Schenectady – Beenish Tariq, a 20-year-old college senior, thought long and hard about what she wanted to do with the $5,000,000 winning lottery ticket she bought more than four months ago.

"I held onto the ticket for so long because I knew I wanted to get everything in order before I claimed it," said Tariq, a finance major. "I knew right away that I would share with my family; I just didn’t know how to split up $5,000,000."

Tariq, who plans to graduate in May of 2005, said she will re-invest at least part of her prize in her continued education. "Now I’ll be able to go on to get my Masters and pay for my sister’s tuition too; she’ll be a freshman next year."

Tariq will receive her $5,000,000 prize in annual pre-tax payments of $250,000 for the next 20 years. She is the 7^h top-prize winner of the Instant $5,000,000 Spectacular game statewide, the 205^th New York Lottery millionaire from Queens County, and the 1,730^th Lottery millionaire since inception.

Tariq purchased her winning Instant $5,000,000 Spectacular ticket at Chuking Deli, 146-04 45^th Ave., Flushing. The Instant $5,000,000 Spectacular is a $10 Instant game offering players up to 15 chances to win a top prize of $5,000,000. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 4,200,000. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.74.

Since its inception in 1967, the New York Lottery has generated more than $25 billion in revenue to help support education statewide, including a record $1.90 billion in revenue in Fiscal Year 2003-2004 on sales of $5.84 billion.

For more information, contact the New York Lottery Press & Community Relations office at (518) 388-3415 or email here.