Christmas came early for one small Belgian village
By Kate Northrop
OLMEN, Belgium — 165 townspeople in Olmen, Belgium are jumping for joy after they collectively won a €142.89 million ($149.92 million) EuroMillions jackpot.
A small village in northern Belgium is bustling with holiday spirit this year after a lottery pool consisting of 165 residents won the EuroMillions jackpot.
On Dec. 6, 2022, a group of townspeople all chipped in €15 for the evening's EuroMillions drawing to a pot organized by a couple of local store owners. Occasionally, they'll win a smaller prize, but they had yet to see those contributions pay off in the form of a more significant prize.
That being said, they were not expecting to make history as the recordholders for the largest group win in Belgium.
Store owners Wim Van Broekhoven and his wife were in utter shock when they found out the winning numbers, which were 12, 20, 25, 26, and 27, with Lucky Stars 8 and 12. They matched every single number to win the jackpot, beating odds of 1 in 139,838,160.
"Many winning customers were in disbelief at first," Van Broekhoven said. "We have had quite a few new customers since the big win, but no one in the village holds any grudges against the winners."
According to data from 2021, Olmen has a population of 3,788.
"The winners are from all walks of life, but regardless, everyone can use the money, especially ahead of the holidays and with the current energy crisis," Van Broekhoven continued.
He added that one of the winners, a woman in her 20s, plans on buying a small house for herself and her dogs. However, he pointed out, she won enough money that she could afford to buy a home on the larger side.
Each individual winner receives almost €900,000 ($952,128) tax-free, EuroMillions spokesperson Joke Vermoere told Reuters.
"It's a lovely store, really," she remarked of the momentous group win.
$900K * Tax Free- l'll take it.
Congratulations to the 165 guys & gals. What a way to end the year!
Beautiful heartwarming story. A very Merry Christmas to all those winners.
Tax free winnings WTG!!
When I think about a small village of 3,700 people celebrating the lucky lottery winners at Christmas time, for some reason I imagine the village to be similar to a Thomas Kinkade painting. Congrats to all the winners and Merry Christmas to all.
A Big Congrats to all the winners$$$.
Based on the numbers, it seems that the taxes were super low at around 6% and that's what is should also be in the USA...Wishful Thinking. 😃
Tax free /Tax free...You get what you see,not advertised.
I got it thanks. I was confusing the converted rate, below.
Each individual winner receives almost €900,000 ($952,128) tax-free, EuroMillions spokesperson Joke Vermoere told Reuters.
This story reminded me of the Movie "Waking Ted Devine", if you haven't seen it you are missing out. It is Funny!!
Tax Free winnings!! I think I heard angels singing when I read that.
Now you wanna be totally disgusted?
If you win Powerball in the States you can be charged up to 37% in taxes and that is just federally. that is even before your state get their share. if you live in one of those that taxes Lottery as well.
And we let them do this to us? WHY?
The recent winner of the 2 billion dollar powerball prize in CA will get taxed 740 Million (that's just federal, and what exactly did the government do to deserve this?) before they even get the money. At least CA doesn't make you pay taxes on lottery wins, if there is an upside, it was that...
The movie is "Waking Ned Devine" (not Ted). not sure if that was me or autocorrect. I blame autocorrect. lol
but it is a movie about the lottery and a whole town too. lol
Nice win . Congrats to all
"The recent winner of the 2 billion dollar powerball prize in CA will get taxed 740 Million "
Since you want to help subsidize their taxes maybe you could start a GoFundMe page for them. And the good news is you only need to raise $369 million.
First of all why is the government getting a cut period!? Second of all they won two billion. If the take lump sum (cut in half) then they pay your quoted taxes. But that is taxes on one billion, not two like they advertised they won. Take 37% of TWO billion and see what they would have to pay. And again, why is the government getting a cut at all? And why 37%, the highest bracket they can charge?More countries don't tax their lottery winners than the ones that do...
But I digress. That is not what the story is about.
Congratz to the winners!!