China's biggest jackpot winner collected his winnings yesterday at the Gansu Welfare Lottery Center without reporters spotting him, the newspaper Information Times reported today.

The center opened a "green channel" for the winner to protect his privacy, the report said.

The civil servant won 114 million yuan (US$15.43 million) on November 27, the newspaper said.

"I felt so excited when learning that I won the jackpot," the winner told an employee at the lottery center. "I couldn't even sleep or eat in the past couple days."

"I heard a radio broadcast saying the jackpot had accumulated to more than 100 million yuan while driving my car on November 27. So I chose the combination at random to try my luck," he told the employee.

He bought 21 tickets with the same combination of numbers and 15 tickets with another combination of numbers. Each ticket costs two yuan.

The top award was more than five million yuan this time, thus the man received 21 times the award and another 15 tickets also brought him the second prize.

He has bought lottery tickets for a long time and will continue to do so in the future, he said.

The man said he will donate one million yuan to needy people and invest the rest in companies instead of depositing it into banks, the report said.

The draw is held every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Two lottery machines pick six of 33 red balls and one of 16 blue-colored balls to generate the winning combination of numbers.

(Shanghai Daily, December 4, 2007)