It seems someone will start celebrating his happy holidays before everyone else. Ralph Fischetto of Lynbrook, Nassau County claimed a $25,000 top prize on the New York Lottery’s Happy Holidays scratch-off game just two days after the game’s launch. There must be a catch, you may think. Ralph actually has a theory or maybe it is just a personal preference, he simply loves new games. And maybe this might have been the reason why he will be jingling his way through the holidays. US lottery

The odds of winning the top prize for the $2 seasonal scratch-off are 1 in 741,600. But these discouraging numbers were not an obstacle for Fischetto. The fact that it was a new game was a good reason enough for him to purchase one of the new tickets at Ocean Sunrise Corporation on Sunrise Highway in Rockville Center, Nassau County on November 1st. The same day the game launched. What a lucky launching day!

“I went to the store to check my ticket,” Fischetto said. “And I was completely shocked when I realized I had won.”

The Long Islander works as a supermarket butcher and thanks to this immediate windfall he will be able to pamper himself and spend this new found money on “a new apartment and new furniture.”

If you think this strategy about purchasing scratcher tickets as soon as they become available is nonsense you should definitely give it a second thought because Ralph is not the only one who has had this type of luck. Weird things have happened. Lottery results

On the same line, a man called Paul Telitz won $500,000 on an Arizona scratch-off game called VIP Club. The ticket number on the winning ticket was 000 which means it was the first ticket issued. And it was also the one ticket that made Paul’s eyes twinkle before the holidays have even started. “I got the first tickets in the pack and liked the ticket number, so I bought two more. The winner was ticket 000.”

Paul Telitz bought his winning ticket in October of 2011. The VIP Club game from Arizona lottery costs $20 to play and offers a top prize of $500,000, which is what Paul won. The odds of winning the $500,000 top prize in the game are approximately 1-in-240,000, while the odds of winning any prize in the game are approximately 1-in-2.84.

Although Paul did not buy his ticket as soon as the game was launched, he did lay his hands on the first tickets that were issued and this was actually what made him buy enough tickets to make him a winner. Whether it’s being the first one to try out a scratcher or simply liking a certain number it is clear that every player has a different taste and practice in terms of what works for him in order to win. And in the end, that’s what counts.