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Customers enter a Portland store that heavily advertises Oregon Lottery games.

(The Oregonian/2010)

The Oregon Lottery now has its own international man of mystery: An Iraqi Kurd living in Baghdad who won a $6.4 million Megabucks jackpot and has convinced lottery officials to keep his name secret for his own safety.

After traveling from the Mideast, the man strolled into lottery headquarters in Salem on Dec. 1 with little advance notice and presented the winning ticket, which he bought through a privately operated website.

While the Oregon Lottery doesn't sell tickets online, Lottery Director Jack Roberts said he was advised that the man didn't do anything wrong and should get his winnings. The man was also able to persuade lottery officials not to release his name, although it is a public record under Oregon law.

"In this case, I made the decision based on talking to the guy," said Roberts. "I do believe that there is a personal safety risk to him and his family ... I would hope that people would respect the reasons for not giving the name. It's not going to mean anything to them, but it could to someone halfway around the world."

Roberts said the man - described as being in his 40s, personable and speaking relatively good English - made a convincing case that he and his family could be at risk of being killed or kidnapped if it was known that he had come into a large sum of money. Baghdad is one of the world's most dangerous cities, and an ethnic Kurd can stand out in a city dominated by Shiites.

Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said it was the first time to his knowledge that the lottery has kept a winner's name secret.

The Iraqi asked to take his jackpot in installments over 25 years, and the lottery on Friday transferred $158,720 to a bank account he set up in Oregon. That's the amount of his annual prize after 38 percent was taken out for federal and state income taxes.

The man purchased the ticket through theLotter.com, a website based in London that resells lottery tickets it purchases around the world. Roberts said there could be potential issues over whether the website runs afoul of a federal ban on Internet gambling, but he said "there are more serious offenses [the feds] aren't prosecuting."

In any case, lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said the winning ticket never left Oregon. It was purchased in Bend on Aug. 24 -- apparently by someone working for theLotter.com - and was collected by the Iraqi man after he traveled to Oregon.

The man had a year to claim his prize after the winning numbers -- 15, 27, 32, 39, 44 and 45 - were drawn.

"We thought he might be waiting for the new tax year or something like that," said Baumann. "Never in our wildest imagination did we think he was in Iraq trying to figure out how to get here."

-- Jeff Mapes

503-221-8209

@jeffmapes