The California convenience store owner who won a cool $1 million for selling the winning ticket for the historic $2.04 billion Powerball lottery jackpot has no plans to retire.
Joe Chahayed, the father of five, who came to the US from Syria with his wife and first two kids in the 1980s, was all smiles Tuesday as a crowd gathered at Joe’s Mobil station on Woodbury Road in Altadena.
Joe Chahayed
"I wanna try this with one of their chicken sandwiches."
Chahayed is also the father-in-law of former Cincinnati Bengals nose tackle Domata Peko.
The 75-year-old Chahayed was ecstatic to share news of his own windfall, which he plans to share with his 11 grandchildren and the rest of his klan.
The identity of the ticketholder — who matched all six numbers: 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and a Powerball of 10 — has not yet been shared.
Carolyn BeckerCalifornia Lotto spokeswoman
“Somebody is holding onto a very important piece of paper this morning worth $2.04 billion.”
Under California public disclosure laws that information, as well as the total amount of winnings, are public information, according to the California Lottery Winner’s handbook.
It’s then left to the lucky winner whether they want to share additional information, such as how they plan on spending their earnings.
The winner has the option to take either a lump-sum payout — which would amount to about $997.6 million — or an annuity, which would get doled out in 30 graduated payments over 29 years.
While the IRS will take 24% for federal tax withholding, the state of California does not tax lottery winnings, according to the state’s lottery winner’s handbook.
After taxes, the lump sum would be about $758 million.
The jackpot was a record-setting $1.98 billion but grew to $2.04 billion by the time of the drawing Tuesday morning, making it the world’s largest lottery prize, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.