The big Powerball winner from Wisconsin has finally come forward to claim the $768 million prize. This is the second largest Powerball jackpot of all times and it all belongs to 24-year-old Manuel Franco.
He won the big prize on March 27th, 2019 and came forward almost a month later on April 23rd. He took his time with this because he wanted everything to sink in. Finding out you are the sole winner of a $768 million jackpot is certainly a lot of excitement. “My heart started racing. I screamed for about 5 or 10 minutes.“, said Mr. Franco.
But his lottery win did not happen on a whim. Manuel Franco is a dedicated lottery fan. He told the press he has been playing Powerball for years. He bought his first ticket on his 18th birthday and he has been playing ever since. As you can see, it paid off enormously for him.
On March 27th, Manuel said that he felt something. He felt very lucky that day, so he went up to a Speedway store (that will now be receiving $100,000 from Powerball). He bought $10-worth of Powerball tickets and he looked right up at the camera because he had a feeling that this footage would be valuable soon enough. He said he even wanted to wink.
His feeling was entirely on spot because that day he purchased the winning ticket for the $768 million Powerball jackpot. At first, he was in shock, he did not know exactly what to do. He went to work the following day, but the anxiety and the excitement turned out to be too much for him. That was also the last day he ever went to work.
A few weeks later, Manuel Franco came out to claim the prize. He chose the cash payout for the prize worth $477 million. After paying all the taxes due on that, he was left with $326 million. While he doesn’t have a clear-cut plan for what comes next, Manuel has one major goal.
“I’m sure you’ll never see me as like one of the people who went bankrupt or broke or anything like that. I plan to live my life normal as much as possible,” he said. He wants to use his Powerball money to help the world, but also to assure a steady financial future for himself. Even with $326 million in the bank, there is still a chance you could be poor in a few years like some lottery winners have proven before him.
