By Todd Northrop
Russia's state-run lottery company Stoloto says a retiree has won more than half a billion rubles (US$8.5 million), the country's largest-ever jackpot.
Natalia Vlassova, a 63-year-old retiree from the region of Voronezh, claimed the record jackpot worth 506,000,000 rubles along with her daughter Catherine this week at lottery headquarters.
Natalia bought her ticket from a local post office but waited a week to check the numbers, thinking it was a losing ticket.
When Natalia and her family saw on the news that the big winner hailed from their region, they decided to recheck the ticket even though they still doubted it was a winner.
"The second time I rechecked the ticket on the [lottery's] website I saw the numbers lined up and the incredible amount of money we had won," recounted the winner's daughter Catherine according to a translation.
" 'Something strange is happening' flashed in my head. We rechecked the information several more times," Catherine added.
Natalia and her daughter have not yet decided how they will use the winnings, as they need some time to plan for such a huge amount. The average retiree in Russia receives about 14,000 rubles a month.
Regardless of how they end up spending or saving the money, the two women are confident that part of the winnings will be given to charity.
: spend it wisely
The look on the daughter's face at her Mother: Priceless! They finally hit the mother lode, their ship came in. Congrats!
Some U.S. lottery official out there is probably thinking rubles, pesos, yen, etc is another way to make jackpots look deceptively bigger. Mega Millions 6.3 billion rubles; Powerball 8 billion rubles. Seems like so much more. Extend out the annuity from 30 years to 40 years and it gets even bigger yet.
$8.5 million USD, even if it's an annuity and less taxes (article doesn't say), is still a great win. Hope it all works out for them.
Congrats comrade!
Congratulations to the two Russian beauties! Both have nice clothes on and good looking hairstyles. A great photo.
Now they are also in the money. Happy Days are here again for Natalia Vlassova and her daughter Catherine.
ha! i was thinking analogous to your post today, noise-gate.
Congrats.
Maybe comrade to you. Not to me. Still good for them. Hope they come to the US and escape that repressive government.
Beautiful picture of Mother & Daughter winning combo -
Maybe now that they are fortunate capitalist they could consider emigrating to US before the blessing turns into a posssible curse?
Congratulations
Stay Happy, Stay Safe
Eddessa_Knight with Lucky Light
The Russian lottery generally pays "cash", so, US$8.5m
Wiki says "A special tax rate of 35 percent applies to lottery and gambling wins"
A Russian site says the tax rate is 13% (treats winnings as additional taxable income) "Taxes on winnings in the lottery must be paid by the player independently in accordance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. The tax rate is 13 %."
The Lotter says "Lottery prizes are subject to taxation at source. There is one tax band of 13%. Check the tax laws in your country of residence for any further local taxation you may be subject to."