What REALLY Happens If You Win a $1 Billion Powerball

Timothy Schultz:

Welcome to Lottery Dreams and Fortune! I am very excited to be joined here right now with Melanie Mesaros. She is with the Oregon Lottery. She's the spokesperson for the Oregon Lottery. And in the state of Oregon in the United States, she actually awarded a massive $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot just last year. It was the fourth largest Powerball jackpot of all time. But Melanie, how are you doing today?

Melanie Mesaros:

I'm great and always love to talk about our winner stories.

Timothy Schultz:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for taking the time. This is gonna be this is really exciting. But when a prize reaches this sort of amount, such as $1.3 billion or over the billion mark, whether it's Powerball or Mega Millions, what happens at the Oregon lottery? How do you prepare for this level of attention and the logistics with the media hype and the frenzy that happens when the jackpot reaches this level?

Melanie Mesaros:

Well, first of all, I would say we start to see our sales build and increase around the $500 million mark. That tends to be about the spot where we just people are really interested in getting a ticket. And as you know, the more tickets that are sold, the bigger the jackpot will grow. And this is something that happens, you know, across the country, of course, as that excitement builds. So it's a really fun thing to get to be a part of. And then in terms of like what goes on behind the scenes, I think we're just, we're here to help support both the excitement of what the the thought of being, becoming a new millionaire or billionaire might be. Or you know, we're here to also provide information to our players about, you know, where they can get tickets and when the drawings are happening, you know, some of that basic stuff.

Timothy Schultz:

Do you have a lot more inquiries and people you know, a lot of people calling with questions about what to do if they win and that sort of thing?

Melanie Mesaros:

Well, since I manage you know, media relations, we do certainly get a lot of media interest, right? And that's where we kind of get to start pulling out some fun facts and things again to to sort of build on the excitement of what's happening. Oftentimes, you know, people want to hear about who was the last big winner in your state. They want to hear about where's the money going that gets raised from these large sales that we're seeing. And so yeah, we're happy to help provide a bunch of those kind of fun facts about what happens in our state and how it benefits all of us here when we get a big jackpot.

Timothy Schultz:

And I'd love to ask your opinion and from your experience on what does happen and when, what has happened when you've awarded prizes of this size. But before I get to that, theoretically, when prizes reach this amount and this jackpot gets to be over a billion, whether it's Mega Millions or Powerball, then and it's won and they know it's your state. So if it's Oregon, theoretically, then do you have all kinds of people that try to claim the ticket that aren't necessarily the winners?

Melanie Mesaros:

We haven't experienced that. And in in this case, you know, we did have a big winner last year and that person came in actually right away. So there wasn't a lot of time between when the word got out that it had been sold in Oregon and when they had come in to claim the prize.

Timothy Schultz:

And that was Cheng Saephan, if I'm not mistaken, and two other winners that claimed that prize, correct me if I'm wrong, but a $1.3 billion prize. Are you able to say how they reacted to the win or what your impression of them was when they claimed the prize?

Melanie Mesaros:

Oh yeah, for sure. Well, we were really lucky, I would say, as a lottery, when h he goes by Charlie, Safon, because he was one of those folks who really wanted to share their story. And we did a whole press conference with him and unveiled who he was and let him answer questions about the whole thing himself. He was very willing to talk about his strategy for playing. He had written down some numbers on a piece of paper and put them under his pillow and slept with them there to try to like create that energy and positivity to try to win, leading up to his win. He had purchased tickets with a friend, that was one of the people who he shared the prize with. So you know, there, there was the whole story of how he told his friend the morning he looked at the ticket and saw that they were winning, is one that really I think is pretty heartwarming. He worked with this person that he split the prize with and called her on her way to work and he said, Hey, what are you doing? And she said, Well, I'm going to work. What, you know, that's what do you think I'm doing? And he said, You don't have to go anymore. And that was just a pretty... Again, like life-changing money for these folks to have won. We've actually done an update with him because it's the year anniversary of when he won was in April. And we checked in with him a year later. I actually went to his home and got to see how his life is today. And I think the other thing about this winner in particular is that he was battling cancer before he had won the prize and he continues to be fighting cancer. And so even though he has r received this life-changing amount of money, he still, you know, has that reality that he is living with. But he's made himself a really fun life or created a fun life for himself and his family with his prize. And so it, this is like one of the things that I tell people that is probably you know, the best part of my job is getting to see how someone will win a prize of this level, and then it it completely, you know, changes their life.

