NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Lottery officials verified Friday that a warehouse supervisor from Tennessee bought one of the three tickets that won the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot.
John Robinson of Munford, a town of 6,000 north of Memphis, said he quickly reached out to his brother and others to assemble a team of lawyers and financial planners. They decided to take his winnings in a single lump sum of nearly $328 million, rather than let the Lottery invest the prize and pay him 30 annual installments totaling an estimated $533 million.
“We’re going to take the lump sum, because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow,” Robinson said.
He said they have no plans to move from their small, one-story house or to splurge on big purchases. They’ll pay off their daughter’s student loans, and he and his wife, Lisa, plan to return to work Monday. She works in a dermatologist’s office.
“That’s what we’ve done all our lives, is work,” he said. “You just can’t sit down and lay down and not do nothing anymore. How long are you going to last?”
The Associated Press
