Woman finds state lottery is twice as nice

updated 4:20 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2006

NEW YORK - A 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 Long Island 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, according to the New York State Lottery. Last month, she beat odds of 1 in 705,600 when she got the $1 million prize in the New York lottery’s Jubilee scratch-off game.

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 still hasn’t quit her job at Emma’s Deli and Catering. Despite her unexpected bonus, Wilson plans to keep working until at least December, making sandwiches and ringing up sales.

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