Christmas gift worth $2 million

Alfie Farlow of Charlotte said he can’t wait to spend a wonderful Christmas with his family after he won $2 million in the Powerball drawing on Monday, Dec. 22, officials with the North Carolina Education Lottery said in a press release.

“I told them, ‘I think our life is about to change,’” Farlow said.

Farlow said the first thing he’s going to do is put some money into accounts for his two little daughters to pay for college.

“My girls won’t have to worry about college anymore. That’s what means the most to me,” Farlow said. “It feels wonderful.”

Farlow bought three Quick Pick Power Play tickets at Sam’s Mart on Providence Road the night of the drawing. Farlow said the next day he got up and went to work without even thinking about his Powerball tickets. After he finished work, Farlow said he checked the Powerball numbers on a friend’s phone to see if he’d won.

“I saw they matched, and I couldn’t believe it,” Farlow said. “It’s so unreal. You’re too scared to really believe it.

His $2 million win was the largest in the country in Monday’s drawing.

Farlow, a 54-year-old locomotive engineer, said after he sets aside some money for his daughters’ college, he wants to buy a new house and maybe start his own trucking business.

On Wednesday Farlow arrived at lottery headquarters to collect his prize. After required federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $1,415,000.

From what I can see in America it’s not uncommon to win big bucks)

People there play more and, strangely enough, ordinary people win big, because the law is followed there and so they’re more inclined to trust the lottery than we are…

PS. A few years back In October 2017 ex-MP Oleg Lyashko declared three wins in the lottery of the “Ukrainian National Lottery” company: 283,560, 153,485 and 134,000 hryvnias. He entered the corresponding data in his electronic declaration at the time.

“NACP carried out an inspection, established that he forged the winning ticket. We were confirmed that there was no such winning ticket. And there was a criminal case, he should have been brought to account, but the Constitutional Court annulled [that article],” the head of the NACP said.

Their taxes are, of course, crazy high – I basically gave away a quarter of my winnings)

Taxes are “draconian” and maybe that’s how it should be, well so that everyone would be fine – both the state and the people…) When I was in Europe, I asked around, and it turned out that one of the “biggest” crimes there is not paying taxes