By Rebecca Henely
It almost didn’t happen.
On the day 30-year-old Scott Margolin won $2,000 a week for life from the New York Lottery Oct. 21, his friend wanted to go to Martha’s Country Bakery on Bell Boulevard near 41st Street for their coffee break, but Margolin insisted on going to their regular spot at 7-Eleven a few doors down the street.
“I said, ‘No. 7-Eleven French roast is the best, let’s go there,’” Margolin recalled.
Margolin, who recently moved to Bayside, is the 10th winner in Queens and the second winner from Bayside this year of a prize of $1 million or more from the New York Lottery.
“This just changes my life,” he said.
A sales consultant for a human resources company in Bell Plaza, Margolin started buying scratch-off lottery tickets from 7-Eleven only a few weeks before with his co-workers while on their coffee break. They had been doing this for fun and had for a time delighted in small prizes of $20 and $30.
“I never thought I’d actually win like this,” Margolin said.
At one point Margolin stopped buying the $2 scratch-off tickets, which have the ultimate prize of $1,000 a week for life, and bought $5 scratch-off tickets, which have the highest prize of $2,000 a week for life with a minimum payout of $2 million. On the day Margolin almost went to Martha’s, he won the grand prize.
“Frozen. I was just frozen,” Margolin said of his reaction.
Margolin said he went to the Lottery’s Garden City Customer Service Center that day, but arrived a few minutes after closing time — too late to collect his prize, but he was back first thing the next morning.
The prize will be distributed to Margolin in payments of $104,000, or $64,640 after taxes, per year for at least 20 years. The payments will continue past then for as long as he is alive.
“It makes a lot of stresses in life not really feel that stressful,” he said.
Margolin is not married. He said he plans to use the winnings to purchase a 26-foot Baja Outlaw boat.
Despite his windfall, Margolin said he does not plan to leave his job.
“I like what I do,” he said. “I’m going to continue to do it. I’m still young.”
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
