Category: Lottery Winners

Jeff and Sandy Carl were recently overjoyed to win the SuperLotte Plus jackpot of $26 million.  So, did they get drunk, buy some cars and houses and visit all 7 continents?  No, they are smarter than that.

The winning couple told a newspaper reporter that their plan is to hire an accountant and an attorney to help them manage their money.  They want to fund their son’s college education first, then give some money to charity, and after that they will do some traveling and perhaps invest in some vacation homes.

Guessing the correct 5 out of 6 numbers in a lotto game carries odds of about 1 in 3 million.  So when 110 players from different states turned in those winning 2nd-place tickets, lottery officials immediately suspected that someone, somehow, was cheating the game.  But they were all legitimate.

Finally they figured it out.  Those players had all played the numbers that showed up on a fortune cookie.  All of those fortune cookies came from the same manufacturer: Wonton Food in Long Island, New York. 

For most people, the biggest benefit of winning the lottery is the ability to quit your job.  That’s what Natalie McGuire did when she was part of a group that won about $6 million.

She worked as a hairdresser, so she left that job and spent some time traveling and enjoying herself.  But then she was left with the thought, “What now?”  She decided she wanted to do something to keep busy, so she went back into business as a hairdresser.

More lottery winners should follow the example of Kris Schoonmaker in California.

Schoonmaker recently got married to Allana, who is from the Philippines.  In Allana’s home province, there are more than 15,000 children that are homeless and in need of medical aid.  The first thing Schoonmaker plans to spend his new money on is to build an infirmary or some type of medical facility.

It is refreshing to hear that there is a lottery winner that is thinking of others first, rather than what kind of house to buy, how many cars go get, and how big of a diamond ring to put on his (or his new wife’s) finger.