Durham Man Buys Winning '5 Card Cash' Lottery Ticket

From CT Lottery

Days after the May 12, “5 Card Cash” daily drawing was held, Michael Marchese, 24, of Durham scanned his lottery ticket in a Ticket Checker and received a message, loud and clear:  “Congratulations!”  Marchese’s 5 Card Cash ticket was a $255,555 top prize winner!

“When I saw that I won $255,555, I don’t know why, but I was pretty calm about it.  I walked out of the store, went to my grandparent’s house and showed them the ticket.  Then I came back to the store and had the retailer validate it for me,” Marchese told Lottery officials.

The winning 5 Card Cash ticket card symbols drawn for May 12 were KH, 4D, 10S, QC, AH (King of Hearts, 4 of Diamonds, 10 of Spades, Queen of Clubs, Ace of Hearts).

In addition to Marchese’s perfect match for the $255,555 top prize, 373 tickets for that date contained a “Draw Win” match for prizes ranging from $20 to $555.  A total of 21,057 tickets contained “Instant Win” hands for prizes ranging from a $2 (free ticket) to $555.

On Friday, Marchese happily received a prize check at lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill for $174,545 (value after taxes) with plans already in place for his unexpected windfall.  “A couple years ago, I started my own business in vehicle transportation.  I’m going to put the money into building the business.  It’s going to be put to good use, that’s for sure.”

Since ticket sales for 5 Card Cash began on May 4, the $255,555 has been won two times, and over a half a million winning tickets have been sold.

For selling the top prize winning ticket, Krauszer’s, located at 459 Madison Rd. in Durham, will receive a check for $2,500 from the CT Lottery.