Oregon winners of historic $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot revealed

The winners of Oregon’s largest-ever lottery jackpot — and the eighth-largest lottery win in the history of the United States — are Laiza Liem Chao, 55, of Milwaukie, and Cheng Saephan, 46, and Duanpen Saephan, 37, of Portland.

The Oregon Lottery announced their names with great fanfare in Salem on Monday.

“First, I want to thank God for giving me this beautiful prize,” said Cheng Saephan, the only winner to attend the official announcement at Oregon Lottery headquarters in Salem.

Cheng Saephan, his wife and Chao already have been paid, the couple and their friend splitting the $422,309,193.97 that remained of the $1.326 billion prize after state and federal taxes, lottery spokesperson Melanie Mesaros said. They opted for the one-time payout rather than the 30-year annuity, which also brought the amount down.

Cheng Saephan, who was born in Laos and moved to the United States from Thailand in 1994, said he is especially grateful that he will be able to provide a comfortable life for his family, which includes two children he has with his wife. As for himself, he doesn’t believe he’ll have that much time to enjoy his winnings because he is in the midst of battling cancer. He was first diagnosed in 2016, he said. His most recent chemotherapy treatment was a week ago.

“How am I going to have time to spend all of this money?” Cheng Saephan said.

Cheng Saephan said he, his wife and their friend Chao bought 20 lottery tickets for $200. For several months before the big win he said he felt like he was going to win something — but he expected no more than several million, he said, not a jackpot in excess of $1 billion. He plans to buy a house with the money, he said.

He used to be a machinist working on airplane parts, he said.

Cheng Saephan said he told his friend and co-winner Chao about the big win over the phone. He asked her what she was doing and she said she was driving to work.

“You don’t have to work now,” Cheng Saephan said he told her.

A man at the Salem event who identified himself as Cheng Saephan’s pastor said Saephan agreed to send him on missionary trips to Thailand, Laos and possibly China.

The historic winning Powerball ticket was sold at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Northeast Portland. The store will get a $100,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket, the Oregon Lottery said.

“I want to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the Saephans and Ms. Chao on this historic win,” Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a statement. “Not only is the prize life-changing for the three of them and their families, it’s also a huge win for the state.”

— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.

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