Lake Grove Pizza Shop Owner Wins $1 Million Lottery Prize

A Lake Grove pizza shop owner got the best birthday present this year. Dimitrios Hatzisotiriou, 73, recently won a $1 million jackpot on a ticket he purchased on his birthday, according to the New York Lottery.

“I was on my way to the bank to pay some bills, but it was closed,” Hatzisotiriou said. “I went to my friend’s liquor store a few storefronts down and played some tickets while I waited for the bank to open.”

He purchased several tickets, and it was the last ticket he bought that was worth $1 million. Hatzisotiriou first lost $25 but then won $50 and used part of those winnings to buy one more $10 ticket.

The $10 ticket he purchased was the holiday themed Holiday Millionaire scratch-off.

“I scratched off the numbers and saw the matching 36s and just started jumping up and down around the store," he said. "What a feeling!”

The $1,000,000 top prize on the Holiday Millionaire ticket is paid out as a one-time lump sum payment. Hatzisotiriou will receive a lump sum check totaling $661,800.

This isn't the first time he won the lottery. A few years ago he won a $56,000 Take 5 prize, which he used to buy a car.

This time around, he plans to use his winnings for something more personal.

“I want to go home to Greece and see my mother and sister," he said.

New York Lottery’s Yolanda Vega presented Hatzisotiriou his oversized prize checks in Plainview recently.

He was given a check along with other local winners, including a husband and wife duo from Glen Head who won a $5,000,000 scratch-off prize and a Queens store owner who won $1,000 a day on the CASH4LIFE draw game.