Cowboy's Lottery Win in a town call Winner
By: George
 An American rancher struggling to make ends meet in the state of South Dakota has won one of the biggest lottery jackpots in US lottery history.
Neal Wanless from the aptly named town of Winner landed US$232m - just short of £143m - on Friday. The single 23-year-old lives with his mother and father on the family's 320-acre ranch near Mission, where they raise cattle, sheep and horses. They don't own a phone and a mobile home of theirs was repossessed last year, and records show they have fallen US$3,552 (£2,183) behind in their property taxes. Mr Wanless bought US$15 worth of tickets to the May 27 Powerball draw, which covers 30 US states, at a convenience store in Winner during a trip to buy livestock feed. He said he intended to use the money to buy himself a bigger house and repay the kindness other townspeople had shown to his family over the years.
"I want to thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity and blessing me with this great fortune. I will not squander it," he promised, wearing a big black cowboy hat and a huge grin. He will take home a lump sum of US$88.5m (£54,392,000) after taxes are deducted. His father, Arlen Wanless, 54, has made a living in recent years mainly by buying and selling scrap metal. However, his fortunes dropped with the price of iron, said Dan Clark, an auctioneer from Winner and an old friend of his. "My family has been helped by the community, and I intend to repay that help many times over," Mr Wanless said, without going into further detail. He told lottery officials that he spent the last week working on the ranch and intends to continue that lifestyle, albeit on a larger piece of land. According to lottery officials, he recently told his horse, Eleanor, "It'd be nice if we go for a longer ride than usual on a bigger ranch of our own."
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