$759m Powerball winner tells work: I won't be coming back

Mavis Wanczyk, stands by a poster of her winnings during a news conference where she claimed the $758.7 million Powerball prize at Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters. Picture: Steven Senne/AP

Mavis Wanczyk, stands by a poster of her winnings during a news conference where she claimed the $758.7 million Powerball prize at Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters. Picture: Steven Senne/AP

Published Aug 25, 2017

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Boston - Massachusetts lottery officials

on Thursday identified a 53-year-old health care worker who

lives in Chicopee as the winner of more than $750 million in a

Powerball drawing, the largest prize for a single ticket-holder

in the contest's history.

The woman, Mavis Wanczyk, appeared at an afternoon news

conference to claim her prize.

"I wanted to get this over and done with, and then everyone

would leave me alone," Wanczyk, the mother of a 31-year-old

daughter and a 26-year-old son, told reporters on Thursday. 

She

said she had worked for the past 32 years at a Springfield

hospital, but added: "I've called them and told them I will not

be coming back."

Powerball said on its website that the single ticket matched

all six numbers drawn on Wednesday night: 6, 7, 16, 23, 26 and

the Powerball of 4.

Wanczyk said she learned of her win when a colleague

encouraged her to check her ticket as she left work on

Wednesday.

"I said: 'I know it's never going to be me; it's just a pipe

dream,'" Wanczyk said, adding that she was shocked to find "I am

a winner."

The winning ticket was sold at a Pride convenience store in

Chicopee, which is located about 145km west of

Boston, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery. 

The owner

of that store plans to donate to charity the $50 000 prize he

will receive for selling the winning ticket, the commission's

executive director, Michael Sweeney, told reporters.

The state lottery had originally said the winning ticket was

sold in Watertown, a suburb of Boston, but corrected its

announcement hours later.

"This was the result of a human error," Sweeney said. "Our

internal systems, and I want to be clear about this, our

internal systems always had the correct information."

Wanczyk will have a choice of receiving annual payments

totaling $758.7 million over 29 years, or a lump sum of more

than $440 million, before taxes.

Beyond retiring early, she did not say how she planned to

spend her winnings.

The odds of a ticket having all six winning numbers are

292.2 million to 1, according to the Multi-State Lottery

Association.

Powerball tickets are sold in 44 US states, and

Washington, DC; Puerto Rico; and the US Virgin Islands.

No one had won the Powerball's top prize in the twice-weekly

drawings since June 10, when a California man won $447.8

million. 

Reuters

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