Timothy Poole is surely thankful that he's a resident of Florida and not Massachusetts. If not, he would likely not be allowed to collect the almost US$3 million he won on Wednesday in the Florida Lottery.

That's because Poole has a conviction as a sexual predator for sexual battery of a 9-year-old boy in 1999.

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There is a pending legislation in Massachusetts that stops registered sex offenders from collecting their wins in lotteries. Since 2008, two persons with convictions had won the lottery in that state.

Fortunately for Poole, no Florida legislator appears interested in filing a similar bill even if there was another Florida resident who was arrested for sexual offense against a minor and that person won an even bigger amount of US$14 million.

Poole, who drives a taxi owned by his mother, plans to expand their family cab business with his winnings.

Despite his conviction, Poole insists that he didn't molest the young victim who is the son of a family friend and once even lived in the Poole residence. Poole also occasionally slept in the boy's house in the same bed, and it was in those sleepovers when Poole molested the boy.

Poole was arrested by Orange County police in 1999 and given a 10-year jail sentence and required to register as a sexual predator. He was released from prison in 2006.

Prior to the sexual battery case, Poole had several run-ins with the law such as stealing about US$20,000 food stamps from Safeco in 1991 when he was a guard in the company. The Orlando Sun Sentinel reports that he has 12 arrests in Florida for various offenses such as grand theft and faking a check.

Poole purchased the winning scratch-off ticket from a 7-Eleven store at Mount Dora on Saturday night. A friend said Poole couldn't believe that he won the lottery.

But he is not 100 percent sure yet he could get his hands on the money because according to CS Monitor, while Florida's law would not ban Poole from collecting his prize, his past victims could actually seek damages from his winnings if the statute of limitation on their cases hasn't lapsed yet.

TagsLottery, sexual predator