Couple Won $266M, One of the Largest Jackpots Ever, and Beat the ‘Lottery Curse’ by Giving Away Millions (Exclusive)

need to know

• In 2010, Jacki Cisneros and Gilbert Cisneros won the $266 million Mega Millions jackpot in California

• Before making any major acquisitions, they established the Gilbert and Jackie Cisneros Foundation, which later funded the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute at Gill’s alma mater in Washington, D.C.

• They have since helped hundreds of students, many of them Latino students like themselves, prepare for and afford college, including through scholarships at USC

One evening in the spring of 2010, when couple Jacki and Gil Cisneros headed to California for a steak dinner (extremely extravagant in the outback), they played a game of “what if.”

What if they…win the lottery?

Gil, who was working as a manufacturing manager at the time, indulged his wife, who was working the night shift at a local television station as a contract editor. He said his first priority is to help kids find a path to college so they don’t have to struggle on a meager income like he did when he was a kid.

Two weeks later, Jackie was at work when she heard that someone had just won a million dollars by buying a lottery ticket at the same Hawaiian barbecue restaurant where Jill had gone to dinner the night before.

She called him to wake him up, and together they matched the numbers to his ticket – worth $266 million.

“I just cried,” Jackie, 55, recalled in this week’s issue of People magazine. “That’s the biggest relief.”

Telling the story now, she says, “When I look back, I see what we were able to do and the people we were able to reach as a result,” and she becomes emotional.

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Even before making any big purchases—like buying a 6,000-square-foot property. In the mansion with a swimming pool where they lived for several years—and a luxurious replacement for Gil’s beat-up pickup truck—they founded the Gilbert and Jackie Cisneros Foundation, which later funded the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute at George Washington University, Gil’s alma mater, in Washington, D.C.

They have since helped hundreds of students, many of them Latinx students like them, prepare for and afford college, including providing a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where Jackie graduated.

Now they credit their tens of millions of dollars in philanthropic efforts with helping them escape the “lottery curse” that can plague winners overwhelmed by their wealth.

“How much do you really need in life? We thought, ‘We can do this,'” said Gill, 54. “And then we took this much [of what’s left] And create our foundation. “

Enrique Flores, 24, from Keizer, Oregon, learned to “dream bigger” after participating in the Cisneros Institute’s Caminos al Futuro, or Pathways to the Future, program, a summer residential program at George Washington University that allowed him to apply to elite schools like Stanford, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2024 and 2025.

Now, with dreams of law school, philanthropy at the Latino Community Foundation led by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.

Flores said his work was a “full circle” moment, inspired by his donors: “It felt very much in line with what Jill and Jackie were doing when they started the foundation.”

Elisa Velasco used what she learned as a College Prep Scholar in the summer of 2018 to create Sin Límites (meaning No Limits), a similar free program in her hometown of Norman, Oklahoma.

The Cisneros, she says, “changed the trajectory of my life” — both in small ways (“It was my first time flying…but it pushed me to be independent”) and in big ways.

“I love the community action projects we do and how they connect to our lived experiences,” said Velasco, who also founded Latinos Unidos 405, which provides higher education resources to Spanish-speaking families. She graduated from Pomona College in 2024 and is currently volunteering with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.

The couple’s luck opened up a world of possibilities. Before winning the lottery, Jackie and Jill didn’t think parenthood was in their future. They were both 39, working opposite hours, saddled with debt including student loans, and facing fertility issues.

Victory changes everything.

“The first thing Jill said was, ‘Wow, we can buy organic food, and We can have kids,” Jackie said with a smile.

She underwent in vitro fertilization and welcomed twins Alexander and Christopher, now 11, in 2014.

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Along the way, financial and legal experts helped them avoid potential pitfalls. What’s surprising is that even though they accepted the lump sum, they were still levied a large amount in taxes, reducing the amount from about $165 million to $90 million.

“You need to get the right help,” Gill said. “Don’t go to the lawyer on the street.”

Fifteen years later, they still approve every dollar spent at the direction of their business managers. “If this had been when we were 25, 26 years old,” Jackie said, “it might have been different.”

Of course, there were some indulgences, like Los Angeles Dodgers and Chargers season tickets, international vacations, nannying when the kids were little, Jill’s Range Rover and Jackie’s Rolex. (They also paid off her parents’ mortgage.) She retired from journalism to focus on family and philanthropy, while he went on to become a congressman.

Despite the changes, “I don’t think when people look at me, they see, ‘Oh, that guy has millions of dollars,'” Gill said.

Jacki buys her son’s clothes from Target and much of her wardrobe through TikTok Shop; she drives the boys around in a Honda Odyssey. Their children didn’t know the story until recently, when a classmate discovered their lottery backstory through a Google search. The couple had planned to tell them when they were older.

“When I don’t have that much money, I spend it more freely,” Jackie said. “Some of the worry is that I don’t want to lose it.”

Gill is a former Navy officer and Republican-turned-Democrat who was spurred to seek public office after the 2017 election of President Donald Trump.

“I felt like maybe I could do more,” he said. He first served as a member of Congress from 2019 to 2021 and then as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. He returned to Congress this year after winning another House seat.

The couple divides their time between homes in Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C., where their foundations and institutes, as well as work in Congress, keep them busy.

Jackie sheds tears when she thinks about what their work means to other people and how “we make lives a better path,” she said. “Our intention is always to do good with what we have.”

In many ways, they are trying to restore life to the way it was before that fateful night in 2010.

They have the same friends and still enjoy eating in the Outback. “No one likes a blooming onion,” Jackie said.

Yes, they still can’t help but buy the occasional lottery ticket. But if someone else wins the next big prize, Gill advises: “Try to stay grounded. Don’t let it change you.”

Read the original article on People