Timothy Schultz:

Are you able to say how it completely changed his life?

Melanie Mesaros:

Oh, absolutely. He well, for one thing, he got a Lamborghini for that was his big purchase. And I guess his son, who is young, in still in, you know, school, helped pick out which one he wanted. And you know, again, not knowing what his future may hold, I think he had it in mind that this car will eventually go to his son one day. And I think he has stated, you know, in some of the interviews he's done that the money gave him the kind of peace of mind that his family will be taken care of given his illness. And so I think that took a huge amount of stress off of him and allowed him to then focus on his health and and getting better.

Timothy Schultz:

That's a beautiful story. It's beautiful story. I'm so happy for him. What an inspiring win.

Melanie Mesaros:

It really is. It really is. He's also very prideful about his heritage and he wore some traditional sash and from his home country. He's an immigrant. He has lived in Oregon for many years, but has a lot of pride about, you know where he came from. And I think that's been another part of him being able to share his story has gotten people to really kind of see a little window into that culture and his background.

Timothy Schultz:

That's beautiful. I love that. And from your perspective, when this happened, you know, some people compare winning the lottery to like being struck by lightning. And at locations and and everything when it happens, there's it seems like, especially a prize of this magnitude of $1.3 billion, that there's a frenzy of reporters and all kinds of people that all of a sudden it's like everyone wants to be where the eye of the storm was. What was it like? What was, what's the atmosphere like in an environment that sells a ticket of that much money?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yeah, it was certainly I had never experienced this. And as you know, there's only a handful of states across the country that have ever had a win on this scale. So one of the things that happened that I think people maybe didn't realize that we had to sort of share with the media is that we we don't have a billion dollars lying around to instantly hand a check to our winner right away. Because it's a multi-state game, we needed to work with the game, the national game folks to get the money to Oregon and then be able to hand that money to our winner. And it took several weeks. And so because of that, we did not release the name of who the winner was for a couple of weeks. And I think there was a lot of, you know, very much a lot of interest in who could it be, who is this person in our community. I also would say we did we did reveal the location of where the ticket was sold. And that was another story that was part of the bigger story of the win, as you mentioned. We definitely had media. We we did an unveiling event of where the store was, the owner of the store, which it's a it's a chain that exists in Oregon. So not a national chain. It's a store called Plaid Pantry. That's a convenience store chain here. The owner came out and talked to reporters about, you know, what it was like to have sold it in their, in their store. So there was all eyes were on this store for sure. And the other part of it is in in our state we we you get a bonus if you sell a ticket of this size. And so the store received quite a substantial bonus and $100,000 dollars and you know they also were able to talk about how they were going to reinvest that money into the business and support their employees.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow. Well that's that's a a boon for, even the business. That's amazing. You mentioned that it takes several weeks, or at least it took several weeks to receive the money from different states with a prize of this size. So some people don't understand this, that in the United States with lottery games you can choose what's called the cash lump sum option or the annuity with all of it over a period of years before taxes. And so how does that work and what's your experience with players choosing between the lump sum and the annuity? Do you have tips, advice for what people should take?

Melanie Mesaros:

So we are not allowed to give financial advice. So the advice I have is that you should consult with a professional, an attorney or financial advisor if you were to win a prize of this size. Because us at the Oregon lottery will not be able to advise you. Having said that, I can, I can share that when you choose to do the annuity option, your first payment is going to be the smallest one. And then you will receive payments over the years that increase by 5% each year. And so you know, again, it, it's something a choice that you would make knowing that you're not going to get all the money, of course, up front. The lump sum is where you would get the money up front. And you don't get the full amount. We also will be taking out taxes at the beginning. So federal and state taxes come out of your win right off the top of when you would receive your prize.

Timothy Schultz:

Does every state, I mean, I know you can't speak for every state, but does, to your knowledge, do other states do that too, or is that Oregon that takes taxes out first? And do most players take the cash or the annuity are you able to say from your experience? Just in your

Melanie Mesaros:

I think most folks do take the lump sum. Most people are interested in getting paid right away their full prize. I cannot speak to, like you said, what other states do. I can just say what we do. And so what we're doing is we have federal taxes and state taxes that come off right away from when you're getting, you're paid.

Timothy Schultz:

And do you have a rough idea of for example with the $1.3 billion prize, are you able to say if they took the lump sum or annuity and what sort of taxes are involved right away or?

Melanie Mesaros:

They did take the lump sum. And remember the prize was actually split by three people. So it was Charlie Saephan, his wife, and then their friend who he had purchased the tickets with. And I can get you the exact amount if you want, but I have to look it up.

Timothy Schultz:

Okay. That's okay.

Melanie Mesaros:

Sorry. I don't have it at my fingertips.

Timothy Schultz:

That's that's okay. I'm sure I'm sure we can find it. But that yeah, it's extremely life-changing, especially of that size, but even smaller prizes of a million or you know, all kinds of amounts, people have their second chance prizes and so forth, but when the jackpots get to be this range and you, you mentioned $500 million more people play, when more people are playing, sometimes people will spend hundreds or thousands on tickets, but I mean, as I know and a lot of people, it literally takes one ticket to win. So what, do you have a stance or an opinion on responsible play? Or does the Oregon lottery? What do they say about that?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yeah, I think it's important to know that every player has the same odds of winning in every drawing, regardless of the amount of the jackpot or how many tickets are sold for a particular drawing. Now, having said that, for instance, in a Powerball or Mega Millions, there is a greater likelihood of someone winning as the jackpot increases, but that's because more combinations are being purchased and, you know, more tickets are being sold with different number combinations.

Timothy Schultz:

What are the biggest misconceptions you hear from people who play the lottery?

Melanie Mesaros:

ticket price since: 2012

Timothy Schultz:

That is really interesting. So just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, so every ticket has the same chance, but if you choose your own, you're less likely to have a matching ticket as a quick pick with someone else?

Melanie Mesaros:

I think there might be more yeah, there might be more chances that I mean, lucky number seven or thirteen, for instance, are popular number choices. Whereas if you're letting a quick pick decide what those numbers are, it is completely random. And those other numbers might be more popular choices just because of human bias around those numbers being favorite.

Timothy Schultz:

But there's not one method that's better than another. Is that your take?

Melanie Mesaros:

I would say again, regardless of how you choose the numbers, every Powerball ticket has the same chance of winning.

Timothy Schultz:

With lottery courier apps, do you have a take on that with the with the state of Oregon?

Melanie Mesaros:

Well, we just recently put some rules in place to regulate couriers in Oregon. And couriers are third parties, for those who don't know, who might be selling lottery games. And what our new rules will do is prohibit our games from being sold outside the state of Oregon. So we will be requiring anyone who is selling our games through a courier model to have geofencing so that you cannot buy the tickets outside of Oregon. And so that is a new development for us. We do not have as much oversight or ability to regulate how our games are being sold, if they're being sold outside of our state. That was what's behind, why we needed to have some guardrails in place. Okay.

Timothy Schultz:

Well, let's say you have an old-fashioned ticket, like a paper ticket. And I say old fashioned, but I don't think it's old fashioned. I like the paper tickets. But if you have a paper ticket and it has the winning numbers, or at least you think it does, and you lose it or it gets, something happens, God forbid, to the ticket, can you claim the ticket? Because in a lot of places you can't. What, what happens in Oregon?

Melanie Mesaros:

last year, well, the between: 2023

Timothy Schultz:

Wow, $8 million dollars. Oh my gosh. I know.

Melanie Mesaros:

I know. I also have a great story about a winner we had we have a raffle game in Oregon. It's held only once a year. Someone will win a million dollars in the raffle. Well, when we had our big Powerball win that we've talked about, we had a woman who had bought a raffle ticket and had been buying lottery tickets, but stashing them in a Tupperware container in her pantry and just didn't really look at them again. When she started hearing all the news stories about our billion dollar winner, she thought, hey, I better get my tickets and check them just to see if I have any winners in my stash. And sure enough, she went to the store to check the ticket, that the tickets she had several in hand, and one of them, the clerk said, Hey, this is a winner. We can't cash this here. It's worth more than what we're allowed to give you. So she took it to our lottery office and had won the million dollar prize for the raffle. It was sitting in her pantry for over a month unclaimed from when the drawing had occurred. So it's a great reminder that you should treat your tickets as if they might be worth a lot of money.

Timothy Schultz:

Oh my gosh, yes. Absolutely. You should. But where, I mean where do you suggest that we that someone put tickets? Like what should you do if you have a winning ticket?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yeah, I mean definitely I would say keep track of when the drawings are happening and check your tickets shortly thereafter. Because like I also mentioned, if you turn up a ticket that's a winner and a year has gone by from when the drawing occurred, it's no longer good. It's expired. And that goes for our scratchers as well. So you do have a year to claim those prizes. But keep them in a place that they won't get lost, they won't get put through the laundry or trashed, accidentally thrown away, wherever that may be.

Timothy Schultz:

Perhaps a safety deposit box or something like that. But yeah, absolutely. But if you are lucky enough to have a ticket worth over a billion dollars, then what's your best advice?

Melanie Mesaros:

I mean, I would definitely well, first of all, we, we do encourage folks to sign the back of their ticket. That way if it were to get lost or falls into hands that it were not intended, you've got a claim to that ticket. The other thing is get advice from someone who's a financial expert or an attorney to help guide you. Our billion dollar winner last year did get advice from an attorney who has helped him throughout the process. And it it's actually made it so much more smooth for I think all all involved. And the other thing, you know, you had asked me earlier a little bit about the process of getting paid. You can't take a check for a billion dollars and walk into your local bank branch and get that deposited. You know, there there are ways that you have to get that money in your bank account. And so again, I'm not the expert on that part of the of the process, but you should speak with someone who is.

Timothy Schultz:

Is it a wire or do you know?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yeah, we we do do wire transfers.

Timothy Schultz:

Okay. And if you win a prize that's even a million or more, I mean for a lot of people, for most people I would say that still can be incredibly life changing. Have you awarded many prizes like that at the mid tier level?

Melanie Mesaros:

Oh, we've definitely, I mean, our raffle produces a million dollar winner every year. We also just over the summer, I love telling this story too. We have a very small town in Oregon that I had never even heard of myself until we had a win. We had a ticket for one of our games. It's called Oregon's Mega Bucks. It was an $8 million dollar prize, and the ticket was sold in a small town called Alvador, Oregon, which is outside of Eugene for those who are familiar with Oregon. And first of all, I think it's a great example of how, again, these games are random and it's not just the big cities that are selling these winning tickets. But in this case, one of the great things that happened from this was the store where the ticket was purchased was owned by a couple, not a chain at all. It was just a mom and pop store. And they got an $80,000 dollar bonus for selling the ticket. The couple was expecting their first baby, so they were great about sharing their story and what they plan to do with their bonus check. And they're reinvesting the money into the store. They want to put some food options that don't exist into it right now because they are in a small community and they serve folks like. Construction workers and farm workers and things like that who are looking for like a quick lunch to grab. And so, the ripple effects that we see in our communities from these big wins is one of the things that's really, I think, a great part of what happens with lottery. You not only have an individual that you've mentioned, like it changes their life and allows them to purchase things like a home or pay off bills or whatnot, but it also gets reinvested into our communities.

Timothy Schultz:

And does Oregon put some towards education or that sort of thing?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yeah, we actually have a number of beneficiaries, unlike some states, I think that only have one or two. Education is definitely a beneficiary for us. They get a little over 50% of the money that goes back to the state. But we also have other beneficiaries such as our state parks. We support economic development, veteran services. We have a program in Oregon called Outdoor School that we support with lottery funds, and then our natural habitats and wetland restoration. Those are the beneficiaries that are designated by the legislature to receive lottery funds.

Timothy Schultz:

Amazing. That, those all seem like excellent causes. And with these other prizes, you mentioned the Megabucks winner. With other prizes like that, how do people usually react when they when you meet them or have met them when they claim a prize worth millions?

Melanie Mesaros:

I think, you know, there's just this overwhelming sense of a lot of times relief in terms of like what they are able to do with the that money, whether it be paying off bills, a car, putting it toward a mortgage. I think that's the theme I hear the most. You know, the billion dollar jackpot, that is life changing on a different level. The most people are not going to buy a Lamborghini when they win a million dollars, but they're gonna put it toward some of those more practical things that will make their lifestyle feel a lot easier.

Timothy Schultz:

And do many people have many people taken pictures with the giant checks in Oregon?

Melanie Mesaros:

We love that. We actually we love to do that. We actually have some people who ask for it. They want the giant check. And in fact, a fun fact about our Powerball winner, the, the billion-dollar one, was when we went to go do the year update with him, he still had the big check, souvenir check at his house. He kept it.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow. That's amazing. So they, so you do get to take it home if you want to?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It's a fun souvenir to go along with your win.

Timothy Schultz:

Yeah, I love that. And I know Oregon recently passed a new rule with anonymity, so if someone wanted to claim a prize anonymously, that's something that can happen now in Oregon. What what is happening with that?

Melanie Mesaros:

Yeah, the Oregon legislature voted to require that winners be anonymous in Oregon unless they sign off giving us permission to reveal their identity. So that law took effect at the end of September. And while it's no longer the default for your name to be released, you can do it if you are interested in sharing, you know, who you are and and getting your story out. The other thing I would say is we are still able to share quite a few other things. You know, we can share the city where the winner resides, we can share how much the prize was, where it was sold, what day the drawing was. So we can share quite a few details still, just not the individual's name and address.

Timothy Schultz:

And when jackpots reach this billion-dollar range, do you see any trends as far as the players? Do people behave differently?

Melanie Mesaros:

One thing we do see is that our regular like folks that play the lottery, we see people who normally aren't gonna buy a ticket every week start playing because the jackpot is so high. And there's this energy and momentum building, you know, around the excitement of of a billion dollars that yeah, we see people who don't normally play lottery, oh, I'll grab a ticket, why not? I'll pick up one. And actually we really from a responsible gaming perspective, that's something that we think is great because what we like to see is a lot of different people playing a little bit.

Timothy Schultz:

For anyone watching that's playing one of these billion dollar jackpots who's hoping to win, what is one piece of advice you wanna leave with them?

Melanie Mesaros:

Well, it is entertainment. Don't spend more money than what you can afford in terms of buying tickets. I would say you know, have fun. Part of the fun of playing the games is the dream of what might happen if you win. And then I would also say just be responsible with what you do with those tickets. So you don't want to lose them. And you want to follow up and check and see if you've actually won any money. Because like I've shared, we've heard this story too many times where people just forget about them, they get lost in a coat pocket, or they get stashed somewhere and they don't remember to even check the ticket. So make sure you're treating them with the the possibility that you could be holding a big winner in your hand.

Timothy Schultz:

Yeah, it's always, always possible. I mean, play responsibly, but anything is possible. But where can people find more about the winners, the prizes, the rules about the Oregon lottery and all of this? Where can people find more about this?

Melanie Mesaros:

Well, definitely check out our website. You can go to OregonLottery.org and you can see some of our winner stories there, the folks with the big checks. We've got pictures posted there. And of course you can check out all the different games we have available. And yeah, that's that's the hub for where all of our info is. And then we do have an app as well, but the app is probably best suited for folks who are based in Oregon. You know, you can scan your ticket and and take part in some of our promotional things that way.

Timothy Schultz:

Amazing. And we will link to that in the description if you're watching this on YouTube or in the show notes if you are listening to this today. But Melanie, is there anything else that you want to say today that I didn't ask or I don't know enough to ask or that you just wanted to say?

Melanie Mesaros:

I will just repeat kind of one of the sentiments that I've shared earlier, which is that we love seeing what happens with our winners and how the money changes their lives. It can be really heartwarming, it can be touching. And the other thing that's really kind of a a great aspect of what we do at lottery is the money comes back to the state and helps support state programs. So even if you don't win, there is a component of of helping bring back that investment to the community.

Timothy Schultz:

Beautiful. I love that. Well, well thank you so much, Melanie. I really appreciate your time and your insights here today. Thanks for joining.

Melanie Mesaros:

Oh, absolutely. This was really a lot of fun. Thank you.