Charles W. Jackson, Jr. is a very happy resident of Northern California, who won the Powerball lottery and won the jackpot of 344.6 million dollars. He talks about how he realized that he had all the numbers on the lottery ticket coincided and he won the main prize.
Amazing discovery
Everyone knew that someone bought a winning ticket worth $ 344.6 million (21.7 billion rubles) last week at the Hope Mills, but Charles W. Jackson Jr. did not know what it was until the morning tuesday.
Even then, Jackson did not fully check the numbers and thought he won $ 50,000. He called his wife to say that they need to go from Parkton, where they live, to take the prize in Raleigh.
“I told her that, in my opinion, I won at least $ 50,000,” he says. “After I hung up, I returned to the ticket, looked and said: '' Damn it, yes I won them all ! "
“Then I immediately called her back and said:“ You see, I won the jackpot. ”She asked:“ How much is this? ”I replied that I had no idea, because I just found out. I didn’t know how much it was, and she said just google. "
Jackson is 66, and he is retired. His lottery win was the biggest in Northern California history. He decided to receive a prize in the form of a lump sum payment of $ 223 million, from which after paying taxes to the regional and federal budgets he will have $ 158 million (about 10 billion rubles).
Jackson was clearly still a little shocked when he arrived at the Northern California Lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Tuesday night.
“Then I still did not realize anything,” he shares his impressions.
Winner plans
Jackson said he will donate money to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Shriners Children's Hospital and the Wounded Warrior charity, and will also go to Vietnam, where his wife is from. Other than that, he has no plans.
“I don’t know what to do with most of this money,” he explains. “I hope they haven’t changed me much. I’m not going to change my life. I will still wear jeans. Maybe a newer couple.”
Unthinkable luck
Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but it was Jackson who bought the ticket, all of which coincided with the numbers: 6, 15, 34, 45, 52 and 8 (which was printed on the ticket). The odds of winning were about 1 in 292.2 million.
Jackson said that he took these numbers from a prediction in a cookie that his adopted daughter baked for him when she was six years old. He says that every week from that day he always wrote these five numbers in the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets, changing only the sixth number from time to time.
“I never expected that I could win,” he admits. “I was just very lucky, I can’t even believe it.”
Jackson bought a ticket for the Carlie C’s IGA in Hope Mills, a few miles southwest of Fayetteville. The store will receive a reward of $ 50,000 for the sale of a winning ticket.
Charles's adoptive daughter said she was extremely happy for her father and also still could not believe that she was able to predict this winning combination many years ago. She even joked that she could now be considered clairvoyant.
A bit about chance
Accident is a very difficult phenomenon for a person to understand. How can one learn that which cannot be foreseen? In fact, the influence of chance on our lives is extremely large, which is why people continue to make unsuccessful attempts to learn it.Mathematicians calculate probabilities, business analysts assess risks, traders predict price changes, politicians try to predict the reaction of the electorate. It seems to us that all this, undoubtedly, should be calculated and yield to control. We have become a victim of the thought of our own omnipotence and are not able to admit that there are things and events that we simply cannot understand. And in my opinion, randomness is just that.
However, we can determine exactly what the consequences of a random event will turn: positive, neutral or negative. Understanding this, we are able to come close to almost "managing" randomness. To do this, it is only necessary to establish whether we lose from chance or gain.
Take, for example, Jackson's participation in the lottery. A lottery ticket costs $ 2. If you randomly select six numbers, the probability that he will be winning will be 1 in 292.2 million. That is, almost certainly you will lose $ 2. However, if you are lucky and get the same combination, you will win millions of times more. Your losses are very small, and the potential gain is huge. You “control” an accident, because its consequences for you can become either insignificant or incredibly positive.
findings
Thus, the only right strategy in the "management" of chance will be to minimize potential losses. If you have nothing to lose, you can only gain. This simple rule works in any situation. Just remember that in our world much more depends on chance than you might think, and it is important to be able to take advantage of it for yourself.