Migrant from Laos with cancer wins $1.3 billion in US lottery (4 photos)

Hit the jackpot, but at what cost?





46-year-old Cheng Sephan has been fighting cancer for eight years; now the man, according to media reports, has the last stage of the disease, and he recently underwent another course of chemotherapy. He is not rich and lived on disability benefits. The main breadwinner in the family was Sephan's wife, who worked and also managed to take care of her husband and three children.

The man was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987 at age 10 before immigrating to the United States in 1994. Before his illness, Saphan worked in the aerospace industry as a CNC operator, and he even has a photo collage at home with the caption “10 years ago, when I was still healthy.”



In early April, a man chipped in with his friend Lisa Chao to buy about 20 lottery tickets at a regular store in Portland. One of these tickets hit the $1.3 billion jackpot.

Saphan said that he won thanks to luck and faith in God. He prayed all the time and asked God to help him, because... he himself could not support his family and small children. Having learned about the win on April 6, the man first told his mother about it, then called his wife, and then his friend.





The winner decided that he would share the prize equally with Chao - it was she who lent him part of the money ($100) for tickets, so it would be fair to give half of the winnings to a friend. Together, they chose a lump sum payment (with a much smaller prize) rather than receiving the money in installments over 30 years. After paying taxes, they will immediately receive $422 million. According to the laws of the state of Oregon, where Saphan lives, lottery winners cannot remain anonymous, so he had to appear in front of cameras, participate in press conferences and give interviews.

Everyone, of course, was interested in the question of how the lucky winner would use his winnings. The winner said that the first thing he would do is buy a house for his entire family. In addition, he will find a good doctor who may be able to help the patient with his illness - he announced this at a press conference for journalists.



The man will not stop buying lottery tickets - he says that he will continue to play. What if he gets lucky again?

In terms of the jackpot, the $1.3 billion prize is the fourth largest in history and the eighth largest among US jackpot games. The largest jackpot in the United States was won in 2022 in California - it amounted to $2.04 billion.