$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot winner is a Laotian immigrant battling cancer

Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, who was born in Laos and immigrated to the U.S. in 1994, plans to split the money with a friend and find himself a “good doctor.”

One of the winners of a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot this month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.

Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, 46, of Portland, told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery on Monday that he and his 37-year-old wife, Duanpen, would split the prize evenly with a friend. Laiza Chao, 55, of the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, had chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them. They are taking a lump sum payment, $422 million after taxes.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

The article doesn’t make it 100% clear, but it sounds like this guy was just going to die of untreated cancer due to our for-profit healthcare system if he hadn’t won the Powerball.

So I guess all of you cancer victims without good insurance know what to do.

7U5K3N,

Well I mean he’s an immigrant. What are we supposed to do? Provide insurance to immigrants?!?!

Crazy talk!

I’d say obviously/s but this day and age you never can tell. :(

BossDj,

Oregon does not check immigration status to apply for the state’s free insurance that covers anyone making less than 250% the federal definition of poverty. That means even undocumented immigrants get full access to Medicaid.

You can even get a driver’s license and send kids to school without including immigration status in Oregon (yay sanctuary states!). If he doesn’t want a license, trips to medical facilities are provided free. Getting that time off work is a different story…

He said in his speech he has been “battling cancer” and is getting chemotherapy treatment.

feedum_sneedson,

He’ll probably still die. So don’t fret.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I hope not for a long time since he’s not an old man.

feedum_sneedson,

Well, cancer can be like that.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Often not, if you can get treatment. Which he can now afford through sheer luck alone, unlike many other cancer victims in America who could have beaten their cancer if they could have afforded to.

sik0fewl,

So you’re saying he found the cure for cancer?

Hopefully it’s not too late.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

So you’re saying he found the cure for cancer?

Yes, win a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot.

Alexstarfire,

Talk about making it in America. Good for him. Well, except the cancer part. That can fuck right off.

lennybird,
@lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

Man, to be an actual billionaire it must be something to be able to open every single door and go any place you want. Almost like playing a game with cheat codes on. I wonder if it gets dull after a while. They don’t seem particularly happy.

catloaf,

It does. That’s why a lot of lottery winners and pro athletes are broke after a few years. You take your money, live large, lifestyle creep happens, then the money stops but the bills keep coming.

lennybird,
@lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

It’s probably not the case but I always wondered if some of those public stories are just to get beggars off your back. Akin to faking one’s death, you fake you lost all your money so people stop hounding you. I’d probably do this if I had to announce my winnings (but then I’d have to play let alone win).

I’d do a lot of research on buying a place to live comfortably and sustainably with my family. I’d probably just pocket the rest in trusts for my kids and travel mostly. Lifestyle creep is a massive concern. I don’t know if I’d have the willpower to regulate that but I’d like to think I would…

_haha_oh_wow_,
@_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

He only gets like 400m of that though, wouldn’t it be nice if we taxed billionaires and corporations like we taxed lottery winners so people with cancer could just get good doctors instead of being effectively sentenced to death for not being rich enough?

callouscomic,

His hospital now: “Well would you look at that. Your treatment is suddenly $200 million. Man, that sucks. I’m sorry.”

TheRealKuni, (edited )

I mean, $400 million is plenty.

I was listening to an episode of the Dollop where the children of two rich families, when they got married, were given the modern equivalent of $6.5 million to spend on their three month honeymoon.

I did some basic, conservative math. If given $6.5 million, I could very comfortably live the rest of my life. Keep the $500k liquid and invest the $6mil even in very safe investments like treasury bonds or bills, and live on the interest.

If $6.5 million is enough to live comfortably on, $400 million is more than enough.

Edit: So sorry downvoters, I did a poor job responding here. I only replied to the “he only got $400 million” part and I didn’t spell out that I agree that billionaires shouldn’t exist and should be taxed heavily, so I can see where you might’ve thought I wasn’t properly anti-billionaire by only responding to one part of the post.

Just to make it clear, fuck billionaires. I feel like that could’ve been inferred by saying one could comfortably live a life of luxury off $6.5 mil, but I can understand the confusion.

acetanilide,

Idk I spent the entire billion in my head the other day and got quite mad when I realized I wouldn’t even get half of it.

_haha_oh_wow_,
@_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

You’re right, billionaires should probably just get taxed out of existence, that’s more money that anyone could ever need even if they lived dozens of lifetimes.

TheRealKuni,

I agree 100%. Nothing I said in my post was meant to disagree with that part.

riodoro1,

This is a message to all poor people dying of cancer to go and spend whatever they have on state sponsored gambling. The orphan crushing machine knows no rest.

set_secret,

Apparently even with the win he still can’t afford US health care bills.

ABCDE,

Almost a billion in taxes? Ahaha wow.

ryan213,
@ryan213@lemmy.ca avatar

Haha yeah why bother even playing if most of the winnings go to taxes!?

friend_of_satan,

You had me at “why bother even playing”

anonymous69,

No. The lump sum payment option is $600 million-ish. You would only get the $1.3 billion (pre-tax) if you take the annuity option.

ABCDE,

How long would it take to get that?

RedWeasel,

i believe it is 20 years and goes away if you die. I may misremembering though.

MagicShel,

Smart idea to not take the annuity if you’re currently battling cancer. Consensus seems to be the annuity is a bad deal anyway but to be honest I might go for it. That would help protect me from stupid decisions. No matter how much I fuck up this year, I still get a lifetime of money next year.

RedWeasel,

Probably still better to take the lump and set up a trust with investments.

MagicShel,

For sure I’d hire a financial advisor to help make those decisions.

dogslayeggs,

Making the most money in a vacuum, yes it is better to take the lump. But it really depends on how smart you are as a spender of money. If you can’t control yourself to not spend it all quickly, then a forced budget over 20 years might actually make you more money. This becomes less true with billion dollar winners, since the difference in what you can do between having 40M per year vs 400M lump isn’t as big as 1M per year vs 10M lump. It’s really easy to spend 10M and go broke, but getting a guaranteed income of 1M for 20 years makes it less likely you’ll go broke.

iopq,

Annuity usually underperforms just buying S&P 500

ABCDE,

The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes and state taxes in Oregon.

I should have clicked the article before instead of relying on the not-so-short summary above. Not bad, but yes, not much point for him with his situation.

BossDj,

Federal government takes about 25% in tax.

Oregon takes 8%, more than half of which goes to education

Viking_Hippie,

As far as I can tell, $1.3B was the total amount split between several winners. Even if not, I’d be completely fine with paying a billion in taxes and still having much more left over than I could possibly spend 🤷😄

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’d love to be able to afford to pay a billion dollars in taxes. May I be cursed with such a burden.

Steve,

I wonder if they want to adopt me

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