BENNINGTON -- A North Bennington man who won a $3 million jackpot from the New York State Lottery said he isn't sure yet how he'll put his windfall to work.

James Jess, 62, who works at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center's health information services department, added that he and his wife, Marilyn, "have no real plans. We'll wait a year and see what happens." And, he said, "I have no plans to quit my job."

Jess moved here in 1998, he said, and for now plans to stay. He will receive the money in 20 annual installments of $150,000, which after taxes amounts to $99,270 every year up through 2031. He told the lottery, which issued a statement about his winnings, that the money "will make life a little better all around."

Jess bought his winning Bonanza scratch-off ticket from the Stewart's Shop on Route 67 in North Hoosick on Aug. 10 and claimed the prize on Aug. 13 at the Lottery's Customer Service Center in Schenectady. He was presented with a giant check at the store on Tuesday.

Jess said he prefers playing the lottery in New York where he says the pay-outs are larger. "The games are just better in New York," he said.

"I knew it was a winner right away," said Jess. "I scratched it in the store and had the clerk scan it. We both kept looking back and forth at the scanner and then at each other in disbelief."

After that he went home to tell his wife, who stood by his side at the presentation.

Jess is one of four people who have won a large prize this

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year at a Stewart's Shop through the New York State Lottery. Other winners include Raquel Donovan, of Watervliet, who won $1 million off a ticket she bought in Troy in February, Debra O'Brien, of Nassau, who won off a ticket she bought off the Columbia Turnpike in Rensselaer in April, and Stanley Muraski, of Waterford, who won $5 million from a ticket he bought in July at a Stewart's Shop in Waterford.

According to the New York Lottery, it contributed $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2011-12 to education in New York.