The lottery player from Massachusetts who won $25 million from a “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” scratch ticket she claimed at the beginning of the month had already won the lottery almost two decades ago.
Desiree Fortini-Craft, of Hyde Park, was the third and final $25 million grand prize winner in the Massachusetts State Lottery’s $50 scratch ticket game.
Fortini-Craft, who was joined by her fiancé Jason Perkins, claimed her prize on Dec. 1, and chose to receive a one-time payment of $16.25 million before taxes.
She said she’d actually scratched the winning ticket a few weeks ago and had been keeping it in a safe place before she went on a trip to Aruba and claimed the prize when she returned.
For the future, Fortinit-Craft told the lottery she and her fiancé “want to enjoy life,” and are hard workers who “plan on having a really good Christmas in Aruba.” She plans to use some of her winnings to pay off student loans for her three daughters, along with some other big family purchases, and to buy a new car.
And Fortini-Craft is verifiably “lucky” — she had previously won a $1 million grand prize from a Massachusetts State Lottery scratch ticket in 2006, she told the lottery.
- Read more: Massachusetts State Lottery winner: $25 million prize claimed but winner’s name not released
The Massachusetts woman bought her winning ticket at Baker Street Market, located at 419 Baker St. in West Roxbury, which will receive a $50,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
This $25 million grand prize is the largest scratch ticket prize ever offered by the Massachusetts State Lottery in its history.
While the final two of the three $25 million grand prizes available in the game were claimed within two days of each other — on Nov. 29 and on Dec. 1, with the first claimed in August — there are still four $2 million prizes and six $1 million prizes to be claimed as of Dec. 11.
