Georgia Trucker Claims Half of Record $390 Million Lottery Jackpot

Mar 7, 2007, 10:05 pm (46 comments)

Mega Millions

A truck driver from northwest Georgia came forward Wednesday afternoon to claim half of the record $390 million Mega Millions jackpot, the richest lottery prize in U.S. history.

Ed Nabors of Rocky Face, about 90 miles north of Atlanta, was the first person to step forward and claim part of the jackpot from Tuesday night's drawing.

Nabors told reporters gathered at Atlanta lottery headquarters that he is "still numb."

He bought the ticket at Favorite Market in Dalton.

Because he took the cash option, Nabors will be taking home $116 million dollars, before taxes. Lottery officials estimated he would be left with about $80 million. Had he taken the annuity option he would have taken home $195 million spread over 20 years, before taxes.

Nabors who has been a trucker for about eight years, said he planned to do a lot of fishing, and plans to buy a new boat for himself and a new home for his daughter, who lives in a mobile home. He said he planned to drive a truck "for at least two more days."

The 52-year-old trucker said he went numb, "weak in the arms," when he found out he had won. He said he sat for about 20 minutes when his dispatcher, looking at the GPS and seeing that he had not moved, called to see if he was all right.

A co-worker verified the ticket and called the dispatcher to say he had won the lottery.

As for his immediate plans, Nabors said: "There are a lot of things I can do with this money. I can help a lot of people."

Lottery winners commonly opt for the cash payout on the advice of financial experts.

There were just two winning tickets sold in the 12-state game, lottery officials said.

The other winner was traced to Campark Liquors in Woodbine, N.J..

The winning numbers: 16-22-29-39-42, with the Mega Ball 20.

The odds of hitting it: about 1 in 176 million.

Tuesday night's drawing was held in New York's Times Square in ABC's television studio rather than Atlanta after brisk sales pushed what had been an estimated $355 million jackpot estimate to a record $370 million.

Even though the temperature was just 16 degrees, a handful of hopefuls showed up in Times Square to watch the drawing.

Millions of others had lined up at lottery agents in the 12 states to buy tickets Tuesday. New Yorkers bought more than 1 million tickets an hour, said Robert McLaughlin, the state's lottery director. Virginia retailers sold about 8,550 tickets per minute.

New York construction worker Andelko Kalinic had an idea of what he would do if his Mega Millions ticket paid off.

"Go to the moon," he said. "Why not?"

Some lottery hopefuls in Ohio never had a chance. Ohio's lottery ticket system went down statewide at about 10:20 p.m., 25 minutes before the deadline, Cohen said. The cause hadn't yet been determined.

"For those people who wanted to make a wager and didn't get a chance, we're very, very sorry," she said.

The largest previous multi-state lottery jackpot was $365 million in 2006, when eight workers at a Nebraska meat processing plant hit the Powerball lotto. The Big Game lotto, the forerunner of Mega Millions, paid out a $363 million jackpot in 2000.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state.

Top Ten Mega Millions Payouts

1. $390,000,000, Mar. 6, 2007

2. $315,000,000, Nov. 15, 2005

3. $290,000,000, July 2, 2004

4. $267,000,000, Feb. 28, 2006

5. $265,000,000, April 18, 2006

6. $262,000,000, Nov. 11, 2005

7. $250,000,000, Sept. 16, 2005

8. $230,000,000, Feb. 20, 2004

9. $225,000,000, Nov. 8, 2005

10. (tied) $220,000,000, April 14, 2006

10. (tied) $220,000,000, June 29, 2004

Fox News, Lottery Post Staff

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Todd's avatarTodd

Congrats, and please be careful!

whodeani's avatarwhodeani

Well at least he took the time to talk to a laywer, a tax accountant and financial planner first. Always scares me when you hear of lottery winners who rush into these things.

jeffrey's avatarjeffrey

Ohhhhh, why did he give his name. Was it required? Now,he will have terrible problems.

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Yep

And I heard on the radio news today about the Ga winner. They were interviewing the sales clerk that sold the ticket.

She mentioned it would be nice to help the person that sold the winning ticket.

emilyg's avataremilyg

My TV  station just said it was all quick-picks.

