Powerball prize goes to 'cowboy' contractor

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A 55-year-old contractor won the $314.9 million Christmas Day jackpot -- the biggest undivided lottery prize in history -- and said the first thing he will do is turn over 10 percent to his church.

"I just want to thank God for letting me pick the right numbers -- or letting the machine pick the right numbers," said Powerball winner Andrew "Jack" Whittaker Jr., dressed in black with a big black cowboy hat.

Whittaker stepped forward Thursday with his wife, daughter and 15-year-old granddaughter and accepted an oversized facsimile check for $314.9 million and a cashable $10 million first installment on the multistate lottery prize.

He said he plans to lavish money on his family, expand his contracting business, maybe buy a helicopter, and give to his church.

"The very first thing I'm going to do is sit down and make out three checks to three pastors for 10 percent of this check," he said.

Whittaker, who lives in the small town of Scott Depot, about 20 miles west of Charleston, and is president of three construction companies that build sewage plants and other water projects, opted to take a lump sum of $111.7 million after taxes instead of 30 annual installments.

"I've had to work for everything in my life. This is the first thing that's ever been given to me," he said.

Numbers came up wrong

Whittaker said he originally thought he had lost the jackpot because the numbers came up wrong on the televised drawing Christmas night. It was not until Thursday morning that he realized he hit all six numbers and won.

His daughter, 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.

Whittaker's 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.

Whittaker also said he wants to help "people to 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 said he currently employs 117 people.

He said he was not a regular lottery player but bought $100 in tickets because the jackpot was so high. He said he plays only when it reaches $100 million.

The ticket was purchased at the C&L Super Serve in Hurricane, a town of 5,200 people 25 miles west of Charleston.

Whittaker went back to the store Thursday 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.

The jackpot was the largest ever for a single winning ticket, West Virginia lottery spokeswoman Nancy Bulla said. It also was the fifth-largest jackpot in U.S. history.

The Super Serve's owner, Larry Trogdon, will get $100,000 for seling the ticket.

"I have a daughter getting married this summer," he told NBC, smiling.

"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," Trogdon answered, laughing.

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 two ticketholders in Michigan and Illinois. The second-biggest 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 jackpot is $1.7 billion. But about 10,000 numbers win at least a piece of prize, from $20 to $200,000.