Schenectady, NY - Sixty-one-year-old Rosemary Pratt of Amsterdam is rich, Royally Rich, thanks to her recent $3,000,000 top prize win on the Lottery’s Royal Riches instant game. Pratt said news of her good fortune spread like wildfire through the Fantastic Sam’s hair salon on Route 30 in Amsterdam where she works as a beautician.

“Good news travels fast,” she said. “I don’t think it was ever a secret. It’s been the talk of the salon and the whole town for weeks, but it’s never been official…until now.”

The Lottery’s Yolanda Vega confirmed Pratt’s good fortune this morning, handing a prize check valued at $3,000,000 to Pratt and her husband, Leon, a retired GE Factory worker, during a ceremony held at the Lottery’s Central Offices in Schenectady. Pratt said winning that kind of money takes some getting used to.

“It’s overwhelming, simply overwhelming. There’s no other way to describe it,” said the mother of three and grandmother of seven.

Pratt purchased her Royal Riches ticket on May 2 at the Mini Kwik Mart on Route 30 in Amsterdam. She and her husband claimed it just over an hour later at the Lottery’s Customer Service Center in Schenectady.

“I couldn’t wait another minute,” she said. “I just didn’t know what else to do.”

As for what to do now, Pratt said she and her husband might trade in their older model cars for a couple of new ones. “Beyond that,” she said. “We really don’t have any plans for the money outside of taking care of family.”

Pratt will receive her $3,000,000 prize in payments of $150,000 a year, less required tax withholdings, for 20 years. Her annual net check will total $102,225.

Pratt is the third Montgomery County Lottery player to win a Lottery Prize valued at $1,000,000 or more. Other County Lottery Millionaires include Karen Savoie of Fultonville who won a $4,000,000 Lotto jackpot in 1995 and David Smitherman of Hagaman who won a $1,000,000 on the Lottery’s New York Poker instant game in 2006.

The New York Lottery contributed nearly $2.6 billion to help support education in New York State on incoming revenues of $7.549 billion in fiscal year 2007-08 - - a profit margin of 34.3%. The New York Lottery continues to be North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, earning over $34.2 billion in education support statewide since its founding over 40 years ago.