SARANAC LAKE — Semi-retired restaurant worker John Lewis, 56, of Saranac Lake, has claimed a top prize in Set For Life, a state lottery scratch-off game.

Lewis chose to receive his prize in annual payments instead of a $5 million lump sum, netting him $172,068 a year for the rest of his life. The state Gaming Commission presented him with an oversize check Tuesday at the Tops supermarket on Church Street, where he bought the ticket.

Lewis is a snowbird who moved back to the North Country a few years ago to care for his ailing parents. He now tends bar in Lake Placid while waiting for his significant other, Mary, to reach retirement age so they can head back south together. She is an employee with the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities in Essex County.

An “occasional lottery player,” Lewis said he didn’t know whether to credit fate, luck, karma or an old family recipe for his big win.

“I ran to the store before work to get mushrooms for my spaghetti sauce,” he said in a press release from the state Gaming Commisison. “It’s a two-day sauce my dad used to make.”

Lewis said he used $10 in change he received from his mushroom purchase to buy a single scratch-off ticket from the vending machine at the end of the checkout aisle.

“I never put money in those things,” he said. “What possessed me to be in that store at that time with just the right amount of money in my hand for that machine I will never know. I have been asking myself that question over and over for days. In the end, though, I’m just glad it was me.”

Lewis said he is in no rush to spend his millions, other than to help an immediate family member with medical bills.

“I was planning on working at something till the day I died,” he said. “This may open a few more doors, but we’re happy with the life we have. It’s a good life.”

The Gaming Commission says the New York Lottery contributed $3,042,945 in Lottery Aid to Education to school districts in Essex County and $3.27 billion statewide during the 2016-17 fiscal year. The Lottery’s contribution represents approximately 14 percent of total state education aid to local school districts. Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education: It takes into account both a school district’s size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of lottery school funding.