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Making ends meat with $365m
22/02/2006 21:26 - (SA)
Chicago - A Vietnamese refugee bought the ticket that claimed the biggest US lottery win ever recorded at a whopping $365m.
Dung Tran, 34, will share his winnings with seven co-workers from the Lincoln, Nebraska meat processing plant where he has worked since arriving in the United States 16 years ago.
Tran was one of three winners who continued to go to work after they learned on Saturday night that they had won the lottery.
But like most in his group, he said he did not plan on working much longer.
"I've been working for 16 years. Every day I had to go to work. "And I bought the lottery to try to make more money," Tran said at a news conference.
His plans now were to "stop working. Stay with my wife and my kid and play a little again".
The eight winners chose to take a cash option of $177.3m instead of getting the full $365m paid in 30 annual installments. They will each receive about $15.5m after state and federal taxes are withheld.
Quan Dao, 56, worked in sanitation for 15 years at the plant and is not sure yet whether he will use his winnings to quit working. But he is sure that he will be sending money home to his family in Vietnam, which he left in 1988.
He has no plans on leaving the United States.
"I come here to be free," he said with a massive grin. "Great country."
In a lively news conference often interrupted by applause, laughter and a crying baby, the winners struggled to explain what it felt like to become overnight millionaires.
"It's still a blur, we still think we're going to wake up from a dream," said Chasity Rutjens, 29, the only woman in the group.
"I always think about jeeze, what would it be like if I didn't have to work again and wonder what I'd do. "It's a lot different when it happens. We'll see how it works out."
Alain Maboussou, a refugee from the Congo, said he was going to use the money to go back to school and finish a business degree so he can open his own business.
"It's been a struggle going back to school. Working 70 hours, 75 hours, " the 26-year-old mechanic said.
"All of the money I mean - it's a bunch of money. I have to sit down with friends and parents. Try to figure things out."
- AP
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