Jackpot winner donates hefty sum and turns part of haul into pillow

The jackpot winner, whose name was not disclosed, donated NT$210 million of his NT$937 million (US$28.5 million) haul to charity organizations last week, lottery operator Taiwan Lottery Co. said Tuesday.

The winner, who has long devoted himself to social welfare, also decided to experience the life of the super rich, withdrawing NT$2 million in cash "to use the bills as a pillow."

The company disclosed that the winner lives in Tainan County and usually buys NT$100 to NT$300 worth of lottery tickets at a Tainan City lottery shop, which has now sold five jackpot winning tickets.

The winner said he usually picks numbers based on the birthdays of family members, but this time he bought 12 tickets with numbers he picked and one ticket with numbers selected randomly by a computer.

The computer-generated numbers turned out to be the winning ticket.

After taxes, the jackpot amounted to NT$750 million, and NT$210 million of that was distributed among 13 organizations, including the nonprofit Genesis Social Welfare Foundation and the Tainan County government, Taiwan Lottery announced.

The foundation said it had received NT$80 million, the largest single gift it had been given in its history.

Local media reported that the newly minted multimillionaire called the lottery shop where he bought the winning ticket and declared then that he would donate NT$200 million to charity, but the winner said he did not make such a call, according to the lottery operator.

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