NY Lottery winner: Jose Galeano of Lindenhurst takes home $5 million Cash Royale prize, officials say

A Lindenhurst man turned $20 into a $5 million top prize after purchasing a $5 million Cash Royale scratch-off ticket recently at a Stop & Shop store in Amityville, lottery officials said.

The lottery identified the winner as Jose Galeano and said he elected to receive a single lump sum payment of about $2.2 million, after the required withholdings.

The win was announced on Dec. 8. It wasn't immediately clear when Galeano bought the ticket at the Stop & Shop, located at 351 Merrick Rd.

According to the New York State Lottery, there are four tickets bearing the $5 million first prize — and two, to date, have been claimed. Odds of winning the top prize are about one in 4.5 million, the lottery said.

A total of 15 second-prize tickets, each worth $10,000, have been claimed to date. Another 62 are outstanding.

Attempts to reach Galeano for comment were not immediately successful Monday. A man answering a listed number for Galeano identified himself as his son, but declined comment.

New York Lottery scratch-off games generated $4.4 billion in total sales during the fiscal year 2022-23, with Suffolk County school districts receiving more than $359 million in Lottery Aid to Education funds during that period, according to lottery officials. Public K-12 schools in New York received $3.7 billion in aid in 2022-23.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”