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The Iraqi national who last week claimed a $6.4 million Oregon Lottery Megabucks prize tells WW that he buys lottery tickets as a hobby and wasn't expecting to win.
"It was a shock," he says. "At first, I thought it was a joke."
The man says he is 37 years old and married, with two sons, and runs a trading company in Iraq.
As WW reported in Wednesday's print edition, the circumstances of the ticket's purchase and redemption were unusual.
The winning ticket was purchased in Bend on Aug. 24, but the prize went unclaimed until Dec. 1. When the winner arrived at lottery headquarters in Salem last week, he made an unusual request—contrary to normal practice, he wanted his name kept confidential for safety reasons.
Lottery director Jack Roberts told WW he would do his best to accommodate that request.
"The personal safety risk that he and his family might face seems stronger than the public interest of knowing who the person is," Roberts told WW. "I don't want to read that somebody has been kidnapped or killed because we announce them as a Megabucks winner."
In a brief phone conversation with WW on Wednesday afternoon, the Megabucks winner provided a few details about how he came to hold the winning ticket.
He says he's played the Oregon Lottery a couple of times in the past. He bought his Megabucks ticket this summer via a website called thelotter.com, which arranges the purchase of lottery tickets around the world.
Players establish an account with thelotter.com. When they want to buy a ticket, the company sends a local representative in the country where the lottery is hosted to buy the ticket. The runner takes a photo of the ticket, and thelotter.com then transmits that photo, which includes proof and date of purchase to the buyer.
The Iraqi man's trip to Oregon to claim his millions is his first visit to the U.S. The delay between August and December, he says, was a result of the difficulty in obtaining a visa to travel here.
He says he requested that the lottery keep his name confidential because of safety concerns. "The situation in Iraq is not good," he says. "It's very dangerous. If my name were revealed, it would be a big problem."
He says his family lives comfortably, and he has no specific plans for the money other than passing it along to his children.
While he's in the U.S., he hopes to travel to other cities within the country, perhaps to Miami.
As for his week in Oregon, he says there are big differences between the state and Iraq, and not just the rainfall.
"It's very beautiful here," he says. "And so clean."
UPDATE, 9:10 am: WW has also contacted thelotter.com, the company based in Malta that purchased the winning Megabucks ticket.
The following is our email correspondence with thelotter.com's directors:
1.How long has theLotter.com been helping customers buy Oregon Lottery tickets?
Our messenger service was established in 2002 and the Oregon Megabucks was one of the first lotteries we offered on the site. Through our website people can request our local reps to purchase lottery tickets on their behalf, even when they are outside of the country or state where the lottery takes place. We have offices in more than 20 countries across the world. Needless to say that we do not operate the lotteries ourselves. We merely purchase the tickets and make a scanned copy available to online players' secure personal accounts.
2. Can you give any context for the size of that business, either number of customers annually, dollar volume that you help customers purchase or any other metric?
We are a privately-held company and as such our figures are not published. What we can say is that we have paid out almost $36 million in wins over the past few years and that we have had a total of 1.7 million players who've won prizes by using our services.
3. Given the international scope of the theLotter.com's business, I'm wondering a) whether you've found that it's typical for lotteries around the world to disclose the names of winners and b) whether you've ever encountered a situation in which a winner requests anonymity as did the Megabucks winner?
Many lotteries offer winners a possibility to retain their anonymity. Divulging one's name is not mandatory everywhere – in the United Kingdom and other European countries, for instance, lottery winners may always decide to remain anonymous. We have had a few winners through our service over the years – some winning big prizes in US state lotteries – and some of these winners did indeed decide not to disclose their names to the media. Reasons vary. In the case of the Oregon Megabucks winner the decision springs from the fact that he comes from a war-torn country and wanted to protect his family. In most cases winners want to guard their loved ones from too much media attention.
4. Would you be willing to share any photos of the winner of the $6.4 million Megabucks prize that disguise his identity?
Absolutely, we are happy to include some images for you.
Willamette Week