Frenchman Wins FreeLotto.com Jackpot

FRANCE – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Eric Prevost is the first Frenchman to win ten million dollars in the "Superbucks" jackpot of FreeLotto.com, a stake-free lottery website. Although he has only today collected his winnings, he has already started spending them and his first purchase is a new nose.

Until now the 48 year-old widower has been earning EUR1600 (US$2040) a month as a sales technician for Bosch subsidiary Elm Leblanc. He lives in Calvados, home of the French apple liqueur, with his partner, Elisabeth, and their seven children aged from 10 to 21 years. On Thursday 15 June 2006 he was presented with his winnings at the Hilton Paris by Kevin J Aronin, CEO of New York-based FreeLotto.com.

"I didn't realise at first that I had actually won," says Eric who started playing the Internet game on 15 December 2005. "My winning numbers came up after only two days of playing, but I missed the email telling me I'd won. It wasn't until I got a registered letter from New York on 28 December 2005 that I became aware of the great news. Then I began to think about how much better life would be if I had a new nose."

Eric has already had one operation on his nose and will have the second one in 60 days' time. His partner, Elisabeth, says: "I think the new nose looks great on him. He's not quite ready to play the next James Bond, but after the second operation it will be even better and we're planning to get married after that." Eric adds: "We also plan to do a lot of travelling with our family and may even start up our own business. This win will help us make dreams come true."

Eric's plan for facial surgery to change his life was such a revelation for Aronin that he decided to make a special charitable donation worth US$10,000 to the charity 'SmileTrain'. Aronin explains: "This is a children's charity that offers facial surgery to children from poor countries around the world who have no other chance of finding the surgery to help them overcome their disfigurement. I think it is an amazing cause and Eric has inspired me to help it through FreeLotto."

Phase 1 of Eric's new nose was unveiled at 11.00am on 15 June 2006 at the Hilton Paris when he became only the fourth person in the world to collect the top prize of US$10,000,000 from FreeLotto.