Guilford Resident Wins Instant Game's Top Prize Playing "$100,000,000 Diamond Mine"
February 10, 2011 -- Surrounded by a loving family who were joyfully celebrating her 69th birthday, Jackie Triumfo of Guilford, couldn’t have been more surprised with the birthday card her brother, Ronald, gave her. Inside the card was a CT Lottery “
$100,000,000 Diamond Mine” instant game ticket. The spur of the moment gift, to Ronald’s surprise, turned out to be a $1,000,000 top prize winning ticket for his sister.
“It’s one of his favorite games to play,” Jackie Triumfo told Lottery officials. “After I opened the card, I didn’t look at the ticket for a while, but when Ronald was getting ready to leave he asked me to check it.” At the time, Triumfo had her hands full with a grandchild, so she asked a family member to scratch the ticket for her. “When Ronald picked it up and looked at it…I think his eyes nearly bugged out of his head,” said Triumfo laughing. The $10 ticket had a matching pair of 4’s with a corresponding prize worth $1,000,000. “Honestly, I thought he was joking, until he swore it was true.”
Triumfo, a retired secretary from Saint Raphael’s Hospital in New Haven where she worked for 20 years, arrived at CT Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill recently with her husband, Frank, to claim her prize. “I barely slept last night. I kept waking up and thinking, ‘Is this real?’”
There are ten top prizes of $1,000,000 in the $100,000,000 Diamond Mine game, each payable as a 20-year annuity or a one-time cash lump-sum equivalent. Triumfo chose the lump-sum value of $578,400 (before taxes). “I might buy a new car,” said Triumfo, “and pay some bills.”
There have been four other $1,000,000 top prize winners in the game to date including Zbigniew Osenko of New Haven, Theresa Pabis of Stratford,
Craig Comparone of Plantsville, and
Wilman Bravo of Sabana Hoyos, Puerto Rico (previously from New Britain).
Guilford Xtra Mart, located on the Boston Post Road in Guilford, is also in for a surprise. For selling the $100,000,000 Diamond Mine top prize ticket, they’ll receive a $10,000 bonus check from the CT Lottery.