(308) Người trúng số 300 triệu USD

 The Hill family holds a check presented by Missouri Lottery director May Scheve (right). Left to right ,sons Jason, Cody, Jarod, adopted daughter Jaiden, and ticket holders Cindy and Mark Hill

Người trúng số 300 triệu USD không muốn 'tiền đè lên đầu'

Hai vợ chồng thất nghiệp đã trúng giải nhì trị giá 293 triệu USD trong cuộc quay số với giải thưởng nhiều tiền nhất lịch sử nước Mỹ, nhưng vẫn giữ thái độ bình thản.

Mark và Cindy Hill cho biết họ sẽ không để núi tiền mới có đè lên đầu, sau khi nhận tấm séc hơn 293 triệu USD tại cuộc họp báo hôm qua ở bang Missouri.

"Chúng tôi vẫn là những người bình thường. Chúng tôi cũng sẽ như bao người khác. Chúng tôi chỉ có thêm ít tiền thôi", Cindy Hill nói với các phóng viên.

Nhà Hill đến cuộc họp báo của giải xổ số cùng ba con trai và một cô con gái nuôi, họ vẫn đang ngây ngất với khoản tiền thưởng và chưa biết sẽ làm gì với đống tiền khổng lồ mới nhận được.

"Chắc là chúng tôi sẽ có một Giáng sinh vui đây", bà Cindy, 51 tuổi, nói. "Chúng tôi sẽ đi nghỉ, cho hết các con và cháu đi chơi. Có lẽ chúng tôi sẽ mở tài khoản cho mọi đứa con, cháu nội ngoại và cả cháu họ nữa, để chúng có tiền học đại học".

Gia đình Hill cũng dự kiến hiến một phần đáng kể trong món tiền thưởng cho từ thiện, bởi "biết bao nhiêu là đủ?".

Nhà ông bà Hill bỏ qua một câu hỏi của phóng viên về cảm giác khi phải đóng thuế đến một phần ba số tiền, và nói rằng đóng thuế là nghĩa vụ của mọi công dân Mỹ.

Họ tâm sự rằng vận may đã giúp họ ra khỏi quãng thời gian hai năm gian khó vừa rồi. Bà Cindy bị sa thải năm 2010 và Mark thất nghiệp khi công ty mà ông làm việc thu hẹp quy mô. "Cuối cùng thì chúng tôi cũng có tiền để cho con gái đi chơi và biết thế nào là biển", bà nói.

Trước khi giải thưởng xổ số lần này được công bố hôm thứ tư, một cơn sốt xổ số đã diễn ra trên khắp nước Mỹ. Giải đặc biệt tích tụ giá trị đến 587,5 triệu USD, khiến ai cũng muốn thử vận may.

Một phần khác của giải thưởng này về tay một người đàn ông ở bang Arizona, nhưng ông chưa ra nhận thưởng. Cameran an ninh ở một cây xăng ghi nhận cảnh một người đàn ông so xổ số rồi nhảy múa vui mừng. "Ôi trời, tôi trúng rồi, tôi trúng rồi", ông ấy nhảy lên và quên cả việc đổ xăng. 

'We're going to take a nap, donate to charity... and adopt another child': Missouri grandparents who won Powerball reveal how they will spend $294 million

• Mark Hill, 52, and his wife Cindy revealed as winners in Missouri
• Winner of other ticket, bought in Arizona, not yet identified but surveillance footage from Maryland gas station 'shows him celebrating his win'
• Hill is a factory worker with 3 sons and an adopted daughter from China
• Two jackpot winners will take home $293.7million each
• Winning numbers: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6

By Lydia Warren
PUBLISHED:  30 November 2012 

The grandparents from Missouri who won a staggering $293,750,000 of the Powerball jackpot have revealed they plan to keep the same pickup truck and visit their local cafe for breakfast - all after taking a nap.

Speaking at a press conference at the school where they met as teenagers, Cindy Hill, 51, and her mechanic husband Mark, 52, added they have no plans to leave their home in Dearborn, where they plan to bring up their adopted six-year-old daughter Jaiden.

