New York Lottery: Another big winner on Long Island

Amid all that lottery hoopla, Long Island has become Fantasy Island for two people in the past week.

First there was a $1 million Powerball second-place winner who purchased the lucky ticket for the Jan. 3 drawing in Brentwood.

Then there was an even bigger winner — for the $9.2 million first prize in Saturday’s Lotto drawing — who bought the ticket in Center Moriches, according to the New York Lottery.

The Powerball winner has come forward and lives in Brentwood, but the lottery will reveal the winner’s identity at an unspecified date, Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman said Wednesday.

However, Hapeman said the identity of the Lotto winner remains a mystery, and she encouraged that person to come forward.

“With all the hype over the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings last week, while nobody was looking someone won $9.2 million” from the Lotto ticket purchased on Long Island, Hapeman said. “We’re very excited at the prospect of meeting them.”

Last week’s two monster Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots totaled more than $1 billion.

The stores where the winning tickets were purchased were a BP gas station on Washington Avenue in Brentwood and a King Kullen on Main Street in Center Moriches.

Following Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, a cashier at the BP station, Reyna Vasquez, told Newsday that one regular had come in Friday morning and whispered to Vasquez that he was the million-dollar winner.

The man, who wore dark sunglasses and a hood over his head, denied his claim when he was later approached in the parking lot.

Hapeman said the people at the stores where the winning tickets were sold would not be eligible for a selling bonus from either winning ticket.