While undergoing cancer treatment, a Laotian man was lucky enough to win the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot in the US. Due to a serious illness, he also wondered if he would have enough time to spend all this money.
Theo New York Post, Cheng “Charlie” Saephan (46 years old, from Portland, USA) suffered from cancer 8 years ago. Last week he just went through a round of chemotherapy.
But the luckiest thing happened to him. He compared it to “being blessed by God” when he suddenly won the Powerball jackpot worth 1.3 billion USD.
He shared that his life has changed. Now he can take better care of his family and health.
During the press conference, he said he would split the prize equally with his friend who contributed $100 to buy this ticket. They decided to receive a lump sum of 422 million USD after taxes.
Due to a serious illness, he also wondered if he would have enough time to spend all this money.
He said, after buying the lottery ticket with his friend, he sent a photo to his wife and said, “We are billionaires.” This was just a joke, but unexpectedly it became true.
“I asked my wife where she was, she said she was at work. I always said there was nothing else to do,” he said.
He plans to buy a house for his family and continue to buy lottery tickets. “Who knows, maybe I can be lucky again,” he said.
This is the fourth largest prize in Powerball history and the eighth largest lottery prize in American history.
This is the 41st drawing since someone won the most recent jackpot on New Year’s Day worth 842.4 million USD. Each Powerball lottery ticket costs 2 USD. The probability of winning is 1 in 292.2 million.
“This is an unprecedented jackpot for the Oregon Lottery,” said Mike Wells, Director of the Oregon Lottery. This is an unprecedented jackpot in the company’s history. They had to increase security.
The largest US lottery jackpot is $2.04 billion, in California in 2022.