What do you do with a million dollars?

Long Island's latest big winner is paying off his credit card debt, for starters.

Rich Vickers, 50, of Central Islip, said he will use most of his first payment to pay off $25,000 in charge card bills this week.

Lottery officials presented Vickers with his first payment Friday at Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City. Vickers won $1 million with a $5 ticket for the New York Poker Instant game.

He's the 17th Long Islander to win a million or more in 2005.

Vickers, a correction officer at Rikers Island, will receive 20 payments of $50,000 — that's about $33,600 after taxes, he said. He was not given the option to take a lump sum payment.

Vickers, who has worked for the correction department for 23 years, is eligible to retire in a few months. He said he'll wait a few years. After all, most of this year's installment will be gone after he pays his credit cards, he said.

With the remaining money, he will help his children — both students at Suffolk County Community College — with some of their bills.

Vickers bought his winning ticket on Nov. 7 and treated himself to a new cell phone a few days later.

"I dropped mine in the toilet the day before," he said.

He plans to take his family to Ireland in February. He also has his eye on a flat-screen TV.

When his next payment comes in, he may trade in his Ford van for something smaller and sportier — perhaps a Toyota, he said. And when he retires, he'd like to buy a place on the North Fork with a barn where he can sell antiques.

"I always wanted to retire there," he said. "This makes it more feasible."

After the announcement yesterday, the lottery folks held a drawing for Black Friday shoppers.

They were giving away, among other things, Extreme Frosty scratch-off tickets. Vickers put his name in.

"I'm feeling lucky," he said.

He won $25 worth.