23 year old cowboy wins $232 million lottery jackpot

| June 5th, 2009 | By: Piyush Goyal | Category: World

A 23-year-old rancher whose family has fallen behind in their taxes and recently had a mobile home repossessed claimed a $232.1 million (£145 million) lottery jackpot on Friday, one of the largest undivided jackpots in US history.

Neal Wanless, who lives on his family’s 320-acre ranch near Mission, South Dakota, bought the winning ticket in the nearby town of Winner late last month during a trip to buy livestock feed.

Wearing a big black cowboy hat and a huge grin, Mr Wanless spoke publicly about his good fortune on Friday, reading from a prepared statement.

“I want to thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity and blessing me with this great fortune. I will not squander it,” he said.

Mr Wanless spent last week baling hay and doing other jobs around his family’s ranch, and he said he intended to continue ranching, albeit on a slightly larger scale.

He said he told his horse, Eleanor: “It’d be nice if we go for a longer ride than usual on a bigger ranch of our own.”

Mr Wanless added that he intends to use the money to help those in need. “My family has been helped by the community and I intend to repay that help many times over.”

He will take home $88.5 million (£55.4 million) in a lump sum payment after taxes are deducted.

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