NIS 74 Million winner emerges, 4 months after lottery

Winning ticket was left in a bag for months. "This win is thanks to my wife, who pushed me to go check the tickets," the man said.

By BEN HARTMAN
74millionLotteryWin311 (photo credit: Mifal Hapayis)
74millionLotteryWin311
(photo credit: Mifal Hapayis)
The winner of the nation’s biggest lottery jackpot of all time claimed his NIS 74 million prize on Tuesday, after he had carried the winning numbers in a bag for over 4 months.
Mifal Hapayis, the national lottery, told Army Radio on Tuesday that it had been confident the winner “would come forward at some point.”
It said the jackpot winner had been walking around with the ticket in a bag since December and didn’t realize he had won because he always purchased several lottery numbers at once.
Only after his wife repeatedly reminded him to check the bag did he realize that he was a winner.
“This win is thanks to my wife, who pushed me to go check the tickets, because otherwise I wouldn’t have found it,” the man said.
After determining they had a winning ticket, the couple made a late-night visit to a store shortly before closing to see how large the prize would be. The husband said a silence fell over the room as they began counting the number of zeros in the winning payout with the clerk.
“How much did we win, for God’s sake?” he said he recalled thinking. “Everyone there was pretty shocked.”
The couple, from the center of the country with two children, showed upat the Mifal Hapayis headquarters on Tuesday to wear the requisitecardboard mask and pose with the requisite oversized check.
Thedrawing was held on December 26 and the lucky numbers on the “DoubleLotto” ticket were 24, 23, 21, 14, 8, and 6. The power number was 7.
Thoughfew will shed tears for the lucky winner, he will have to part with 25percent of his winnings – NIS 18 million – which will go straight tothe income tax authorities.
The couple said that they hadn’t yettold their children of their good fortune, and did not plan ondrastically changing their lives.
“We already have enough,” said the husband.