Littlemanjen

Yep, it was his sixth line out of ten quick picks that won, for all of the system players that overthink things in the Jackpot games. IT IS LUCK, PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!!!! Get over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MillionsWanted's avatarMillionsWanted

Why do they even bother with calling the jackpot $390 million dollar when the real value after taxes are $160 million dollar?

 

Why not just say the jackpot is at $160 million dollar and be finished with it? 

One2Adore's avatarOne2Adore

Because if they choose the installments, the value IS $390 million.  Only if they take the lump sum is the amount cut in half.

codmander

poor guy  lol  sounds silly   hope eerything works out for him and the vultures leave him alone

bobby jones's avatarbobby jones

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

argentmann

"There were just two winning tickets sold in the 10-state game, lottery officials said."

I thought there was 12 states in the Mega Millions. 

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by bobby jones on Mar 8, 2007

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

If you don't play you don't have to guess about never winning, you know for sure.

MillionsWanted's avatarMillionsWanted

Quote: Originally posted by One2Adore on Mar 8, 2007

Because if they choose the installments, the value IS $390 million.  Only if they take the lump sum is the amount cut in half.

They still have to pay taxes for the installments.

OldSchoolPa's avatarOldSchoolPa

I take it that you also think that working a JOB is a fraud in that Uncle Sam does the exact same thing in taking 15 to 28 percent of your earnings...actually, the government takes even more than that from your weekly/biweekly/monthly paycheck...after the federal (usually always applicable unless military serving in hazard zone like Iraq/Afghanistan) and state (if applicable) tax, you are are hit with Social Security and Medicare.  Those self-employed individuals have to pay self-employment tax....so all in all, I would not mind at all JUST paying Uncle Sam 28 percent and IL 3 percent of any lottery winnings, especially if we are talking about MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.  Got my dollar and dreams riding on the $12 Million Mega Millions draw this Friday...just think if I win, I won't even register on the media's radar because I WILL HAVE ONLY WON $12 million!Dance

OldSchoolPa's avatarOldSchoolPa

Quote: Originally posted by bobby jones on Mar 8, 2007

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

I take it that you also think that working a JOB is a fraud in that Uncle Sam does the exact same thing in taking 15 to 28 percent of your earnings...actually, the government takes even more than that from your weekly/biweekly/monthly paycheck...after the federal (usually always applicable unless military serving in hazard zone like Iraq/Afghanistan) and state (if applicable) tax, you are are hit with Social Security and Medicare.  Those self-employed individuals have to pay self-employment tax....so all in all, I would not mind at all JUST paying Uncle Sam 28 percent and IL 3 percent of any lottery winnings, especially if we are talking about MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.  Got my dollar and dreams riding on the $12 Million Mega Millions draw this Friday...just think if I win, I won't even register on the media's radar because I WILL HAVE ONLY WON $12 million!Dance

SirMetro's avatarSirMetro

Quote: Originally posted by bobby jones on Mar 8, 2007

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

To better understand the "How" valuation, you might want to look here http://www.usamega.com/mega-millions-jackpot.htm at the Jack pot analysis.

Oh, and keep in mind, the $160 Million is BEFORE taxes, NOT after. That is the current CASH value. It is only worth $390 million if you are willing to have it locked up for 20 years and accept annual installments instead.

To understand how that works, you might want to look up info on Annuities (btw...never ever have an Annuity as an investment vehicle unless you actually want your money locked up for such an incredible long period of time. Annuities are perhaps the most expensive investment vehicle available).

LckyLary

It depends on if the winner feels it is better to invest the money themselves from the present value or let the Lottery do that and pay it out over time. With a jackpot that size I'd see no problem with annuity. Every year there'd be a payment that itself would equal a lottery jackpot.

In my program if I backtest with Quick Picks vs. my system, my system will always beat it (but needs to get a decent ratio to beat the 50% take out)..  they put the drawing on Times Square which would throw off many systems and in that case you were just as good with QP and anyway MOST people who play the big drawings play QP because they're in a hurry or not Regular players like us so they aren't using systems... some stores will FORCE YOU to get QP ONLY when there is a long line. With so many QP tickets out there that's why it favors QP. It's almost like saying "the mega ball will be between 02 and 47" - you'd be right most of the time. On smaller jackpots there are often winners who picked numbers.

