Needy win, banks lose

CHINA'S biggest jackpot winner collected his winnings on Monday at the Gansu Welfare Lottery Center and managed to elude eager reporters, the newspaper Information Times reported yesterday.

The man said he would donate one million yuan (US$135,135) to needy people and invest the rest in companies instead of depositing it into banks, the report said.

To help him evade the press, the center opened a "green channel" for the winner to protect his privacy, the report said.

The civil servant won 114 million yuan on November 27, the newspaper said.

"I felt so excited when learning I won the jackpot," the winner told an employee at the lottery center. "I couldn't even sleep or eat in the past couple of days.

"I heard a radio broadcast saying the jackpot had accumulated to more than 100 million yuan while driving my car on November 27. So I chose a random combination to try my luck."

He bought 21 tickets with the same combination of numbers and 15 tickets with another combination of numbers. Each ticket costs two yuan.