A struggling businessman became a millionaire here this week with a small investment of 16 yuan (1.93 US dollars) for eight sports lottery tickets.
The man, who asked not to be identified, said his windfall came by pure chance. He randomly chose four sets of numbers and two of them bought him an unexpected goldmine -- 10 million yuan (1.2 million US dollars) in total, according to a Beijing Youth Daily Report Wednesday.
The man will only be left with eight million yuan after tax.
He cashed in the lottery tickets on Monday and Tuesday respectively, saying he did not feel safe claiming the two prizes at once.
As a not very successful businessman, the man said that his prizes would first go to pay off his debts.
This is not the first time for one person in Beijing to win twotop prizes, worth five million yuan each, said the Beijing Youth Daily, but this overnight millionaire still caught people's attention.
China's sports lottery and social welfare lottery are the two officially-approved lotteries. The funds raised are devoted to developing popular sports and enhancing social welfare.
(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2003)
