{"id":16009,"date":"2026-04-12T13:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T13:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.thelotter.com\/?p=16009"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:32:08","slug":"iraqi-player-wins-oregon-megabucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelotter.com\/blog\/winners\/iraqi-player-wins-oregon-megabucks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of an Iraqi Man Who Stunned America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Story of an Iraqi Man Who Stunned America<\/h1>\n\n\n
TheLotter<\/a><\/span> \u00bb The Story of an Iraqi Man Who Stunned America<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

One man\u2019s amazing road to wealth\u2026 In the spring of 2015 M. opened an online lottery account at TheLotter from his home in Iraq \u2013 three months on he\u2019d won a lottery jackpot of $6.4 million in the US<\/strong>! Loads of people all over the world are following the footsteps of the famous man from Baghdad and have started playing international top lotteries online, like the US Powerball<\/a><\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: M. was the first online lottery player at TheLotter to be featured in the international press but there have been other big lottery winners at TheLotter since, including a woman from Panama named Aura who scooped up a giant Florida Lotto jackpot worth $30 million USD<\/a><\/strong> in July 2017. She became an overnight sensation in Central America. Over the years, TheLotter has paid out over $100 million in prizes to more than 6 million winners <\/strong>from across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving in Baghdad, He Got a Phone Call that Changed His Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Are you sure? Are you sure?!”<\/em><\/strong> — M., a 37-year-old father from Baghdad in Iraq, kept repeating the question when he got the phone call with the news he had won the $6.4 million jackpot in the Oregon Megabucks on 24 August, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. had only started playing lotteries in the US and Europe through TheLotter three months before he won. “It was a shock. At first, I thought it was a joke. I was driving in my car, I was going to the bank\u2026 so I get a call from TheLotter, from a great person called Christine, and she told me the great news, so I was in shock! I suspected I\u2019d won something, but had no idea it was the jackpot.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackpot Winner Fears for His Life, Pleads for His Name Not to Be Revealed
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After careful preparation in the autumn, M. flew to Oregon to claim his millions in December. He requested that TheLotter and the Oregon Lottery keep his name confidential because of safety concerns. “The situation in Iraq is not good. It’s very dangerous. If my name were revealed, it would be a big problem.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oregon Lottery director Jack Roberts agreed to the unusual request. “The personal safety risk that he and his family might face seems stronger than the public interest of knowing who the person is,” Roberts told local media. “I don’t want to read that somebody has been kidnapped or killed because we announce them as a Megabucks winner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Can a Foreigner Play the Lottery in the United States?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So how did he do it? How did M. participate in a US lottery from Iraq?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. played US lotteries online through TheLotter, a worldwide messenger service that was established in 2002. Through TheLotter people can request somebody to physically purchase lottery tickets on their behalf, even when they are outside of the country or state where the lottery takes place. TheLotter doesn\u2019t operate lotteries, but its local reps in more than 20 countries across the world purchase official paper tickets and make a scanned copy available in online players’ secure personal accounts. TheLotter enables people to play the Mega Millions<\/a>, play the US Powerball<\/a>, and play the EuroMillions<\/a> lotteries and a host of other draws from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n