Cool Million: Lunch Money Buys a Winner for Gail Croft

By CHRIS BURRELL

It was supposed to be her lunch money for Wednesday, but Gail Croft
decided to drop her last $10 bill on two more scratch tickets Tuesday
night.

The odds were less than one in three million, but when she saw the
letter "L," the Martha's Vineyard Hospital social
worker and Island native felt that first happy sensation.

She had won the newest instant game in the Massachusetts State
Lottery - $1 million.

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"I always scratch right to left," she told the Gazette
yesterday as she stood outside the double doors to the acute care wing
of the hospital.

She looks for dollar signs under that silver coating, but it was the
last part of the abbreviation, "MIL," that caught her eye.
"I gotta tell you that was a clue," she said.

Ms. Croft, a great-grandmother who barely looks 50 but is actually
well into her 60s, has already claimed the first installment of the
prize - $35,000. She will receive $50,000, before taxes, for each
of the next 19 years.

She purchased the winning ticket from Tedeschi's Market in
East Falmouth, right around the corner from where her son lives. They
had a celebration that night, and the next morning, Ms. Croft went
straight to Braintree to cash in her prize.

Tuesday was the first day that the state unveiled its latest instant
game called Royal Riches, which will pay out 10 $1-million prizes. Ms.
Croft already bagged one of those jackpots, and she is crediting the
cashier for cajoling her into buying more than she planned.

The fact is she had just bought four of the instant tickets for $20
and was reluctant to part with the last of her cash.

"I wasn't going to but I bought two more. I had $10 left
in my pocket, and I thought, ‘I can't spend that. It's
lunch money tomorrow,' " she said.

But the cashier prodded Ms. Croft a little, and she relented. The
winning card, she said, was definitely one of those last two purchased.
"It's the best $10 I ever spent," she said.

Back at work yesterday, Ms. Croft said she has no plans to quit her
full-time job. "It's not enough to retire on," she
said.

She was clearly the hit of the hospital this week as co-workers
congratulated her and ribbed her at the same time.

A basket of flowers came from Morrice the Florist just after the
lunch hour. The inscription on the card stated: "You lucky
sucker!!! From all of us."

There were hugs and laughter from her friends. "Now that
you're rich, who's your buddy?" said a nurse as she
walked by Ms. Croft.

"You really can know someone who wins," said emergency
service director Dr. Alan Hirshberg as he strolled by the acute care
center and saw the lucky winner.

"I've created nothing but pandemonium around here this
morning," said Ms. Croft. "Everyone's so excited,
nobody wants to work."

She has worked around this hospital campus for the last six years,
three of them at Windemere. Before that, she was a social worker at
Falmouth Hospital but was laid off after the merger with Cape Cod
Hospital.

She is part of the Amaral family on the Vineyard and lives in an old
house in the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, a house that will soon be
getting an upgrade thanks to the lottery winnings.

"I have eight children, and I just shared a little of it with
them," she said.

Ms. Croft is toying with a trip to - where else? -
Disney World. For now, she's just basking in the glory of her good
fortune and happy to take part in the good humor it's generated.

"You lookin' for me?" she said to a hospital
employee in the hall. "Do I have unpaid debts?"

The Royal Riches game is part of the growing number of instant games
run by the state lottery. In the fiscal year 2001, the Massachusetts
State Lottery generated more than $3.9 billion in gross revenues, a six
per cent increase from the previous year.

That growth is largely due to the $5 instant tickets such as the
kind that Ms. Croft bought. Nearly 70 per cent of lottery revenues come
from the instant ticket games.

Last year, more than $276,000 in state lottery revenue was
distributed to the six Island towns.