Powerball winner of $ 344 million picks figures from fortune cookie



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The story of Charles W. Jackson Jr. on how he won the $ 344.6 million Powerball jackpot could well cause a spike in fortune cookie sales.

Jackson, a retired 66-year-old store owner in North Carolina, has come forward to pick up his huge prize Tuesday. At a press conference announcing his good fortune, Jackson said he found his winning lottery numbers on the back of the paper in a fortune cookie that his granddaughter had offered him during a recent trip to a Vietnamese restaurant.

While the fortune cookie claimed to offer lucky numbers, Jackson still did not expect that they would have the chance to earn him hundreds of millions of dollars. "You play to win, but you never really expect to win the whole pot," Jackson told the North Carolina Education Lottery officials on Tuesday.

In addition, Jackson did not even understand at first how much he had won a lottery prize after checking his numbers against the Powerball draw last weekend. Initially, Jackson had not seen that the last digit of his ticket also matched the draw. He thought he had won $ 50,000 and not the full grand prize.

When Jackson looked back at his ticket, he said, "I said:" Dang, I got them all. " "After looking online to find the value of his grand prize, Jackson said that he had told his wife," You're not going to believe that, I've understood everything, "did he? he said at a press conference at Raleigh's headquarters of the North Carolina Education Lottery, according to NBC television channel WRAL.

Jackson, who allegedly owned a shop selling military items near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will choose the lump sum option, which means he will win a whopping $ 223.3 million prize. . Various financial experts advise winners of lotteries to choose the option of the package, as opposed to multi-year annuities, and invest their earnings in relatively long-term, relatively safe shares.

Jackson will also face a large tax bill on his lottery prize, with a standard federal tax of 24% and an additional tax rate of 5.5% in North Carolina. That would give Jackson about $ 158 million after state taxes and federal taxes.

But, Jackson hopes a huge sum will not change him too much, any more than his family. "It probably will not change much," Jackson told the lottery officials. "I mean, let me say it this way, I will always wear jeans, but I will probably buy new jeans."

While Jackson plans to donate some of his earnings to charitable organizations such as the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Shriners Children's Hospital and the Wounded Warrior project, he told reporters he also wanted take his wife to Vietnam. He also plans to donate $ 1 million to his brother to fulfill the long-standing promise of siblings, namely that if any of them wins a grand prize lottery, the winner would give 1 million dollars to the other brother.

Meanwhile, no matter who with a fortune cookie can still use Jackson's strategy to earn hundreds of millions of dollars, since the Mega Millions lotto jackpot has climbed to $ 530 million after that. " no winning tickets were sold in the draw on Tuesday night. The next draw of this lottery will take place on Friday.

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Charles Jackson (G), of North Carolina, won the last draw on Powerball for $ 344.6 million.

Travis Long | Raleigh News & Observer / TNS via Getty Images

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