Thread: Did you buy a ticket?

The lottery is a tax on the mathematically illiterate.

Not paying to make some other lucky bastard filthy rich...

Originally Posted by DOMS

The lottery is a tax on the mathematically illiterate.

DOMS: DESTROYER OF DREAMS!

whoever wins doesn't own that money. the govt does. it's not your property. the govt will decide how much of it you get to keep. Same thing with your income.

Well I got 10 picks... I don't care if its a fools dream.

I spend 10 bucks. (5 picks)

I buy a ticket each week up here. The odds of winning are 1:28million so I'm probably not going to win. I just like the thought of that slight chance of winning and what I could do.

Originally Posted by OfficerFarva

I buy a ticket each week up here. The odds of winning are 1:28million so I'm probably not going to win. I just like the thought of that slight chance of winning and what I could do.

That's what I told my wife earlier. Your odds are so slim, but there's still that chance...

Originally Posted by DOMS

The lottery is a tax on the mathematically illiterate.

And its also a tax on those who don't pay taxes: the poor and the old.

I do have a former friend who hit the Mega Millions for ~130 million back in 2008. I say former because it totally fucked him up as he became a recluse because he thought everyone wanted his riches. Totally fucked up IMO.

One ticket each for the powerball and mega millions. It's a lark. If I don't win it's expected because of the odds. Like Farva said, there's always that slight chance.

Originally Posted by Big Pimpin

And its also a tax on those who don't pay taxes: the poor and the old.

I do have a former friend who hit the Mega Millions for ~130 million back in 2008. I say former because it totally fucked him up as he became a recluse because he thought everyone wanted his riches. Totally fucked up IMO.

Hell i would be gone to Hawaii with a new cell and very few people would know where I went... Including my wife.

Originally Posted by Big Pimpin

And its also a tax on those who don't pay taxes: the poor and the old.

I do have a former friend who hit the Mega Millions for ~130 million back in 2008. I say former because it totally fucked him up as he became a recluse because he thought everyone wanted his riches. Totally fucked up IMO.

I can see that. Everyone you meet, every girl you fuck. They do like you or your money? That's a tough life really.

I felt like what the hell. I was feeling kind of stupid by wasting $10 on 5 tickets,. Then some guy walks up after me and asked for 1000 tickets. Stupid, just plain stupid.

I am sorry but i am not into this.. I think it is a waste lol

I never play, but I sent my girl out to buy some tix & now I can't get a hold of her. I'm realistic of my chances, but I'll be pissed if I didn't atleast try. Wait a second, did the #'s come out already? THAT BITCH!!!

Big winners share lessons, risks of Powerball win | General Headlines | Comcast

Big winners share lessons, risks of Powerball win

COLUMBIA, Mo. ? So you just won the $550 million Powerball jackpot, the second highest in lottery history. Now what?
Perhaps it's time for a tropical vacation or a new car. There are bills to pay, loans to settle, debts to square.

Past winners of mega-lottery drawings and financial planners have some more sound advice: Stick to a budget, invest wisely, learn to say no and be prepared to lose friends while riding an emotional roller-coaster of joy, anxiety, guilt and distrust.

"I had to adapt to this new life, "said Sandra Hayes, 52, a former child services social worker who split a $224 million Powerball jackpot with a dozen co-workers in 2006, collecting a lump sum she said was in excess of $6 million after taxes. "I had to endure the greed and the need that people have, trying to get you to release your money to them. That caused a lot of emotional pain. These are people who you've loved deep down, and they're turning into vampires trying to suck the life out of me."

The single mother kept her job with the state of Missouri for another month and immediately used her winnings to pay off an estimated $100,000 in student loans and a $70,000 mortgage. She spent a week in Hawaii and bought a new Lexus, but six years later still shops at discount stores and lives on a fixed income ? albeit, at a higher monthly allowance than when she brought home paychecks of less than $500 a week.
"I know a lot of people who won the lottery and are broke today," she said. "If you're not disciplined, you will go broke. I don't care how much money you have."

Lottery agencies are keen to show off beaming prize-winners hugging oversize checks at celebratory news conferences, but the tales of big lottery winners who wind up in financial ruin, despair or both are increasingly common.
There's the two-time New Jersey lottery winner who squandered her $5.4 million fortune. A West Virginia man who won $315 million a decade ago on Christmas later said the windfall was to blame for his granddaughter's fatal drug overdose, his divorce, hundreds of lawsuits and an absence of true friends.

The National Endowment for Financial Education cautions those who receive a financial windfall ? whether from lottery winnings, divorce settlements, cashed-out stock options or family inheritances ? to plan for their psychological needs as well as their financial strategies. The Denver-based nonprofit estimates that as many as 70 percent of people who land sudden windfalls lose that money within several years.

"Being able to manage your emotions before you do anything sudden is one of the biggest things," said endowment spokesman Paul Golden. "If you've never had the comfort of financial security before, if you were really eking out a living from paycheck to paycheck, if you've never managed money before, it can be really confusing. There's this false belief that no matter what you do, you're never going to worry about money again."

