The Woman Who Took the Record Jackpot in the American Lottery Tells of a Dream Come True
USA Mavis Wanczyk came out of anonymity for a press conference, explaining his surprise and choices after winning the biggest pot for a single US ticket.
This is the biggest jackpot ever won by a single lottery ticket in the United States! And it was a 53-year-old mother who won the $ 758.7 million check. The first decision was to leave his job in a hospital immediately until he could decide how to use this pot.
She Chooses the Magic Numbers Based on Birthdays
Her name is Mavis Wanczyk, and she had bought her ticket on Wednesday afternoon at a gas station in her town of Chicopee, west of Boston (northeast), choosing boxes 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and the Powerball 4 as an equal number. Figures are chosen based on her family’s birth dates, this regular player explained on Thursday, nervously chewing gum at a brief press conference.
Like many happy victors before her, this employee of the same hospital for 32 years did not believe it right away. Especially since the management of Powerball had initially mistakenly announced that the winning ticket had been sold not to Chicopee, but another city in the state of Massachusetts. “I was leaving my job” with a colleague, Wanczyk explained. “He said,” I bet somebody won with birth dates. And I said, ” Yeah, it’s never gonna be me; it’s just an impossible dream I’ve had forever.”
In Shock
He started reading the winning numbers; she looked at his ticket. “And I said,” Hey, these are the ones I have!”.” I went into a mild state of shock. “I couldn’t go anywhere; I couldn’t do anything.” Her colleague, a long-time friend, followed her “to make sure I got home safe and sound.” Without thinking for a long time, “I called (my job) and told them I would not come back,” she explained with laughter and applause.
Financially speaking, this mother of two already grown-up children, who saw their father die in a car accident in 2016, was used up until now to “fend for themselves” what they had. Suddenly being thrown into the circle of the wealthiest Americans is going to take him a while to adjust.
“I Won, I’m scared, but I’m Gonna Be Okay”
“The first thing I want to do is just sit back and relax,” she explained with a smile. “I won, I’m scared, but I’m gonna be okay.” “I’m still coming down from My Cloud, and I just want to be me, to be alone and to be able to decide what I want to do,” she added, adding that she decided to come out of anonymity to “get it over with” and that we leave her alone.
In Reality, it Will Reach 336 Million
Like all the big prize winners, Mavis Wanczyk made the first decision: instead of collecting the money in a series of installments spread over 30 years, she preferred to immediately receive a one-time payment, which was less than the $ 758.7 million she was entitled to. Because of this choice, it will receive $ 480.5 million, or $ 336 million after tax, according to the Boston Globe.
She will then have to be able to resist the sirens of those who “try to recommend to her all sorts of things that she could do with her money”, as Deborah Goldberg, head of the Massachusetts Treasury, warned during the press briefing. The recommendations began as early as Thursday morning. The owner of the gas station chain that sold the winning ticket, Bob Bolduc, had, even before he knew his name, called the jackpot winner “to share it properly” with charity.
Wanczyk’s pot is the second largest in the history of the U.S. lottery, behind the $ 1.58 billion pot in January 2016. But then three bills had the five right numbers and the additional number, and we had to split the money. Each of the victors had left with $ 528.8 million.