Local Lottery Winner Battling Cancer
A doorman hailing from Gravesend, who struck it rich playing the lottery, is battling lung cancer. The New York Post is reporting that Richie Randazzo has been fighting his sickness for the past six months.
Randazzo won $5 million from a “Set For Life” scratch-off in 2008, transforming him from a Park Avenue doorman into a freewheeling millionaire. Enjoying a life of partying with models to gambling big at Atlantic City, the happy-go-lucky Randazzo was saddled with bad news when doctors discovered a tumor near his lung. After surgery failed to completely remove the tumor three months ago, Randazzo has decided not to pursue further surgery:
“It’s the luck of the draw,” Randazzo, 49, told The Post from his home in Gravesend, Brooklyn. “This time I crapped out, but that’s OK. I woke up the next day, and I’ve been waking up ever since.
“You can’t keep an Avenue U boy down too long.”
Randazzo expressed a sense of acceptance after receiving the bad news concerning his health.
“No matter how much money you have, you can’t control your health. If you get sick, all the money in the world can’t help you,” Randazzo told the Post.
The life of the former doorman has certainly been a story of highs and lows. In the 1980s, the Post reported that Randazzo was set with drug addiction problems and was homeless. He got himself into rehab and landed a $40,000 a year doorman job after turning his life around. The Post described how he has been spending his time and his millions:
He spends his time jaunting to West Virginia, Puerto Rico and Atlantic City, fishing in Sheepshead Bay and dining at Brooklyn spots Di Fara, Peter Luger’s and Spumoni Gardens.
He bought a $100,000 Jaguar, a shiny red Cadillac convertible and a Lexus for his parents. He wrote a single $10,000 check to one girlfriend in need.
Randazzo’s lottery payout — which he is taking in installments — comes to $12,000 a month after taxes. He says his nearly $250,000 annuity would go to his next of kin — his parents — if he kicks the bucket.
Randazzo, who expressed the attitude that his life is not yet over, is currently looking for love.
“I’d love to find a good woman to travel with. I need somebody to show me how to work a computer. I need to catch up and get to the 21st century,” Randazzo told the Post.
Best of luck to Randazzo in his quest to defeat cancer. We are all pulling for you.
Here’s a little video Fox News did with Randazzo back in 2008, after he won the lottery, lost his job, got his girl, lost his girl, and, according to some observers, was playing the media to try and get a role on a reality show: