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Jan 11, 2007, 3:32 pm (18 comments)
A Pueblo, Colorado, man is celebrating his second jackpot win in three years.
The winner, who has asked to remain anonymous, won $3.4 million in the December 20 Colorado Lotto drawing.
He had previously won $1.3 million in October 2003.
The first time, according to Colorado Lottery officials, the man was a week away from filing for bankruptcy.
He uttered a desperate prayer: "Lord, help me out. I want to pay my bills. I don't want to file for bankruptcy."
Within moments, he said, he heard a voice encouraging him to buy a ticket.
The man has used his initial winnings to support charities such as Feed the Children and Wayside Cross Rescue Mission in Pueblo.
He is described as a life-long Christian.
Lottery officials list the odds of winning a jackpot at 1 in 5,245,786. They say the probability of winning the jackpot twice in a lifetime is one in many, many trillion.
Only two other people have won twice since the game began in 1989.
Denver Post, Lottery Post Staff
Man I hope this person doesn't buy Powerball. He has such good luck he might just win that too.-weshar75
A total of 4.7 million isn't what it used to be. He's lucky, but he's not rich by a long shot. He has just enough money to get into big trouble unless he learns to say NO and not care what other people think.
Orangeman
I'd be generous with charities too but would make sure there was enough set aside for me to live on. Congrats on the second windfall!
Good for him.
This guy prayer was answer. I hope my is answer in the future.
I hear voices telling me to buy tickets too...
Unfortunately, the voices are my wife and mini me on my shoulder .
I can't win once and this guy wins twice ?
Geez !!!!
Interesting that there was no mention of what he chose either time. Colorado Lotto is one of a number of games that fixes the cash value of the annuity as a percentage of the annuity (usually 50%) instead of having it fluctuate like in Mega Millions and Powerball. Cash value winners in these games actually get cheated (MM/PB cash winners do get their fair share).
Florida Lotto does it the right way (cash value a floating percentage of the annuity.) When will Florida online games have the 60% payout?
Please see my "compromise" thread in the Lottery Discussion forum.
Cash-Did you know that the Powerball cash value is roughly just a little over 48% of the annuity. So the state lottery at 50% is giving its winners more cash then Powerball is to its winners. Mega Millions is the multi-state game that gives back to its winners over 50% of the annuity in cash value.-weshar75
Different annuitized games have different annuities. Therefore the actual cash value percentage varies from game to game, even between MM and PB. The MM annuity is 26 equal payments; PB is 30 graduated installments. Because of the longer annuity AND the increasing annual payments, the cash value percentage of the PB annuity is significantly lower than the cash value percentage of the MM annuity. In both games, however, cash option winners get their full share of the cash in the jackpot pool.
The Colorado Lotto cash value is fixed at 50% of the annuity. However, the actual cash value percentage fluctates, and is higher. Therefore Colorado Lotto cash option winners, while getting a higher percentage than PB cash option winners, are actually getting less than their fair share.
The best example is Ohio Lot O'Play (whether it will be true with the coming game remains to be seen.) Both LOP and MM, played in the same state, have the same annuity length, with equal payments. However, the LOP cash value, like in Colorado Lotto, is fixed at 50%, while as already stated, the MM cash value is higher. Therefore LOP cash option winners have gotten a raw deal (it can be argued that where the cash value is fixed, rather than fluctuates, the annuity would be better).
Therefore, you need to consider whether the cash value percentage fluctuates against the annuity, rather than a fixed rate.
I think OR has the same problem with Megabucks; AFAIK the cash value percentage is set at 50% rather than fluctuating according to interest rates.
Congrats to the Colorado Man. At least he is persistent.
There once was a thread asking about big jackpot wins and if you would continue to play after a hit?
WELL, HERE'S YOUR ANSWER!!!!!!!
litebets
How sweet it is.