CANCER VIC SO LUCKY!
$1.3B P-ball win
The winner of the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot was revealed as an immigrant from Laos who is battling cancer and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, 46, of Portland, Ore., who has had cancer for eight years, said he and his wife, Duanpen Saephan, 37, would split the prize evenly with a friend who contributed $100 to buy tickets with them.
They are taking a lump sum — $422 million after taxes.
“I am grateful for the lottery and how I have been blessed,” Saephan (inset) said at a news conference Monday held by the Oregon Lottery, adding that his “life has been changed.”
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health . . . I’ll find a good doctor for myself.”
Start your spendin’
He said that as a cancer patient, he wondered, “How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?”
After they bought the tickets with Laiza Chao, 55, of Milwaukie, Ore., Chao sent a photo of them to Saephan and said, “We’re billionaires.”
It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day it came true. According to Saephan, he called Chao to tell her the life-changing news.
“I said, ‘Laiza, where are you?’ and she said, ‘I’m going to work,’” said Saephan. “I replied, ‘You don’t have to go anymore.’ ”
Portland CBS affiliate KOIN reported that Cheng plans to first purchase a home for his family in Oregon. He also said he will likely continue to play the lottery after his winnings.
“I might get lucky again,” he said. “I’ll keep playing.”
‘Unprecedented’
The single ticket for the April 6 drawing, which matched all six numbers, was sold at a Plaid Pantry convenience store.
“This is an unprecedented jackpot win for Oregon Lottery,” Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a statement before security measures were taken and the winner was named.
“We’re taking every precaution to verify the winner before awarding the prize money.”
Until that drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner — tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.
The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments.
The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth largest among US jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.