He was a poor and illiterate carpenter living in the slums of Manila. Too poor to send his children to school.
But on Thursday he became a millionaire, and the Philippine’s 2nd largest ever lottery winner.
He bought just one 20 Peso ticket – less than the price of a postage stamp – as that was all he had. But that single ticket turned out to be worth 356.5 Million Peso (about US$8 Million).
The 60 year old man remains unnamed, as under Philippines lottery rules winners are never identified for security reasons.
This real life slumdog millionaire first plans to spend the money escaping the shanty town where he currently lives.
He will buy his family a real house, as they have never owned a proper house before. It will no doubt feel palatial compared to the small shack in which he currently lives with his 6 grown up children, and their 5 wives.
The Philippines lottery is drawn 3 times per week, and has a 1-in-29 million chance of winning the jackpot. But the large jackpot had rolled over an incredible 43 times with no winner before the slumdog carpenter claimed the prize.
His numbers were chosen using a combination of his birthday, his wife’s birthday and the date of their wedding.
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