Georgia Lottery Winnings $390 Million Jackpot & $5 Million Scratch-Off

$390 million dollars: The richest lottery in U.S. history has now become history. Two players were issued winning numbers. Eddie Eugene Nabors, of Dalton, Georgia, stepped forward to claim his half of the $116,557,083 million. A truck driver for Mohawk Industries, Nabors took the day off Thursday to claim his money from the Georgia Lottery Office.

Nabors bought the ticket when he went into the local Favorite Market convenience store for his morning coffee. While there, he bought a ticket with the numbers 16-22-29-39-42, with Mega Ball 20. Later that morning a coworker advised Nabors that someone in Dalton had won. When Nabors learned he was a winner, he was overcome. He had beaten the odds. He was one of two of the 176 million who had a chance of winning.

Nabors won, and chose to take his money and run. Opting for the lump sum payment, he will take home approximately $83 million after taxes. A simple man, Nabors' only commitments thus far are to buy his daughter a house and spend some time fishing. True to his word, he purchased a boat on Friday.

Favorite Market will receive a $25,000 incentive for selling the winning ticket. Proceeds from lottery ticket sales will help fund HOPE, a scholarship program to encourage Georgia High School Students to attend college. Sales also fund the Georgia pre-kindergarten program.

The second winning ticket was sold in New Jersey. The owner of that winning ticket has yet to surface.

In another big Georgia win, a Kennesaw woman picked up a cool $5 million playing a scratch-off instant game purchased at a Quicktrip in Kennesaw. Teresa Mongeau is an instructor and stylist at Roffler-Moler Hairstyling College in Marietta, Georgia. Like Nabors she reports still being in shock and just trying to absorb the reality of winning.

The recent winning streak in Georgia will benefit the state in returns to the education of its children and youth.