Dream winners
N.y.ers get slice of $64OM pie
THE THREE lottery tickets that secured a share of the record-breaking $640 million pot were not sold in New York — but state gamblers didn’t come away empty-handed.
Seventeen second-place tickets, worth $250,000 each, were sold in New York, including 10 within the city limits, according to lottery officials.
One of the winning tickets was claimed by a dozen workers from a Japanese restaurant in Queens, who showed up at the eatery Saturday night with thousand-watt smiles.
“Everybody’s happy,” said Helen Li, a waitress at Fuji Japanese Cuisine on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills.
They bought the ticket at a bodega next door, 113 News. Incredibly, the convenience store also sold a second-place ticket on Tuesday.
“My customers win. That’s good,” said clerk Dahyabhai Patel.
The gigantic Mega Millions jackpot will be split three ways by lucky ticket holders in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.
Local gamblers were distraught to see their dreams dashed.
“I bought four tickets and I thought I was going to quit my job,” said Wilentz Davis, 43, who stood in line Saturday to buy more tickets at Harb Discount in the Bronx. “But I got to work on Monday.”
But merchants were pleased. The Bedford Park store sold one of the nation’s 142 second-place tickets — matching all five numbers but not the all-important Mega Ball — and its employees said they experienced an unprecedented crush of gamblers in the hours before Friday night’s drawing.
“It was crazy — I’ve never seen a line like that,” said Abed Harb, the store’s owner. “People who never play played yesterday. The line never finished.”
Adam Lantigua, owner of the International Deli on 14th Ave. in Borough Park, Brooklyn, cheered the news that his shop sold one of the runnerup tickets.
“We’re a lucky place now and this will be good for business,” he said.
The identity of the top winners would not be released Saturday, according to state lottery officials. And, they might not ever, be- cause the grand prize winners have the option to claim their prize anonymously.
Lottery officials estimate that Americans spent nearly $1.5 billion on tickets, but only three of those slips hit the winning combination: 2-4-23-38-46, with the Mega Ball 23.