Posted on 12/27/2002 12:16:35 AM PST by kattracks
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr. thanks God that he picked the six numbers that won him the $314.9 million Christmas Day Powerball jackpot, and he's putting up the money to prove it.
"The very first thing I'm going to do is go home and make out three checks to three pastors," Mr. Whittaker said. Those checks, a tithe to the Church of God, will total $17 million.
"Seventeen million in the state of West Virginia will really do good for the poor," he said, adding that the three pastors will control the money and perhaps establish a Christian school.
The 55-year-old contractor, who won the largest single-winner lottery jackpot in history, opted to take a lump sum of $170 million before taxes, instead of 30 annual installments. The lump sum is worth more than $111 million after taxes, lottery spokeswoman Nancy Bulla said.
"I just want to thank God for letting me pick the right numbers, or letting the machine pick the right numbers," said Mr. Whittaker, who claimed his winnings dressed in black and wearing a big, black cowboy hat.
Mr. Whittaker lives in the small town of Scott Depot, about 20 miles west of Charleston, and is president of three construction companies that build sewage-treatment plants and other water projects.
"I've had to work for everything in my life. This is the first thing that's ever been given to me," he said.
Mr. Whittaker said he originally thought he had lost the jackpot because the numbers came up wrong on the televised drawing Christmas night. It wasn't until yesterday morning that he realized he won.
His wife of 36 years said she plans to go to Israel.
"I'd just go to go there. It's where Jesus walked," Jewell Whittaker said.
The couple planned to travel to New York City last night.
Mr. Whittaker said he would share the rest of his winnings with his family, and may expand his business. He has a daughter named Ginger and a 15-year-old granddaughter.
Ginger McMahan said she had cancer twice and had not worked for about a year. "I was getting ready to go back to work, but I think I'm retired now," she said.
Mr. Whittaker also said he wants to help "people who want to better themselves to have a better life."
"I'm getting really excited because of the good works I can do with this money," he said.
He said little about buying luxuries for himself — aside from a helicopter he said he had had his eye on for a while.
"I have 25 people laid off right now at Christmas, and I want more work so I can put them back to work," he said. He now employs 117 persons.
He told Miss Bulla he was not a regular lottery player but he bought $100 in tickets because the jackpot was so high. He plays when it reaches $100 million.
The ticket was purchased at the C&L Super Serve in Hurricane, 25 miles west of Charleston.
Mr. Whittaker went back to the store yesterday morning to fill up on gas and buy some biscuits, as he does each day. The clerk was the one who sold him the ticket. He told her he won, but "she said, 'No, you didn't, you're not excited enough to win the lottery.' And she just pushed me out the door," he said.
"It's so just that the poorest state in America wins the biggest Powerball in history," said Bob O'Dell, a 51-year-old resident of the town that's pronounced herr' ah cun. (West Virginia's per-capita income actually was second-lowest to Mississippi's in 2000.)
The Super Serve's owner, Larry Trogdon, will get $100,000 for selling the winning ticket.
"I have a daughter getting married this summer," he told NBC.
"I guess we're honeymooning in Hawaii," said his daughter, Amy, who manages the Super Serve and is getting married next summer to a clerk at the store.
"Heck, if you're going to Hawaii, I'm coming with you," Mr. Trogdon answered, laughing.
The jackpot was the largest ever for a single winning ticket, Miss Bulla said. It also was the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history.
An unexpected Christmas Day run on Powerball tickets pushed the already whopping $280 million jackpot to $314.9 million just before numbers were drawn, making it the Powerball's largest prize ever.
The winning numbers were 5-14-16-29-53 and the Powerball was 7.
Mr. Whittaker had the option of taking a cash payout of $170 million before taxes or collecting the entire jackpot in 30 payments over 29 years. He took the lump sum and Gov. Bob Wise presented him with an initial check of $10 million.
Powerball, the nation's largest lottery game, is sold in 23 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Before the Christmas 2002 prize, the largest Powerball jackpot was $295.7 million in July 1998.
The biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was a Big Game prize of $363 million, won in May 2000 by ticketholders in Michigan and Illinois. The second was a $331 million Big Game jackpot split between three tickets in April.
Spain's annual Christmas lottery known as El Gordo — "the Fat One" — is billed as the world's richest. This year's $1.7 billion jackpot spreads wealth among millions of people. About 10,000 numbers win some kind of prize, from $20 to $200,000.
are we going to play last word pissing match ? - not all pharm end users are "evil" - you sound much like the liberal kids at DU -
I never said all users were evil. I said you cannot ascertain whether some of the money you are paid has come from legitimate activities. Your own words on this thread state that the church should not take Whittaker's money; how can you take money if you're not confident of the source?
I dont expect a dog to become anything... its a dog. What are they teaching you? ;)
And to clear things up, it wasnt about the second coming, it was regarding rapture and or regarding Revelations as nothing more than symbolic. My wife tells me how little effort was taken to teach salvation and to do the duty we are commanded to do and that is to spread His word.
Who's being potty mouth? :-)
Oh, did you know what the Greek word for sorcery is in the New Testament? "Pharmakia" from which we get our modern word for...
Ok, ok.
charming
Israel coveted after meat after many days in the wilderness with nothing but manna. They cried out for meat and God granted their request. If you search scripture, you will not find that the abundance of quail they received to be a blessing.
According to your view, one can accumulate wealth from any activity and it is acceptable, I don't see how you can defend that point.
You also try to argue that everything in life is a gamble, therefore betting on the lottery is simply an extension of life. This is a facile argument. Everything in life involves some degree of risk. However, one does not place a wager with one's neighbor one whether one is going to arrive at work safely in the morning.
Second, if one assumes that every ordinary event in life involves risk, then everything that happens is a matter of mere chance. This is not true. Everything in life is order by the hand of God. Even the falling of leaf is subject to his decree. If you assume that the lottery is under God's control too, then you are suggesting that God intends to enrich one winner (or small group of winners) at the expense of millions of others who win nothing. Furthermore, this group of winners are enriched without doing anything to earn their winnings. This is a twisted and perverted view of God's rewards.
The bottom line is that you are going to have a hard time proving that gambling is an activity that carries divine approval.
1 Timothy 6
Love of Money
3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,
4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions
5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
Actually, it doesn't.
I never said that God was "in control" of the lottery and that He randomly chose to bless this man above others. I said that PERHAPS, because of his obedience to God's command of tithing that God chose to allow this man to win knowing that he would continue to bless the kingdom. IOW, He knew that this man could be trusted with the riches he received.
I never said that one could derive riches from any source and that it was "of God". Never.
And nowhere does it say that you "earn" a blessing either. That is the whole purpose of something being a blessing.
The Bible and church history testify to a position that gambling is not in accord with the will of God. In fact, the Church of God, the denomination that this man belongs to, has denounced gambling (including lotteries) as sinful. Why should he be lauded for tithing winnings to a denomination that considers those as ill-gotten gains?
PERHAPS, this individual, who is a member of the Church of God, and these pastors have had a change of mind? Maybe. I think I smell a piping hot dish of hypocrisy.
BTW, God can curse a person with riches as well as bless them. God has definitely given great wealth to this land. However, it is unclear whether that wealth is a blessing or a curse.
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