The couple, who also have three adult sons, added that they may now consider adopting again in light of their win - one of two winning tickets and a record amount for the state of Missouri.

They added that while their daughter has asked for a pony, it would be 'a while' before they made any big purchases.

'I just want to go home and be back to normal,' Cindy said, adding: 'Maybe take a nap.'

But 'I think we're going to have a pretty good Christmas,' she said.

The couple, who are taking the money in one lump sum, said they hoped to return to Jaiden's home country of China, but first of all wanted to take her to the beach, as she has never been.

Cindy added: 'My husband's keeping his same old pickup. He did ask for a red Camaro though.'

She added they will set up college funds for their grandchildren, nieces and nephews. They also hope to launch a scholarship fund, and will donate to charity, particularly those supporting adoption.

Shock: Cindy Hill recounted her disbelief at realising she had the correct numbers, wining $294 million

Plans: The Hills said they might adopt again after the success of adopting Jaiden from China

'How much does a person need?' asked Cindy, who was laid off in June 2010. 'We are pretty grounded and we've worked really hard all our lives. And we know the value of a dollar.

'We'll still be going down to the corner cafe for breakfast. It's just us. We're as common as anybody - we just have a little bit more money.'

Mark said that he was already struggling to adjust to their new life and, when the Lottery put them up in a hotel on Thursday night, he ran to get toothpaste - and caught himself checking prices.

'Old habits are hard to break,' he said, laughing.

Mark, a mechanic at a hot dog and deli packaging factory, had given his wife $10 to buy tickets. She bought five after picking her daughter up from school, chose numbers at random and left the tickets in the car overnight.

Daddy's girl: Mark Hill holds his adopted daughter, six-year-old Jaiden Hill, at North Platte High School

Excitement: The family said they were excited but also feared people 'coming out the woodwork'

The next morning, she checked the numbers and on discovering they had a winning ticket, she called her husband and said: 'I think I'm having a heart attack!'

She drove to her mother's home to verify the numbers and was later met by her husband, who had refused to believe her. They later called their sons at their workplaces, but told them to keep it quiet.

But their anonymity didn't last long - especially after Mark posted about their luck on Facebook.

'We are truly blessed ... we were lucky winners of the powerball!' he wrote, explaining on Friday that he had just wanted to put an end to the chatter circulating their small town.

Their son Jason, 26, added at the press conference: 'I hope we stay grounded and I hope we stay the good people we were yesterday.'

And the winner is: Mark Hill, from Dearborn, Missouri is believed to be one of the two Powerball winners. Hill and his wife have three grown sons and an adopted daughter from China, pictured

Family man: Hill works at a hot dog and deli packaging factory, but his son said that money has been tight

Jared, 31, agreed: 'It was pretty surreal. I was excited for them and then I got nervous for them.'

Cindy said she shares their concerns.

'Obviously when it's that big of a Powerball you're going to get people coming out of the woodwork and some of them might not be too sane and we have to protect our family,' she said.

'This isn't what I thought it'd be like. I am grateful but I think there's going to be a lot of not good stuff that comes along with it too.'

Cindy had worked as an office manager but was laid off in June 2010. She took off a year to spend time with their daughter, who has just started first grade, and had hoped to return to work.

The Hills will share the total $588m jackpot with another winner who bought a ticket in Arizona.

Deserving: Friends of Mark Hill said the win 'could not have happened to a better person'

Excitement: A Missouri reporter tweeted this picture of what appears to be Hill's Facebook announcement

While the Arizona winner's identity has not yet been revealed, surveillance footage from a gas station in Maryland reportedly shows a construction worker discovering he has the winning ticket.

The video shows the man walking into an Exxon in Prince George's County and checking his ticket, which he said he brought 2,500 miles away in Arizona, ABC 7 reported.

The man, dressed in a neon yellow jacket, then fist pumps as he checks again before handing the ticket to the clerk, who told the news channel it bore the winning numbers.

In Missouri, Hill's mother Shirley said her daughter-in-law had bought five tickets from a Trex Mart gas station in Dearborn, about 30 miles north of Kansas City, and only checked the numbers on Thursday.