The reason they use the untaxed annuity value is because bigger jackpots = more fever, the very thing I keep hearing is missing lately. Well now that the ballon is busted, the upside for the non-winners is they can get on with their normal lives now and go back to hoping for the $125 box win on the Pick 4 to treat the family to dinner out with. The sad thing is it almost but not quite got to 400.

MissNYC's avatarMissNYC

I don't know about any of you, but I'd be perfectly happy with $160 million.

bobby jones's avatarbobby jones

Quote: Originally posted by OldSchoolPa on Mar 8, 2007

I take it that you also think that working a JOB is a fraud in that Uncle Sam does the exact same thing in taking 15 to 28 percent of your earnings...actually, the government takes even more than that from your weekly/biweekly/monthly paycheck...after the federal (usually always applicable unless military serving in hazard zone like Iraq/Afghanistan) and state (if applicable) tax, you are are hit with Social Security and Medicare.  Those self-employed individuals have to pay self-employment tax....so all in all, I would not mind at all JUST paying Uncle Sam 28 percent and IL 3 percent of any lottery winnings, especially if we are talking about MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.  Got my dollar and dreams riding on the $12 Million Mega Millions draw this Friday...just think if I win, I won't even register on the media's radar because I WILL HAVE ONLY WON $12 million!Dance

working a job is not a fraud.only the tax system that we are a part of is.all i am saying is that if the jackpot was not advertised as 390 million then there revenue would not have been anywhere near  what it was this go round.it must have been pretty high for the jackpot to jump up 60 million in only 3 or 4 days.

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Quote: Originally posted by bobby jones on Mar 9, 2007

working a job is not a fraud.only the tax system that we are a part of is.all i am saying is that if the jackpot was not advertised as 390 million then there revenue would not have been anywhere near  what it was this go round.it must have been pretty high for the jackpot to jump up 60 million in only 3 or 4 days.

Maybe you should split your whining into two different threads. A lot of people here would like to see the jackpots advertised at cash value. For starters, that's the only realistic figure, plus almost all winners take the cash so  most of the annuity jackpots never really existed. Plenty of people think the advertising is misleading, but if they advertize the jackpot as $370 million the winner can get that much if they're willing to take the annual payments. That's clearly not fraudulent.Anybody who's paying attention can find out what the cash value is very easily, so it's not a big deal for most people here.

Taxes are a separate issue. You can whine all you want about advertisingbased on the pre-tax value but you've never been offered a job where the salary you were promised was how much you'd get after taxes. Just like the cash value, anyone with a lick of sense can  find out what the after-tax payout will be if that's an important part of their decison on whether or not to buy tickets.

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

Quote: Originally posted by bobby jones on Mar 8, 2007

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

bobby jones

Something I didn't know til I came to this site was that the advertised jackpot doesn't really exist.That's part of the way the only give out 160 milllion after taxes.

The advertised jackpot isn't a tangible. It's a figure representing what the pre-tax prize would be, stretched out over a number of years.   

BaristaExpress's avatarBaristaExpress

Quote: Originally posted by whodeani on Mar 7, 2007

Well at least he took the time to talk to a laywer, a tax accountant and financial planner first. Always scares me when you hear of lottery winners who rush into these things.

I'd like to see where you get that information from? I have yet to see anything said about the guy doing anything of the sort in any news release so far! I guess it's another case of the country bumpkin that thinks winning the lottery, is no different than winning the jackpot at the local church bingo game in town.......

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

I was figuring the reference was sarcasm. Especially the "taking the time" part. I haven't seen anything that tells what time he showed up at the claim office, but he took all of 14 to 16 hours as near as I can tell. His picture hit the papers within 18 or 19 hours of the drawing. Maybe he drove his company truck there instead of going home and getting his car first.

I'd guess there's usually an inverse relationship between how long you wait to claim the prize and your chances of having trouble.

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

Congrats to the lucky winners. May this money help them realize their dreams.

awwcrap's avatarawwcrap

fraud or no fraud,,,,,,a few bucks for a winning lottery ticket and get several million in return--i wouldn't complain.

DoubleDown

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Mar 9, 2007

I was figuring the reference was sarcasm. Especially the "taking the time" part. I haven't seen anything that tells what time he showed up at the claim office, but he took all of 14 to 16 hours as near as I can tell. His picture hit the papers within 18 or 19 hours of the drawing. Maybe he drove his company truck there instead of going home and getting his car first.

