£120m lotto man 'will keep working'

The second winner of America's 367 million pound Powerball lottery opted to take the pre-tax cash option of 120 million pounds
8 December 2012

The second winner of America's £367 million Powerball lottery is a married man in his 30s from a wealthy Arizona suburb who wants to keep working.

The man remained anonymous and his 587.5 million-dollar prize was announced by officials who said he bought 10 dollars' worth of tickets and kept the winning slip in the visor of his car before coming forward.

The man opted to take the pre-tax cash option of 192 million dollars (£120m). Lottery chiefs said his wife would own half the prize because Arizona is a community property state. "He and his wife couldn't believe it," lottery spokesman Karen Bach said. "They checked the numbers over and over again - absolutely shocked."

Ms Bach said the man wanted to take time to make a solid financial plan and set up a charitable entity to help causes that he and his wife support. And they told lottery officials they would probably keep working.

The ticket was sold at a convenience store in Fountain Hills, north-east of Phoenix.

Lottery bosses said the man has a job as a professional, lived in Pennsylvania until about a year ago, and played the lotto only twice since moving to Arizona.

He quickly decided to claim the money this year - as opposed to waiting until 2013 for tax reasons - because "he did have concern with the uncertainty with the fiscal cliff in 2013", Ms Bach said. She was referring to a combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect in January unless Washington and a divided Congress can strike a deal to avert them.

The unidentified winner later issued a statement that said: "It is difficult to express just how thankful we are for this wonderful gift. We are extremely grateful and feel fortunate to now have an increased ability to support our charities and causes. Obviously, this has been incredibly overwhelming and we have always cherished our privacy."

Mechanic Mark Hill and his wife Cindy, of Dearborn, Missouri, have already claimed their half of the multi-state Powerball prize.

The jackpot was the second-largest in US history and set off a nationwide buying frenzy. At one point, tickets were selling at nearly 130,000 a minute. Before the November 28 draw, the jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without any winners. In a Mega Millions draw in March, three ticket buyers shared a 656 million-dollar (£410 million) jackpot, the largest lottery payout of all time.

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