According to the New York Post , Cheng “Charlie” Saephan (46 years old, in Portland, USA) has been suffering from cancer for 8 years. Last week he underwent a round of chemotherapy.

But the luckiest thing happened to him. He compared it to "being blessed by heaven" when he unexpectedly won the Powerball jackpot worth 1.3 billion USD.

He shared that his life has changed. Now he can take better care of his family and his health.

At the press conference, he said he would split the prize equally with his friend who contributed $100 to buy the ticket. They decided to receive a lump sum of $422 million after taxes.

Due to his terminal illness, he also wondered if he would have enough time to spend all this money.

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Cheng “Charlie” Saephan won the grand prize. Photo: NYT

He said that after buying the lottery ticket with his friend, he sent a photo to his wife and said, “We are billionaires.” It was just a joke, but unexpectedly it became true.

“I asked my wife where she was, and she said she was at work. I told her there was nothing to do,” he said.

He plans to buy a house for his family and will continue to buy lottery tickets. “Who knows, maybe I will get lucky again,” he said.

This is the fourth largest prize in Powerball history and the eighth largest lottery prize in US history.

This is the 41st drawing since the last jackpot was won on New Year's Day, when someone won $842.4 million. Powerball tickets cost $2 each. The odds of winning are 1 in 292.2 million.

“This is an unprecedented jackpot for the Oregon Lottery,” said Mike Wells, director of the Oregon Lottery. “This is the largest jackpot in the history of the company. They had to increase security.”

The largest US lottery jackpot was $2.04 billion, in California in 2022.