'It's just a shock,' she told KMBC. 'My daughter-in-law came down this morning and she said she was so nervous... and she said, "I think I won that lottery," and I said, "You're kidding".

Winner? Surveillance footage from a Maryland gas station shows a construction or highway worker

'Discovery': The man pulls out a lottery ticket and checks the numbers before jumping for joy

Disbelief: He then shows the clerk the numbers, who told ABC7 they were the winning numbers

'I thought she meant a scratch ticket or something and we looked at it and we said, "Oh my gosh!"'

Shirley Hill said that Cindy has been out of work and had a job interview for Thursday. 'I think she cancelled,' she said.

'He's a very good guy,' neighbour Rose Downing said of Mark Hill. 'It couldn't have happened to anyone better. If I couldn’t have won it, I’m glad he won it, cause I think he’ll help the community.'

Yet not all members of the Hill family are so squeaky clean as one of his sons, 30-year-old Cody Justin Hill, appears to have been convicted on a series of charges and has served time behind bars.

Public records at the Kansas Department of Corrections show he was arrested for arson and criminal damage in August 2003 and aggravated assault in December 2008.

He served a year behind bars at Lansing Correctional Facility, from February 2010 until February 2011, for the latter charge.

Mugshots: One of Hill's sons, Cody Justin Hill, 30, has served time behind bars in Kansas

In trouble: Cody was arrested for arson and criminal damage in 2003 and aggravated assault in 2008

The two winners will share an estimated $385million after taxes, which would be the largest jackpot prize ever awarded in Missouri and the second largest Powerball jackpot awarded nationally.

Winners in both states have 180 days to claim their share of the prize money.

Ahead of the announcement, speculation had many of Dearborn's 500 residents buzzing about who had won.

Cashiers Kristi Williams and Kelly Blount greeted customers with big smiles and questions about whether they had bought the winning ticket. The store gets $50,000 for selling it.

'It's just awesome,' Williams said. 'It's so exciting. We can't even work.'

Karen Meyers, a server at the Cook's Corner Cafe, where the daily special was roast beef and potatoes, said she didn't believe it at first when she heard the winning ticket had been sold nearby.

Lotto landmark: Sales associates at the Trex Mart in Dearborn, Missouri, pose for a photograph holding a paper Powerball receipt stating one of the national winners purchased a winning lottery ticket inside the gas station

Proof of purchase: Kristi Williams, a Trex Mart sales associate holds up the winning receipt announcing the lotto's sale at the Dearborn gas station

'I think it's wonderful! I hope someone local won it, not someone just passing through,' she said. 'It's a small town where everyone is really nice.'

Store manager Chris Naurez shop said business had been 'crazy' for Powerball tickets lately and that the store had sold about $27,000 worth of tickets in the last few days.

'This really puts Dearborn on the map,' he said.

Kenny Gilbert, the general manager of Trex Mart, suggested his staff would be sharing in the $50,000 bounty that the store will be awarded for selling one of the winning tickets.

'The response from the owner was, 'I guess we'll be able to give out Christmas bonuses,'' Gilbert said. 'That's nice, especially at this time of year.'

Excitement: Pulling up to the Trex Mark, a Missouri Lottery van parked outside sending the store employees, as well as the town of an estimated 496, in a frenzy of excitement

Jackpot! The two winners in Missouri and Arizona could receive a $293.7million share, which would be the largest jackpot prize ever awarded in Missouri and the second largest Powerball jackpot awarded nationally

WHAT $500MILLION CAN BUY YOU:

So you just won $500million in the Powerball lottery. What would you spend it on?

