When This Lucky Man Won Millions On The Lottery, He Dropped A Major Bombshell On His Best Friend

By Andrea Marchiano

What would you do with $22 million? Buy a yacht, perhaps? Move into a mansion? It’s something that probably crosses your mind when you see a Powerball billboard on the highway. But not everyone has to daydream about bringing home a ton of cash. One man knows exactly what that’s like. Only his unexpected move after the millions hit his bank account left everyone stunned, and what's more, it completely changed the relationship with his closest friend.

That guy is Thomas Cook, and he had wondered for years what he’d do if he ever won the Powerball jackpot. Then, to his great surprise, he finally got to put that long-imagined plan into motion. First off, the Wisconsinite had to call his friend Joseph Feeney – and drop a rather large bombshell on him. 

It’s not hard to think of yourself in Cook’s place. You may even have played Powerball yourself since it began in 1992! Back then, hopefuls each picked five numbers out of a range from 1 to 45. They also chose a separate Powerball number – also from between 1 and 45. Simple enough? We think so. And that’s all it took for Cook to become a multi-millionaire.

Not everyone has scooped as much money as Cook has, though. The Powerball jackpots in the early days were relatively small. The first-ever winner took home a $5.9 million prize – which, let’s face it, is still nothing to sniff at. But as time has gone on, the game has changed slightly – and the cash rewards have gotten even bigger.

That's all great news, but in reality, you have a very slim chance of winning the Powerball. The likelihood is approximately 1 in 292 million, which means all most of us will do is dream. But the chance to bring home millions – or billions – has kept many of us in the game. And this included Cook.

Wisconsin — Cook's home state — was actually one of the first states to take part in the Powerball, and it’s had 18 winners since that very first draw back in 1992. Back in 2019 West Allis resident Manuel Franco became a multi-millionaire. Not only that, but he clinched the third-biggest cash sum ever given out in a U.S. lottery. It’s an amount that totally dwarfs Cook’s impressive win.

How much did Franco get? A truly incredible $768 million. He also opted to receive his winnings in a lump sum. And even though Franco had to pay state and federal taxes on the money, he still netted a world-changing amount of cash: $326 million, according to the folks in the know.

You can also forget about staying anonymous if you’re lucky enough to scoop the Powerball in Wisconsin. State law doesn’t allow you to. That’s not great if you’d like to keep greedy family members at bay... So, Franco had to go through the process of a press conference. And while speaking to the media, he described how he had felt when he had bought his Powerball tickets for a mere $10.

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