Mahopac Man Wins Big in Powerball

 Consistency and commitment finally had a huge pay off for lifelong Mahopac resident Billy Mascio when, after having played the same six lottery numbers over the course of two decades, he found himself holding on to a million-dollar, second prize Powerballticket on Aug. 8

Last Thursday, Mascio, his wife Kathy and the couple’s three daughters, Erin, Robin and Michelle, stood outside of the Mobile Mart where Mascio had purchased the ticket to celebrate their good fortune.

Each family member played their part in the winning formula, as the numbers Mascio played consistently were comprised of each family members’ birth date, plus the birth date of their late German Shepherd, Rocky.

While the family’s birth dates exactly matched the numbers drawn, Rocky’s did not.

“If my dog was born on Dec. 12 instead of on Dec. 29, I would’ve won the whole jackpot.” he said of the $240 million top prize. “I’m not greedy. I’m just happy I won whatever I won.”

And just as one would imagine, when he first realized he had won the million dollar second prize, of course, it took some time to sink in.

After the drawing, as usual, Mascio went to the Mobil Mart to scan his ticket.

“The scanner said: Big winner. Sign Ticket. See Retail. I’m thinking I won a $100,” Mascio said.

Not following directions, Mascio returned home to get on his computer and check again. He saw that one of two second prize tickets had been purchased at the Baldwin Place gas station where he had bought the one he was holding.

He scrolled across the screen to see what the prize was and couldn’t believe entirely what he was seeing, he said.

“I see one, comma, zero, zero, zero, comma, zero, zero, zero…I’m thinking I’m reading the zeros wrong and I won a thousands dollars,” he said.

He got up from the computer, walked around and came back to double check the numbers again.

“And I went, woah!,” he said of seeing the family’s birth dates lined up in a row.

From $100, to $1,000, Mascio finally realized what kind of cash was involved.

“I said, ‘Billy, I think you just won a million dollars!’ ,” he said he called out to himself.

His wife Kathy works in the Peekskill School District and he immediately called her. She returned home and, along with their daughters, the family went out for lunch to celebrate.

Acting prudently and preparing themselves for acceptance of the sudden windfall, the Mascios waited two weeks to come forward to claim their prize, after having sought professional financial advice.

The couple split the prize, each receiving a one-time pay out of close to $400,000 each.

At the public presentation last week, people gassing up their cars stopped to cheer and clap for the family and the Mobil Mart’s employees, Mack, Jack and Mingmar, were overjoyed the second-prize ticket was sold at the store to one of their frequent customers.

Powerball officials said it was the first ticket to net such a large pay out sold at that particular shop.

Kathy’s plans for the money were to pay off the mortgage on the house, help out her daughters, and, if there was anything left over, buy a new car.

Her husband’s splurge? A new weed whacker and a generator.

“I’m a pretty simple person,” Mascio said. “It’s not life changing, it just takes the edge off of life