The Arkansas Lottery announced that Judy Dudley of Lake City has claimed a $2 million prize for matching five of the six numbers on last weekend’s billion-dollar Megamaillions drawing.

She bought the ticket at a Kum and Go in Jonesboro while stopping to buy a Dr Pepper for her mother after a trip to a chiropractor.

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“It was hard to sleep Friday night,” she said. “But my main concern was keeping the ticket safe even though I had signed the back of it. It’s taken a while for all of this to sink in. But I don’t care if the world knows I won. My seven-year-old granddaughter announced it in Sunday School Sunday that I had won.”

Dudley retired from Arkansas State University in May 2021, and her husband retired three years ago. The couple plans to etake the entire family on a Hawaiian vacation next summer and help her daughter who is building a new house. Plus, her daughter who lives near her is expecting a baby later this month, and the new millionaire plans to babysit a lot.

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Big lottery winners have about a third of the prize withheld for state and federal taxes. At this level, the amount likely to be owed on federal taxes, with a rate of 35 percent on taxable income of more than $209,426 and 37 percent on amounts of more than $523,601. The state’s top rate is currently 5.9 percent but the legislature seems likely to cut that to 4.9 percent (on income of more than $87,000) retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year at a special session next week. That will mean a tax break of almost $20,000 to Dudley.

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