José Rafael Díaz Domínguez, a 21-year-old tire repairman, is the happy winner of RD$45 million Dominican lotto prize. Lotería Electrónica Internacional made the announcement on Tuesday. Díaz held on to the ticket throughout the long weekend only coming forth on Tuesday. He told Hoy newspaper, "no daré un golpe más," he wouldn’t work again and would live off the bank interest generated by the money. He said that he has already worked too much in his 21 years. Díaz Domínguez, lives in Guazumal 16, Tamboril, Santiago, in the center of the country. He said he hasn’t decided yet what to do with the money except to buy a good car (he always dreamed of having a Lexus when repairing the tires of luxury cars) and a house for his mother and seven sisters and brothers. His father abandoned the family when he was young. Díaz worked in his brother-in-law’s mechanic shop located on Av. Estrella Sahdalá corner Padre las Casas in the city of Santiago, the second largest in the Dominican Republic. He purchased the lucky ticket in a Santiago pharmacy. He said that his brother-in-law saw him sitting depressed because he didn’t have any money to play the lotto, and gave him the RD$30 to buy the ticket. When watching the draw on TV on Saturday, when his numbers were called he got so nervous he crumpled the ticket. He later used an iron to straighten it out and thus the ticket he presented had a black color tint to it, it was almost burned. Díaz will receive a check for RD$45,068,920 minus 15% tax.
