Turk
Young, Gifted, and Black
Lucky them.
Four Central Florida people joined the ranks of the nouveau riche this week when each cashed a winning lottery ticket, including two who became overnight millionaires.
But the biggest winner in the group, an Orlando nursing assistant who claimed a $5 million Mega Millions prize in Tallahassee, confided that she felt poorer spiritually.
"I'm a Christian. I don't gamble," said Fay Blake, 62. "Spiritually, it bothers me."
The Florida Lottery paid Blake $3,750,000 — her winnings minus taxes — and sent out a news release Thursday about her good fortune, though she pleaded with the agency to neither photograph her nor identify her. The photo is optional, but identification is not, Florida Lottery spokeswoman Shelly Gerteisen said.
Lottery winners cannot remain anonymous because some people, notably lottery employees themselves, are not allowed to play.
Blake said she had hoped to avoid publicity about her winnings for fear of shaming her church.
"I love my church, and I love my church family," she said.
Blake said her pastor has preached against gambling, and she usually takes his sermons to heart. But "impulse" led her to the lottery terminal at Publix on Edgewater Drive, she said. There was no line when she approached the kiosk with $1 and chose Quick Pick, an option in which a computer selects the numbers to play.
Her ticket matched five of the white-ball numbers in the televised Jan. 9 drawing, which would have earned a jackpot of $221 million if Blake's entry also would have matched the so-called yellow "Mega Ball." She won a $5 million consolation prize instead of $1 million because she plopped down an extra dollar for the "Megaplier."
Blake said she was uncertain how she would explain her moment of weakness to her pastor.
She was so conflicted Thursday that she initially told a reporter she had redeemed the winning ticket for somebody else who offered her a share of the prize. But she later acknowledged buying the ticket after learning that such an arrangement would be unlawful. A lottery investigator, she said, also called her to make sure the ticket was hers.
"I should be happy, but it's causing me grief," she said. "My heart is going so crazy."
Blake, who is married with children, also said she did not have immediate plans for her windfall and hoped to keep working as a nursing assistant, calling it "my joy."
"I live a quiet life, and I try to do things for people," she said.
Lottery officials identified other area winners as Thomas Halstead, 72, of Daytona Beach and J . Pascual Villazano, 48, of DeLand.
Halstead won $1 million in the lottery's "100X The Cash Scratch-Off," which costs $25 a ticket. He opted for a one-time, lump-sum payment of $781,174.44.
Villazano claimed the $500,000 top prize in the "Money Multiplier Scratch-Off," which costs $5 a ticket. He bought his winner at the Discount Market on West Euclid Avenue in DeLand.
Lottery officials said an Ocoee man also claimed a $3 million prize in a scratch-off game Thursday, but they could not announce his identity or other details because they had not yet completed his paperwork.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...y-winners-central-florida-20150115-story.html
Really?
Four Central Florida people joined the ranks of the nouveau riche this week when each cashed a winning lottery ticket, including two who became overnight millionaires.
But the biggest winner in the group, an Orlando nursing assistant who claimed a $5 million Mega Millions prize in Tallahassee, confided that she felt poorer spiritually.
"I'm a Christian. I don't gamble," said Fay Blake, 62. "Spiritually, it bothers me."
The Florida Lottery paid Blake $3,750,000 — her winnings minus taxes — and sent out a news release Thursday about her good fortune, though she pleaded with the agency to neither photograph her nor identify her. The photo is optional, but identification is not, Florida Lottery spokeswoman Shelly Gerteisen said.
Lottery winners cannot remain anonymous because some people, notably lottery employees themselves, are not allowed to play.
Blake said she had hoped to avoid publicity about her winnings for fear of shaming her church.
"I love my church, and I love my church family," she said.
Blake said her pastor has preached against gambling, and she usually takes his sermons to heart. But "impulse" led her to the lottery terminal at Publix on Edgewater Drive, she said. There was no line when she approached the kiosk with $1 and chose Quick Pick, an option in which a computer selects the numbers to play.
Her ticket matched five of the white-ball numbers in the televised Jan. 9 drawing, which would have earned a jackpot of $221 million if Blake's entry also would have matched the so-called yellow "Mega Ball." She won a $5 million consolation prize instead of $1 million because she plopped down an extra dollar for the "Megaplier."
Blake said she was uncertain how she would explain her moment of weakness to her pastor.
She was so conflicted Thursday that she initially told a reporter she had redeemed the winning ticket for somebody else who offered her a share of the prize. But she later acknowledged buying the ticket after learning that such an arrangement would be unlawful. A lottery investigator, she said, also called her to make sure the ticket was hers.
"I should be happy, but it's causing me grief," she said. "My heart is going so crazy."
Blake, who is married with children, also said she did not have immediate plans for her windfall and hoped to keep working as a nursing assistant, calling it "my joy."
"I live a quiet life, and I try to do things for people," she said.
Lottery officials identified other area winners as Thomas Halstead, 72, of Daytona Beach and J . Pascual Villazano, 48, of DeLand.
Halstead won $1 million in the lottery's "100X The Cash Scratch-Off," which costs $25 a ticket. He opted for a one-time, lump-sum payment of $781,174.44.
Villazano claimed the $500,000 top prize in the "Money Multiplier Scratch-Off," which costs $5 a ticket. He bought his winner at the Discount Market on West Euclid Avenue in DeLand.
Lottery officials said an Ocoee man also claimed a $3 million prize in a scratch-off game Thursday, but they could not announce his identity or other details because they had not yet completed his paperwork.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...y-winners-central-florida-20150115-story.html
Really?
. im sure they could use that money badly. unless they already rich, which I doubt.
