Powerball · United States · 28 May 2005
Duke had played on and off for five or six years using what he called a homemade numbers matrix rather than a quick pick. He bought the winning ticket at a Boise, Idaho convenience store.
Advertised prize
$220,300,000
Cash value $125,300,000
Ticket
Own numbers
Outcome
Went well
Still comfortable, by the most recent reporting.
Brad Duke was 33 and working as regional manager of fitness for five Gold's Gym clubs around Boise, Idaho, on about $60,000 a year and 60-hour weeks, when his ticket matched the Powerball draw of 28 May 2005 for $220.3 million, at the time the second-largest single-ticket Powerball win. He was not a quick-pick player: he described himself as a self-taught numbers theorist who had built a homemade numbers matrix after several years of experimenting with different systems. Duke took the cash option of $125.3 million instead of 30 annual payments of $7.4 million, leaving roughly $85 million after tax. He said his aim was to build a $1 billion portfolio within 15 years. He assembled a team of about 20 marketing, financial and legal advisers and divided the money, placing $45 million in municipal bonds and other low-risk holdings and $35 million in oil, gas and real estate, and seeding the Duke Family Foundation with $1.3 million. By early 2007 he put his net worth at $128 million to $130 million. He kept living in a 1,400-square-foot house in Star, Idaho, and by March 2008 estimated he had spent under $1 million of the win and given away more than $2 million.
NPR interviewed Duke again in January 2016, a decade after the win, for a segment on how $220 million changed him. His most recent detailed public accounting of the money remains the $128-$130 million net worth he gave Idaho Business Review in 2007 (2016).
One detail worth keeping
Duke kept driving a Volkswagen Jetta after the jackpot, and by 2008 had swapped the 2005 model for an older 2003 one.
Cheng 'Charlie' Saephan
Ended in tragedyPowerball · United States · 2024
$1,326,000,000
Laiza Chao joked to the Saephans before the draw that they were already "billionaires"; her $100 stake in a 20-ticket batch made it true.
Theodorus Struyck
Stayed privatePowerball · United States · 2023
$1,765,000,000
He bought the second-largest winning ticket in Powerball history about 500 yards from his own front door, at a cabin he had paid $90,000 for in 2010.
Edwin Castro
Went wellPowerball · United States · 2022
$2,040,000,000
The draw ran a day late: Minnesota's sales-verification system held up all 48 lotteries, so the $2.04bn numbers were drawn at 8:57 a.m. ET on 8 November 2022.
Manuel Franco
Stayed privatePowerball · United States · 2019
$768,400,000
He told reporters he had under $1,000 in his bank account when he spent $10 on the quick picks that won $768.4 million.
Cheng 'Charlie' Saephan
Ended in tragedyPowerball · United States · 2024
$1,326,000,000
Laiza Chao joked to the Saephans before the draw that they were already "billionaires"; her $100 stake in a 20-ticket batch made it true.
Theodorus Struyck
Stayed privatePowerball · United States · 2023
$1,765,000,000
He bought the second-largest winning ticket in Powerball history about 500 yards from his own front door, at a cabin he had paid $90,000 for in 2010.
Saltines Holdings, LLC (Miami, Florida)
Stayed privateMega Millions · United States · 2023
$1,602,000,000
The biggest Mega Millions winner in history is a company: Saltines Holdings, LLC of Miami. The Publix that sold the $2 Quick Pick collected a $100,000 retailer bonus.
Edwin Castro
Went wellPowerball · United States · 2022
$2,040,000,000
The draw ran a day late: Minnesota's sales-verification system held up all 48 lotteries, so the $2.04bn numbers were drawn at 8:57 a.m. ET on 8 November 2022.
Every figure and quotation above comes from these.
Last verified: 2026-09-13