Winner of $1.3bn Powerball jackpot is an immigrant from Laos who’s been battling cancer for eight years

Cheng ‘Charlie’ Saephan and his wife will share the win evenly with their friend who chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets. He said he will ‘provide for my family and my health’ and find himself a good doctor

One of the winners of a historic $1.3bn Powerball jackpot last month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years – and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.

Cheng "Charlie" Saephan, who lives in Portland, told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery that he and his wife, Duanpen, would split the prize evenly with a friend who chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them, Laiza Chao.

They are taking a lump sum payment, $422m after taxes.

Powerball winner Cheng ‘Charlie’ Saephan celebrates his win at a news conference in Oregon (AP)

"I will be able to provide for my family and my health," he said, adding that he'd "find a good doctor for myself."

He said that as a cancer patient, he wondered, "How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?"

After they bought the shared tickets, Ms Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Mr Saephan and said, "We're billionaires." It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day it came true.

“I call Laiza as she’s driving to work, I told her you don’t have to go to work now; we won the lottery; we won the jackpot!” he said during the news conference.

When asked if he would keep playing the lottery, Mr Saephan said he likely would.

“I might get lucky again,” he said, laughing. “I’ll keep playing.”

The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The winning numbers were 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9, according to KOIN.

The Plaid Pantry convenience store that sold a $1.3bn Powerball jackpot, the eighth-largest lottery prize in US history, in Portland, Oregon (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“Plaid Pantry is thrilled to learn that one of our 104 Oregon stores sold the $1.3 billion dollar Powerball ticket,” Plaid Pantry President and CEO Jonathan Polonsky told the Oregon Lottery. “This store is one of our newest and most loved stores. Proceeds from the Oregon Lottery fund many programs that benefit everyone in the state, and we’ve been a proud partner with the Oregon Lottery since the very beginning.”

The store will receive a $100,000 bonus for selling the winning lottery ticket.

The Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize.

Under Oregon law, with few exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous. Winners have a year to claim the top prize.

Plaid Pantry President and CEO Jonathan Polonsky (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The jackpot has a cash value of $621m before taxes if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes and state taxes in Oregon.

The $1.3bn prize is the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth largest among US jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.

“This is our first winner on this scale, so this is very exciting for us,” Melanie Mesaros, spokesperson for the Oregon Lottery told ABC News on 7 April.

The biggest US lottery jackpot won was $2.04bn in California in 2022.