You go around going around your day-to-day chores, that meaning taking your wife to  run her medical tests, and well, while you are waiting for her to finish so you can pick her up, you would like to go to pick up a birthday card for your sister, and since you are already there, well why not give it a chance at a few scratchers, after all they can be a good gift too. Lotteries

This is the story of John Giovo,  a 65 year-old retired paper mill mechanic who is now a winner of $1,000,000 .   “I was looking for a birthday card for my sister and someLottery tickets to put in it,” said 65-year-old Carthage native John Giovo of his recent trip to Porter’s Wines & Liquors on Alexandria St. in Carthage. He was very careful and took all the time he needed to select the right card, appropriate for  occasion, of course.   However the way how he came upon his winning ticket is a lot more casual.  He asked to have  “one of these and one of those”. 

Mr. Giovo soon discovered that his one ticket, which is a $5  Wheel of Fortune game  landed him  $1,000,000 . “My heart didn’t skip a beat, but I thought the clerk was going to pass out when I showed him the ticket,” he said with a laugh. “We got Mike (the store owner)  on the phone to tell him the good news, and then I left to pick up my wife from her doctor’s appointment like planned.”

Giovo and wife Cheryl, claimed the $1,000,000 prize September 28 at the Lottery’s Customer Service Center in Syracuse. As incredible as how Giovo came upon his ticket is also his story, he has two children and two grandchildren and is the survivor of a traumatic snowmobile accident in 1987. He is the first New York Lottery player statewide to claim a $1,000,000 prize on the Wheel of Fortune game. The top prize is paid as $50,000 a year for 20 years. Giovo’s annual net check will total $33,015 until 2030. State lottery

Although he does not have any immediate plans on how to spend his money, he did recognized that he “dreams a lot”.  And well, with such a generous bonus he will be able to make some of those dreams come true.