Ronald Stuckey Revocable Trust Claims $1.3 Million Lottery Prize in Freeport

Q: With one top prize still unclaimed, could the final three million dollar winning scratch-off be waiting at your local deli?

Yes, it could — but there is no way to know where it is until it is sold and claimed. The New York Lottery says the $10 “$3 Million Bonus Stars” scratch-off game began with three top prizes. Two have now been claimed, including the Freeport winner taken by the Ronald Stuckey Revocable Trust, leaving one $3 million top prize still unclaimed. That means a winning ticket could still be sitting at a retailer, in a shipment not yet sold, or already in a player’s possession but not yet checked. What cannot be said is that it is likely to be at any particular local deli. The overall odds of hitting the top prize are 1 in 5,878,683.33, so the remaining jackpot ticket is still extraordinarily hard to find. The game’s overall odds of winning any cash prize are far better, about 1 in 3.99, but that includes much smaller prizes. Players who want the best factual guidance should check the New York Lottery’s official scratch-off prize tracker, which shows how many top and secondary prizes remain. In this game, one top prize and five of the eight $5,000 second prizes were still unclaimed at the time of the latest update. If someone does have the winning ticket, the prize can typically be taken as annual payments of $250,000 before taxes or as a lump sum. As the Freeport claim shows, the after-tax lump-sum amount can be far lower than the advertised $3 million.

Q: Who is the real millionaire hiding behind the Freeport trust, and did their privacy strategy actually save them any money?

The public record does not identify anyone beyond the name on the claim: the Ronald Stuckey Revocable Trust of Freeport. Based on the lottery announcement and the related reporting, there is no verified public evidence naming a different individual “hiding behind” the trust. A revocable trust typically signals that the winner wanted some privacy, but it does not by itself reveal who the beneficiary or trustee is beyond what officials chose to release. That privacy strategy likely helped with exposure, but not with taxes. The trust claimed the prize as a lump sum of $1,334,553 after taxes, and the available tax guidance is clear that lottery winnings are taxed as ordinary income whether claimed personally or through a revocable trust. Federal withholding on big prizes is generally 24% upfront, and New York state taxes also apply; using a revocable trust does not reduce that core tax burden. What a trust can do is create a buffer between the winner and the public, depending on what New York discloses. It can also help with estate planning, asset management and handling inquiries through lawyers or trustees. But on the narrow question of saving money on the prize itself, the answer is no: the trust structure is a privacy and planning tool, not a tax loophole. So the real millionaire remains publicly unknown, and the trust almost certainly protected identity more than wealth.

1 articles · Updated · Newsday · Sep 1

$1,334,553 after taxes was paid in a lump sum to the Ronald Stuckey Revocable Trust of Freeport for a top-winning New York Lottery scratch-off ticket.
The winning $10 $3 Million Bonus Stars ticket was sold at Torres Deli & Grocery on Broadway in Freeport, though lottery officials did not say when it was purchased.
The game offers overall cash-prize odds of 1 in 3.99, but the grand-prize odds are 1 in 5,878,683.33; two of the three top-prize tickets have now been claimed.
Scratch-off games have generated more than $4.2 billion in New York sales in fiscal 2025-26, with Nassau County school districts receiving over $225 million in lottery education aid.