Texas man claims Mega Millions jackpot

Oct 5, 2004, 10:32 am (21 comments)

Mega Millions

A Carrollton man picked up his cash value option prize of $62 million on Monday after winning Friday's Mega Millions jackpot.

Ut Van Nguyen plans to use the money to help with the construction of a religious temple near Duncanville. He and his family will also return to Vietnam to help relatives, the Texas Lottery Commission said in a news release.

Friday's jackpot was worth $101 million.

Nguyen was the first Mega Millions winner in Texas. He drove to Austin to pick up his prize on Monday.

Nguyen spoke mostly through a translator, nephew Phan Tran, the commission said. A telephone listing for him could not be found on Monday evening.

"I found out Saturday morning at the supermarket when the manager there told me somebody in Carrollton won," Nguyen said. "I got a winning numbers printout and quickly saw that I had two of the numbers. When I got home, I picked up the ticket that I had left on the table. 'Oh my God, I said, Oh my God.' "

His daughter Jennifer said she was still sleeping when she heard a commotion in the living room.

"I could hear him crying, and I thought to myself, 'my God, what's wrong with him,' " she said. "When I walked out there, he was standing there hugging my mother and crying like a baby."

Nguyen said he doesn't know what he'll do with the rest of the money.

"I haven't been able to think that far ahead," he said.

Nguyen purchased his Quick Pick tickets at a Sack N Save store. The store is eligible to receive a bonus of $1 million for having sold the winning ticket.

It's the second time the Carrollton store has had a big winner. In March 1994, store clerks sold one of five winning Texas Lotto tickets for a $77 million jackpot.

Nguyen said he routinely buys five lotto tickets on Wednesdays, and five Mega Millions tickets on Fridays.

The winning numbers were 17-10-8-24-39, and the Mega Ball was 52. The jackpot cash value option amount $62,060,880.

Texas joined the Mega Millions multistate lottery in December. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 135,145,920.







Ut Van Nguyen, the first-ever Texas Mega Millions jackpot winner.






Lottery Post Staff

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qutgnt

That was fast, he is probably gonna dump that baby into his checking acct!

tg636

Not being a millionaire, I wonder what sort of account you do dump $60 million into. 

fja's avatarfja

There is probably a couple of hundred banks that want to talk to him about that!

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

there's probably a couple hundred foreign banks he wants to talk to about that.

qutgnt

This guy reminds me of the Vietamese landscaper from NY that won a couple years back.

urbossmanpimpin's avatarurbossmanpimpin

He was a window washer......

urbossmanpimpin's avatarurbossmanpimpin

Oh i live like 10 mins from the store where he got his ticket. . . . lol I thought it was me that won cause I couldn't remember where I bought my tkt from. He deserves it. I can live with being the 2nd Tx MegaMillions winner.

fja's avatarfja

Wasn't it about a year ago Texas came into mega millions?  anyway to date they have 1 jackpot winner and 76 second tier prize winners(10 of those last year),,,which adds up to 114.3 million (that makes Texas 8th out of 11 in jackpot and 2nd place winners since may 2002)...

CASH Only

He didn't need a translator to choose CVO.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220
Quote: Originally posted by fja on October 05, 2004

Wasn't it about a year ago Texas came into mega millions? anyway to date they have 1 jackpot winner and 76 second tier prize winners(10 of those last year),,,which adds up to 114.3 million (that makes Texas 8th out of 11 in jackpot and 2nd place winners since may 2002)...






remember that texas has a huge population. a huge population means a lot of people buy tickets. a lot of people buying tickets means a lot of winners. i'm surprised it took so long for texas to sell a winner.
fja's avatarfja

well for this year only they are tied for 4th with 66 second tier winners:



  1. NY = 158

  2. NJ = 83

  3. MI = 68

  4. GA = 66

  5. TX = 66

  6. OH = 58

  7. IL = 56

  8. VI = 53

  9. MD = 27

  10. MA = 26

  11. WA = 10
DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

wow. WA has only seen 10 2nd tier winners. well, i guess seeing as how they've only seen 1 jackpot winner total, and it was for less than $100 million. WA really needs to get off their butts and start buying tickets if they want to see it pay off.

CASH Only

WA needs to dump THEIR version of Unlucky for Life.

fja's avatarfja

WA only needs one more second tier winner to match there total for last year....

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