win twice?' But good things happen to good people."

Wilson said she used her first winnings to help buy homes for her three children.

"This one is going to be for me," she said. "I'm going to live a little bit."

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