• 4,166 Hermes Matte Crocodile Birkin Bags with price tag of $120,000
• 2,150 2012 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speeds at $232,290 each
• 2,080 2012 Aston Martin Virage cars at $240,357 each
• 377 Diamond Crypto Smartphone covered with  50 diamonds at $1.3million
• 333 world's most expensive 124-day luxury cruise packages onboard Silversea Cruises' Silver Whisper at $1.5million per couple
• 166 Harry Winston Ruby Slippers encrusted with 1,350 carats of rubies and 50 carats of diamonds at $3million a pair
• 28 Gulfstream jets at $17.5million each
• Fleur de Lys Mansion in Los Angeles at listing price of $125million, with enough money to spare for CitySpire Penthouse in New York City at $100million

The winning ticket sold in Arizona was purchased at a 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills near Phoenix, state lottery officials said. Customers poured into the store, to check their tickets and share in the big moment.

'I think it's crazy, and I also think it's great,' said Bob Chebat, who manages the 4 Sons. 'I'm glad that all that work yesterday wasn't for nothing.'

The store was swept up in a nationwide ticket-buying spree preceding Wednesday's drawing, with the big money enticing many people who rarely, if ever, play the lottery to buy a shot at the payout.

Tickets sold at a rate of 130,000 a minute nationwide - about six times the volume from a week ago.

That pushed the jackpot even higher, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association. The jackpot rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner.

Meanwhile in Florida, one unidentified player matched five numbers using Power Play but did not match the Powerball for a $2 million payday and yet another matched five numbers without using Power Play for $1 million.

The astronomical jackpot of more than half-a-billion dollars was all part of a plan lottery officials put in place early this year to build jackpots faster, drive sales and generate more money for states that run the game.

In total, more than 189 million tickets were sold for the jackpot that surpassed half a billion-dollars, which is more than double the number sold for last Saturday's $325million jackpot that nobody won.

Second location: In Arizona, 4 Sons Food Store and Chevron gas station general manager Eric Seitz beamed while discussing their confirmed win at his store in Fountain Hills

Second winner: The winning ticket was bought in this 4 Sons Food Store in a suburb of Phoenix

An estimated 90 per cent of the tickets sold were quick picks in which the players allowed computers to pick the numbers, adding an extra element of randomness to the number choices.

If one ticket hit the right numbers, chances are good that multiple ones would, according to some experts. That happened in the Mega Millions drawing in March, when three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot. That remains the largest lottery payout of all time.

It took nine weeks for the Mega Millions jackpot to get that high, before three winners - from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland - hit the right numbers, each collecting $218.6million for their share of the split.

There has been no Powerball winner since October 6, and the jackpot already has reached a record level for the game.

It was first posted at $425million but on Wednesday morning it was increased again to $550 million and revised once again prior to the drawing to $579.9 million.

Tick tock: Winners in both states have 180 days to claim their share of the prize money

That was rapidly closing ground on the $656 million Mega Millions prize of March, the largest lottery jackpot in history.

'Sales have been so fast and so strong it's difficult to keep up with the estimates,' said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states.

With soaring jackpots come soaring sales, and for the states playing the game, that means higher revenue.

'The purpose for the lottery is to generate revenue for the respective states and their beneficiary programs,' said Norm Lingle, chairman of the Powerball Game Group.

'High jackpots certainly help the lottery achieve those goals.'

Of the $2 cost of a Powerball ticket, $1 goes to the prizes and the other dollar is kept by the state lottery organization, said Lingle, who also is executive director of the South Dakota Lottery.

Gold rush: A crowd of people line up outside the Arizona Last Stop convenience store and souvenir shop to buy Powerball tickets before the Wednesday drawing

After administrative overhead is paid, the remaining amount goes to that state's beneficiary programs.

Some states designate specific expenditures such as education, while others deposit the money in their general fund to help supplement tax revenue.

The federal government keeps 25 per cent of the jackpot for federal taxes. Most states withhold between 5 per cent and 7 per cent.

There's no withholding in states without a state income tax such as Delaware, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas. A New York City winner would pay more than 12 per cent since the state takes 8.97 per cent and the city keeps 3.6 per cent.

Powerball and Mega Millions games are seeing jackpots grow faster and higher in part because the states that play both games agreed in 2010 to sell to one another.

Both games are now played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands. The larger pool of players means jackpots roll over to higher numbers faster, which tends to increase the buzz about the jackpots which increases sales.