A New Taipei City resident bought a lottery ticket for the first time in September and promptly hit the jackpot, winning a record-high NT$2.29 billion (US$69.99 million), the Taiwan Lottery Co said.
The company said the woman’s husband, who claimed the prize on her behalf, was an ardent lotto player who spent between NT$200 and NT$500 weekly on lottery tickets over the past 12 years.
The most he has won was about NT$100,000.
In mid-September, while walking through the Shilin Night Market, the husband encouraged his wife to buy a lottery ticket “to find out who is the luckier of the two,” the company said.
The wife bought a ticket at the Fei Lai Fa lottery retailer in the night market. She is the sole winner of the prize money, it said.
She won NT$2.23 billion after tax deductions, the company said.
The husband said on their way home that he “felt lucky” after taking a call from his friend, who told him that the winning ticket was sold via the retailer they had bought from.
It was not until after they got home and checked the “lucky numbers” that they discovered they were billionaires.
Aside from some personal financing and shopping, the couple has decided to donate NT$188 million to the CTBC Charity Foundation (中信慈善基金), of which NT$15 million is to be dedicated to the Joyce-Agape Association to raise awareness about polio, NT$10 million to the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation (財團法人肝病防治學術基金會), and NT$2 million to the Paper Windmill Arts and Educational Foundation.
The husband said he would donate NT$10 million to the Penghu County or Chiayi County governments as he has lived there and he thinks there is a lack of resources in the counties.
He also said he would give the retailer that sold his wife the ticket a reward of NT$1.68 million.
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