NJ man claims $315.3 million Powerball lottery jackpot

Jun 8, 2018, 3:22 pm (33 comments)

Powerball

Tayeb Souami was all smiles Friday as New Jersey lottery officials announced that he was the winner of the $315.3 million Powerball jackpot won in May.

"My day has come," the 55-year-old accountant told a crowd during a lottery presentation Friday. "Hopefully one day it will come for you too."

He added that he did work for a food importing company, but has quit his job since winning the jackpot.

The Little Ferry native elected to take the cash payout, meaning he will receive $183.2 million, before taxes.

"This is big. I am very emotional right now. I like the numbers and I always play with those numbers," he said.

Souami said he found out he was the winner on Sunday morning. He had planned to do some work, but realized his car was dirty. On his way to a car wash, he saw a 7-Eleven and stopped in to check his Powerball tickets.

"When I went inside, I scanned the first ticket and it wasn't the winner. The second ticket was good but it the machine said it must be seen by the retailer," he said.

"The clerk kept saying, 'oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,' and my heart went just like a 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon when the heart went boom boom... and I found out after that I was the one."

He had bought two tickets while returning a product at the ShopRite. 

Souami said he will talk to his financial advisor about what to do with the money, but he did say that one of the first things he will do is take care of his family, especially when it comes to the education of his two children.

The father had jus refinanced his house in order to send his daughter to college, he said. He received the check just a week before winning the prize.

Originally from Africa, Souami came to the United States in 1996. When asked what country he was from, he declined to specify.

He described himself as an intermittent lottery player.

Souami purchased the lone winning lottery ticket — with the winning numbers 3, 6, 9, 17, and 56, with Powerball number 25 for the Saturday, May 19 drawing — at a ShopRite located on South River Street in Hackensack.

To say Souami was just lucky would be an understatement. The odds of winning the May drawing were one in 292.2 million. 

Souami's windfall is the fourth largest lottery jackpot won in the state lottery's history. Back in April, Richard Wahl of Vernon won the largest amount of money in the state's history, $533 million after playing Powerball.

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Comments

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Party Best Wishes to the New MultiMillionaire! Party

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Thumbs Up   Congrats Tayeb !!!!  I wish you and your family much enjoyment with your newly acquired wealth. Stay cautious, stay grounded and stay safe

Dd2160's avatarDd2160

Dam must be nice..may the force be with him and his family.

music*'s avatarmusic*

Congratulations to Tayeb Souami from Africa. He won just over $100,000,000.00 after taxes.

 He treated the winning ticket like it was trash. When will they learn? I give up.

 I am happy that he did the press conference. 

 Welcome to America Tayeb!!US Flag

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by music* on Jun 8, 2018

Congratulations to Tayeb Souami from Africa. He won just over $100,000,000.00 after taxes.

 He treated the winning ticket like it was trash. When will they learn? I give up.

 I am happy that he did the press conference. 

 Welcome to America Tayeb!!US Flag

 "He treated the winning ticket like it was trash."  ... l failed to find that anywhere in the article Music* Could it be that you confusing this account with another? He was probably born in Algeria, educated guess. Skin tone like "Zizou" - aka Zinedine Zidane.

Stack47

"The Little Ferry native elected to take the cash payout, meaning he will receive $183.2 million, before taxes."

After taxes he'll get about 1/3 of the advertised jackpot. And when you think about, the advertised jackpot is still before taxes if you take the payments.

Basically there never was a $315.3 million jackpot to claim.

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by noise-gate on Jun 8, 2018

 "He treated the winning ticket like it was trash."  ... l failed to find that anywhere in the article Music* Could it be that you confusing this account with another? He was probably born in Algeria, educated guess. Skin tone like "Zizou" - aka Zinedine Zidane.

"The second ticket was good but it the machine said it must be seen by the retailer," he said."

So he handed the ticket to a store clerk and was lucky the clerk didn't say "you won $100" and probably what Music meant by "treating the ticket like trash".

music*'s avatarmusic*

Quote: Originally posted by Stack47 on Jun 8, 2018

"The second ticket was good but it the machine said it must be seen by the retailer," he said."

So he handed the ticket to a store clerk and was lucky the clerk didn't say "you won $100" and probably what Music meant by "treating the ticket like trash".

I was a bit too harsh. Sorry about that.

I Agree! with your observation that, "the clerk didn't say "you won $100" 

 He definitely was lucky that he got an honest clerk. Not like what happened to Willis Willis in Texas and a winner here in CA who got his money after lottery security procedures caught the crooked clerk. 

Dance

music*'s avatarmusic*

I do not want a repeat of, "The largest jackpot never claimed was a Power Ball ticket for $51.2 million in Indiana in 2002." 

 I do not want to see another Clarence Jackson from Connecticut who tried to claim his prize two days late. He sued the Connecticut Lottery and lost. 

 I got all of this info. from an Amazon video titled, "LUCKY". 

Lurking

music*'s avatarmusic*

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Jun 8, 2018

Thumbs Up   Congrats Tayeb !!!!  I wish you and your family much enjoyment with your newly acquired wealth. Stay cautious, stay grounded and stay safe

I Agree!  I hope we have another smart winner here. He has placed his family first before charity. It appears that he does not want any more publicity. 

 Just do the required media availability and photo celebrity and then hide and be quiet. He and his family will soon be forgotten.

 He does have a financial adviser. That is a good start. 

 Congratulations!!  55 years old and now retired!Party

Soledad

No. He has to do like the commercials do, and press his unlock car door button in a garage full of 50 $150,000 cars and roam around aimlessly until he finds the right car that his key unlocked. LOL! “Yeah that kind of rich”. Hahaha yeah right. Lol. You’re right though, be quiet do nothing lol. Lol with that kind of money you could actually change the future. But how? Mercedes g63 AMG wagon would be my first purchase. BMW X6 not impressed tbh. , but it’s good too. Can outrun anything lol.

Soledad

Quote: Originally posted by Stack47 on Jun 8, 2018

"The Little Ferry native elected to take the cash payout, meaning he will receive $183.2 million, before taxes."

After taxes he'll get about 1/3 of the advertised jackpot. And when you think about, the advertised jackpot is still before taxes if you take the payments.

Basically there never was a $315.3 million jackpot to claim.

Zero strip bonds. You’re right. There’s deals to be made. Lol. Only wish that such said deals actually benefited also those said people that are referred too so often in said advertising campaigns ALL OF THE TIME. But they don’t, do they? No they don’t. Revenues go up, but surprisingly benefits go down. All they care about is future players, which they are so desperate to attract. Go figure.

Bleudog101

If he took the annual payments with the bonds the lottery takes out to secure funds it would equal to the advertised amount; but who wants to wait 30 years...get put in a higher tax bracket for that long.  I'm with him for cash-option.

 

He's an Accountant so he'll do fine with his $100 million plus.  I don't think there is a soul on this website that would gripe with that money.

Soledad

Wealth fantasies can only go so far...

“lottery funds earmarked for education can simply displace other sources of school funding, such as property taxes, which can then be diverted to other uses, such as the maintenance of state prisons or the salary of state legislators who continue to be paid while they are under federal indictment.”- an old contemporary of mine. No need for names. 

Screw the winner, he won. I mean don’t get me wrong cool for him and all, but what about the above statement in quotes. Well, what about it. That should be the real focus. Or are we just pigeons picking up whatever falls in front of us. Ha

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