Oregon Lottery Winners

Oregon Friends of 40 Years Share Megabucks Jackpot

Two Oregon men who have been friends for over 40 years are celebrating a Megabucks top prize of $7.4 million they won in the January 23, 2021 drawing.

Brian Krahmer and Erik Maki, both of Hillsboro, have been friends since middle school and have also been coworkers for 25 years. Last year, the pair decided they were ready for a new challenge: winning the lottery. For 28 weeks, they took turns to buy Oregon's Game Megabucks tickets. But despite their diligent efforts, "The best we'd done had been winning a free ticket!" Maki said.

However, their luck was about to change after Krahmer picked up their latest ticket at the Cedar Mills Liquor Store, located on Cornell Road in Portland. The lucky ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Saturday, January 23 when the Megabucks numbers were: 16, 25, 33, 35, 37, and 47.

"We always check our tickets on Monday," Maki told the OR Lottery. "Our offices are next door to each other, and Brian brought the ticket and said we'd won $7,400. We were pretty excited about that. Then Brian decided to check what number we'd missed, and he compared the ticket to the Lottery app. That's when he saw that we'd matched all six numbers and we'd really won $7.4 million!"

At that point, the men called their wives - but it took some time to convince their spouses that the big news was true. "They didn't believe us at first," Krahmer laughed. "That was understandable because we both like to joke around."

Next, the friends contacted a financial planner and CPA to plan how to manage their life-changing win. Finally, it was time to claim the prize - after withholdings, Krahmer and Maki took home almost $1.3 million each.

The Oregon Lottery's Salem and Wilsonville offices are temporarily closed due to the spread of coronavirus. Winners can still claim prizes by completing a claim form and mailing it to the Lottery along with the signed ticket. If you've been lucky enough to win $50,000 or above, you'll need to call the Lottery at 503-540-1000 to organize a time to claim in person at the Salem office.

Oregon's Biggest Lottery Winners

Here are Oregon lottery winners who have won some of the biggest jackpot prizes…

Saephans and Laiza Chao, $1.32 billion Powerball jackpot, April 6, 2024

There was a single winning ticket which managed to match all the numbers in the $1.32 billion Powerball draw on April 6, 2024. It was the largest amount ever won in Oregon and, at the time of the win, it was the eighth-biggest prize offered by U.S. lotteries. The cash option was worth $621 million.

The winners came forward within days and opted for the lump sum. Cheng and Duanpen Saephan took half the cash, while the rest went to their friend Laiza Chao, who had contributed $100 to buying a batch of tickets for the draw.

Cheng Saephan said he would focus on his family and his health, having had cancer for eight years, while his first purchase would be his dream house.

Chaney and West families, $340 million Powerball jackpot, October 19, 2005

This is about a win which was, in its time, the second-biggest jackpot in the history of the U.S. lottery.

Bob and Frances Chaney and their daughter and son-in-law, Carolyn and Steve West, matched all the numbers in the Powerball draw and won a $340 million jackpot. Frances Chaney couldn’t really believe this and was in total disbelief.

Both the couples invested $20 each to purchase their joint Powerball tickets. They chose to take the cash option lump sum prize, which came out to $110 million, after taxes. They are still Oregon's biggest Powerball winners.

Daniel Gannon, $182.7 million Powerball jackpot, March 17, 2007

Milwaukie resident Daniel Gannon, 60, was heading to dinner with his wife Candy. In the midway, they stopped by a Safeway store to withdraw some cash from an ATM. Gannon was attracted to the big amount mentioned as the Powerball jackpot was and bought a $5 quick pick, without knowing what future holds for him.

The next morning, he checked the winning numbers in the newspaper and told his wife, "We won $182 million," and she said, "No way!"

Gannon chose to take a lump sum of his prize and received about $59 million after taxes.

Steven Nickell, $150.4 Powerball, June 20, 2018

Salem resident Steven Nickell was clueless about his win in the Powerball jackpot when he turned in his Quick Pick single-draw ticket. The clerk there told him that people who won more than $600 would need to visit the Lottery office to collect their prize money. Hearing which he thought he could buy something nice for his wife for the Fourth of July. Never in his wildest dreams, he imagined that the ticket might be worth $150 million."

Nickell said: "At first I felt guilty I won. Then I realized that I'm the guy that gets to stand up and say BINGO! We all play the game, it just so happens I'm the guy who got to win this time."

Nickell chose to take the lump sum of his prize, which amounted to around $61.7 million after taxes.

Givens Family, $38.4 million jackpot, October 1982

The Givens family from Eugene became Oregon’s first Powerball winners.

Arthur Brenner, $30 million Megabucks jackpot, November 15, 2004

This was the biggest Megabucks jackpot prize ever won in Oregon’s own state lottery.

Arthur Brenner, a 65-year-old semi-retired accountant from Portland, claimed a $30 million jackpot. Brenner's cousin, Susan Cox, had purchased the winning $6 ticket for him at a Milwaukie convenience store. When he learned about him winning the jackpot, he just couldn’t believe it. Brenner said he had been playing the same numbers for 16 years and buys a ticket for each Megabucks drawing.
Brenner chose to take a $9.8 million lump-sum cash payment of the prize, after withholding for state and federal taxes. Arthur gave Susan a $99,000 check; 1 percent share of the record prize.

Mega Millions never won in Oregon

As of today, there have been five Oregon Powerball jackpot winners but no MegaMillions winners.

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