• A lottery player from Manhattan tried his luck with the New York Lottery's Xtreme Money scratch-off game
• The player scored a life-changing top prize of $5m
• The scratch-off winner chose to receive a one-time cash sum of $2.2m

An incredibly lucky Manhattanite tried his luck with a $20 scratch-off ticket and was surprised by a life-changing prize.

The New York Lottery, the organizer of lottery games and the most profitable lottery in North America, confirmed the win earlier this week.

Lucky winner beats odds of 1 in 4.5m for a top prize

The fortunate Manhattan, New York, resident purchased a ticket for the Xtreme Money scratch-off game.

The lucky man bought the winning ticket from Wendy’s Wines & Liquors at 2651 8th Ave. in Manhattan.

To the surprise of the lucky man, he scored one of the game's top prizes for a $5m payday.

At the launch of the Xtreme Money scratch-off game, there were a total of four prizes of $5m each.

However, after the most recent win, now, only one top prize remains in play.

The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 4,558,450.00.

The lucky Manhattanite recently visited the Lottery to claim his big fortune.

The man was presented with a choice to either collect the full sum via annual installments of $250,000 per year, or take home a lump cash sum.

It isn't surprising that the winner selected the latter option and collected a one-time cash payment of $2,173,452, after the relevant applicable taxes.

The scratch-off winner did not reveal if he has any plans regarding his newfound fortune.

One top prize remains in play from the Xtreme Money scratch-off game

The New York Lottery's Xtreme Money scratch-off ticket costs $20 per play.

The popular game grants players a chance to win a prize between $20 and a top prize of $5m.

Currently, 13 tier-two prizes of $25,000 remain in play. The odds of winning such a prize are 1 in 520,965.71.

A level three prize awards $10,000 and there are currently 55 such prizes up for grabs with odds of winning 1 in 140,260.

Scratch-off games generate an important part of the New York Lottery's proceeds.

During the fiscal year 2023-2024, such games generated $4,373,546,208 in total sales. With that in mind, for the same period, school districts in five boroughs benefitted from nearly $1.2bn from the Lottery Aid to Education funds.

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