The Tennessee couple who bought one of three winning Powerball lottery tickets says they will continue to work despite taking a lump sum pay-out of US$528.8 million (RM2.33 billion).
Rebecca Hargrove, right, president and CEO of the Tennessee Lottery, announces that the winning Powerball ticket of the John and Lisa Robinson family is authentic Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn.
The Robinsons appeared Friday morning on the "Today" show along with their daughter, Tiffany, their lawyer, Joe Townsend, and his daughter, Ilene.
But John Robinson and his wife, Lisa, said they won't stop working and won't make any wild purchases.
If you have not heard about Powerball yet, this is the time to know about it. The world's largest lottery jackpot grew to a historic figure of over $1.5 billion because of continuing strong Powerball ticket sales in the United States and there may be more winners, media reported on Thursday.
The California Lottery said they sold the winning ticket in Chino Hills.
Robinson said he bought four quick-pick tickets, one for each family member, and went to lie down when he got home.
Mrs Robinson said they had not had time to think about what they would do with their winnings but that she planned to return on Monday to her job at a dermatologist's office.
The Robinsons said they only played the lottery when the jackpot got particularly high in hopes of getting "a little piece of the pie".
California, Tennessee and Florida sold one jackpot winning ticket each, lottery officials said. Lawyers who have represented lottery winners in the past said jackpot winners become targets when their identities are revealed and they are sometimes harassed or get talked into bad investments.
Gary Grief, chairman of the Powerball committee (which is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association, a non-profit organization that coordinates the lotteries with states) told The Associated Press that disclosing the names of winners reinforces to the public that "real people do win and that those real people don't work for the lottery or aren't involved with lottery".
The Wawa store gets US$2500 ($38,000) for selling the winning ticket.
When even the "Today" show anchors said they were nervous for the Robinsons walking around NY with the ticket, Lisa Robinson said: "You can help escort us out".
"I really didn't feel like stopping that night, but I was like, "Yeah, I'll stop"..." He says the win is going to bring a lot of business. The Tennessee couple live near the store where the winning ticket was bought.
On Friday, Cole told the AP that they are not the kind to squander their money.
"Who will be coming out of the woodwork?" said Mary Sue Smith, their neighbor since about 1995.
On Friday, the couple told reporters they made a decision to take the lump sum worth over $328 million saying no one is guaranteed tomorrow.
According to NBC, "the chances of winning were 1 in 292.2 million, and there were 635,103,137 total tickets sold".
"We've been there forever", Mrs Robinson said. "It affords them that opportunity by getting the lottery scholarship", Jimmy Naifeh said.
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We also want to convey our honest gratitude to the Obama Administration, Congress, Secretary Kerry and the U.S. Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders praised diplomacy as the key to solving the detainee issue.
