Iraqi $6.4 million Megabucks winner ‘thought it was a joke’

New details emerged Thursday from interviews with the Iraqi man who used a Website to buy, through a Bend deli, an Oregon Lottery Megabucks ticket late this summer — and just last week showed up in Salem to claim his $6.4 million jackpot.

The Lotter.com shared an interview and photo of the man, identified as “M.M.,” with his ceremonial check, his face covered and eyes blurred to protect his identity. The Oregon Lottery also made an exception to the rules and did not reveal his name, citing fears of danger he expressed for himself and his family in his war-torn homeland.

The man said he’d only been playing at TheLotter for a few months and the big jackpot prompted him to buy the Megabucks tickets.

He said he wasn’t paying attention to the results — numbers 15, 27, 32, 39, 44 and 45, by the way — and that he was actually driving to the bank when TheLotter called him with the good news, “so I was in shock!”

In fact, he told Willamette Week in a phone interview, “At first, I thought it was a joke.”

M.M. told the newspaper he is 37 years old and married, with two sons, and runs a trading company in Iraq.

He said he’d played the Oregon Lottery a couple times in the past, and that his trip to Salem to claim the prize was his first U.S. visit. He told Willamette Week his trip was delayed due to the difficulty in obtaining a visa.

The lottery-ticket Website said they kept the news “on the lowdown” until M.M. could travel to Oregon and claim the prize, as the rules required. He said his family has a comfortable living and he has no plans for the money, other than passing it on to his children.

As for keeping his name secret, the man said, “The situation in Iraq is not good. It’s very dangerous. If my name were revealed, it would be a big problem.”

Having spent a week in Oregon, M.M. said, “It’s very beautiful — and so clean.”

It marked the first known time in the Oregon Lottery’s 30-year history that the ticket for a winning big jackpot has been sold through an international online lottery ticket sales site, officials confirmed Wednesday.

“We sell a lot of megabucks tickets, they come in with hands full of them,” said Judy Bell-Putis, owner of Binky’s on Southeast Third Street in Bend.

One of those tickets turned out to crack the jackpot.

“That doesn’t happen very often, so it was exciting for us to be sold here,” Bell-Putis said Wednesday.

On Aug. 24, theLotter.com hired someone go to Binky’s, a deli and lottery ticket sales outlet, and buy a Megabucks ticket on behalf of a Website customer, who as it turned out is an Iraqi national.

No winner came forward until Dec. 1, when the man walked into the Oregon Lottery’s Salem headquarters to claim his prize – and to spark a round of legal inquiry about the unique (to this point) circumstances of the big win.

“This is absolutely unprecedented for the Oregon Lottery,” said Chuck Baumann, lottery spokesman.

Baumann told NewsChannel 21 on Wednesday that such online sales are legal in this case, though the lottery itself does not sell tickets online.

Rather than a lump-sum payment, the winner chose to take his payout over 20 years. The agency made the first payment of $256,000 last week ($158,000 after withholding income taxes, as is the typical procedure). The Megabucks cash lump sum payment would have been $3.2 million — half the jackpot amount, before taxes are paid.

Lottery officials said they sought legal advice and were told the purchaser did nothing wrong and he should be paid. But the lottery’s own Website notes that it’s a murky issue: “Internet wagering is a complex issue involving both state and federal law, as well as a number of regulatory, technological and security challenges.”

Lottery rules also state that the winning ticketholder’s name is public record, but the winner in this case asked that his name be withheld.

Roberts told the paper he’s convinced the Iraqi man made a reasonable case about the dangerous situation in his homeland and “personal safety risk that he and his family might face,” as to what could happen if his big winnings became known. Oregon’s public records law allows agencies to withhold information for personal privacy reasons.

The newspaper said theLotter.com, based in Israel, allows customers to buy lottery tickets from all over the world.

According to theLotter’s FAQ page, the site has a London mailing address and The Lotter Enterprises Ltd. is registered in Belize. It says all prizes are commission-free, though it charges a hefty fee for the initial ticket purchase — $3 worth of Megabucks tickets cost $9 — and if one wins a jackpot, “theLotter will fly you to the country” where it happened, “our local office representative will hand you your winning ticket” and will tell you how to claim the prize.

With that kind of system, Oregon Lottery officials acknowledge there’s no way of really knowing if it’s the first jackpot won through an online site, only that it’s the first they they were informed of such, and in very unusual circumstances.

While Bell-Putis and her son were hoping to have the winning ticket themselves, selling the ticket might have been the next best thing for them.

Binky’s gets a “selling bonus,” as the lottery’s contract with retailers stipulates, of 1 percent of the prize, up to $100,000 — so in this case, the deli’s bonus is $64,000, Baumann said.

“We’re glad to have it,” Bell-Putis said. “This is a real small store here.”