I'd guess there's usually an inverse relationship between how long you wait to claim the prize and your chances of having trouble.

100% agree.. 

As I posted on another thread, the ink wasn't dry on the ticket before he was haulin a$$ down I-75 to the ATL with absolutely no financial advice whatsoever.

I hope he doesn't wind up with a lot of trouble, but I wouldn't bet on it...

 

How much ya wanna wager he asked Ms. DeFrancisco if he could just get one check for the net winnings and put it in his First national bank of Dalton account ?

bobby623's avatarbobby623

According to a story I read today at msnbc, Mr. Nabors claims his big win won't change him. He said he would continue to live his life as before March 6.

I have to wonder if Nabors realizes how much he won. Not many of us deal in millions of dollars. Most of my financial transactions are less than a thousand dollars.  Tp suddenly have a ton of money at my disposal would certainly change me.

Telling family and friends that you have $80 million on so in the bank has got to make you feel and think different. How can you not be different?

I think Nabors is going to find that it's not the money he won, but the people who are going to try and get a piece of it. I bet his phone hasn't stopped ringing. I think if he looks around his neighborhood, he will more than likely see some strange vehicles occupied by strangers, including many who are desperate and would do anything for money. And, they know Nabors has plenty.

That place he goes to fish is going to be crowded.

Since he was on TV and his picture has been widely circulated, a lot of folks who wouldn't have taken a second look on March 5, are going to stare, try to introduce himself, or herself.  Lot of folks get a high just being close to a rich person, or being able to brag that they have eaten at the same diner or restaurant.

Just think about the famous folks today.  They are tracked day and night by folks who want a picture, an opportunity to be in the same room, to touch, or whatever, with a famous person.

Like it or not, Mr. Nabors is a recognizable celebrity with pockets full of cash.

He might believe life will go on as before, but, in my opinion, he will soon crave privacy, a quiet phone and a normal life. 

Problem is, he will have shut himself off to acheive it.

Good luck, Mr. Nabors. Spend your money wisely!!

Spoony luv

i agree...One of his keys to success is to take a month long vacation and come up with a plan...That plan should include moving to another state and in a gated community or atleast a gate community in a different town...That will protect him from anyone who thinks they can just come up to his house and ring the doorbell.. The problem with that however is where ever he moves to...Alot of the upper class in his neighbor hood will not really except him...He has to be ready for that..Which isn't really a big deal...He can just keep to himself...

He also should take care of all his bills in a small account online and do away with reg. mail...Just throw away anything and everything that comes in the form of reg. mail...If its important, it will come registed mail...Just give friends and anyone that means anything to him a special email address...And let them all know that any mail will not be read..

 And he has to understand that his friends and relatives are going to think that the money changed him...The answer to that is let them think what ever they want...His only job is going to be protecting his new fortune from anyone and everyone...And the less he talks about money in the company of people, the better off he will be..

 He also has to speak his mind...If a relative hasn't talked to him in 10 years but now is looking for a hand out...He should let that person know exactly how he feels...However was not in his life before the money..Shouldn't be let into his life with the money...

bobby jones's avatarbobby jones

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Mar 9, 2007

Maybe you should split your whining into two different threads. A lot of people here would like to see the jackpots advertised at cash value. For starters, that's the only realistic figure, plus almost all winners take the cash so  most of the annuity jackpots never really existed. Plenty of people think the advertising is misleading, but if they advertize the jackpot as $370 million the winner can get that much if they're willing to take the annual payments. That's clearly not fraudulent.Anybody who's paying attention can find out what the cash value is very easily, so it's not a big deal for most people here.

Taxes are a separate issue. You can whine all you want about advertisingbased on the pre-tax value but you've never been offered a job where the salary you were promised was how much you'd get after taxes. Just like the cash value, anyone with a lick of sense can  find out what the after-tax payout will be if that's an important part of their decison on whether or not to buy tickets.

hey ky floyd if you had a lick of sense you would realize that even if you took the 20 year payments you still wouldn't get 390 million because of all of the taxes that you would have to pay.also taxes are a separate issue,but since it was related to what i was saying in the first place thats why i threw that in there.you are saying that i am whining,but all that i am doing is giving my opinion just like everybody else.GET A LIFE....

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