Woman Wins One Million Dollars for Second Time

NEW YORK, Sept. 9 -- 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 for an article published Saturday. "This time I said, 'God's on my side.' "

The odds of Wilson, 56, pulling off her double victory? One in 3.7 trillion.

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

A lottery spokeswoman verified that Wilson was a Cool Million winner in 2002, but she declined to confirm her latest win until a planned news conference. There have been two previous repeat million-dollar-plus winners in the lottery's history, according to the state.

Wilson has not 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 annual $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."