David Gehle, who spent 20 years at a Nebraska meatpacking plant before he and seven ConAgra Foods co-workers won a $365 million Powerball jackpot in 2006, used some of his winnings to visit Australia, New Guinea and Vietnam. He left ConAgra three weeks after he won, and now spends his time woodworking and playing racquetball, tennis and golf.

But most of his winnings are invested, and the 59-year-old still lives in his native Lincoln. He waited for several years before buying a $450,000 home in a tidy neighborhood on the southern edge of town.
"My roots are in Nebraska, and I'm not all that much different now than I was before," Gehle said. "I'm pretty normal. I never was the kind of guy who went for big, expensive cars or anything like that. I just want something that runs."
In the first year after he won, Michael Terpstra would awaken many nights in a panic. Had he slept in? Was he late to work the night shift?

"At times I'd wake up and this would all seem like a dream," the 54-year-old said. "I'd have to walk around the house and tell myself, I did win. I'm not working anymore, and I do live here. I didn't get drunk, break into someone's house and go to sleep. This is where I'm supposed to be."

His new home is a roomy, two-story house in south Lincoln with a big-screen television and paintings of Jesus on the walls. He no longer uses alarm clocks and spends his days taking his 92-pound black lab, Rocco, on walks.
He was terrified when he first won, convinced that he would lose all of the money and have to return to work. So he lives carefully off the interest from conservative investments, with help from accountants and lawyers. He bought the new house and a truck, but struggles to name any extravagant purchases.

"I can't buy a super yacht. I can't buy a Gulfstream," he said. "Then again, I don't think I'd use either one, so why would I buy one?"

That said, some mega-winners still can't resist the lure of big jackpots, at least not the two-buck chances. On Tuesday, former ConAgra worker Dung Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant, walked into the same Lincoln U-Stop where he purchased the winning ticket six years ago and bought 22 more from the very employee who sold him the first prize-winner, said cashier Janice Mitzner.
"We joked about it," she said. "I told him, `Wouldn't it be something if you won again?'"

Hayes is also hoping to strike rich again ? she bought 10 tickets at a Dirt Cheap liquor store on her way home Tuesday while speaking with an Associated Press reporter. Unlike many big winners, she has kept a visible public profile instead of going underground, appearing on a 2007 reality TV show ("Million Dollar Christmas"), writing an online Life After the Lottery blog and self-publishing a short book, "How Winning the Lottery Changed My Life."

"We have this drawing tomorrow, and if somebody wins, God bless them," she said. "They're going to need those blessings."

Well, I didn't win.

Originally Posted by dieseljimmy

Hell i would be gone to Hawaii with a new cell and very few people would know where I went... Including my wife.

I didn't win the lottery and I moved here to hawaii. Met a nice looking japanese woman with a well off family, now we own a 5 bedroom close to waikiki. Sometimes you gotta gamble on life and not just money.

Still working, but that's what I expected.

The guy I know that won was advised to keep an initial $500,000 out to just piss away on whatever they wanted to get it out their system. Then the rest was stashed away in various savings and investment strategies. They paid off their current home, bought new rides and lived it up for awhile. Their advisers set them up an independent charity board which was given an annual allowance and this board would decide which moochers, who wrote letters begging or personally asked the winners for money, were given money. Once the charity money ran out for the year, the moochers were SOL.

There is one winner in Arizona. I have not had a chance to check my tickets yet. It sure would have sucked to find out I had to sit through a really boring project meeting this morning if I didn't have too.

I did buy some tickets but haven't checked them yet. I looked at them briefly when I bought them and don't recall seeing the pb #6.


Awesome Video: Watch the Exact Moment Man Realizes He May Have Won Powerball Lottery | Fox News Insider

HEY! I had all 6 numbers....none of them on the same ticket.

Should lottery winners' names be kept secret? | General Headlines | Comcast

PHOENIX ? When two winning tickets for a record $588 million Powerball jackpot were claimed from the Nov. 28 drawing, the world focused on the winners.

A Missouri couple appeared at a press conference and held up the traditional giant-sized check. The Arizona winner, however, skipped the press conference where lottery officials announced last month that someone had claimed the second half of the prize.

The differing approach to releasing information on the winners reflects a broader debate that is playing out in state Legislatures and lottery offices nationwide: Should the winners' names be secret?

Lawmakers in Michigan and New Jersey think so, proposing bills to allow anonymity because winners are prone to falling victim to scams, shady businesses, greedy distant family members and violent criminals looking to shake them down.
Lotteries object, arguing that publicizing the winners' names drives sales and that having their names released ensures that people know there isn't something fishy afoot, like a game rigged so a lottery insider wins.

When players see that an actual person won, "it has a much greater impact than when they might read that the lottery paid a big prize to an anonymous player," said Andi Brancato, director of public relations for the Michigan state lottery.
Most states require the names of lottery winners be disclosed, albeit in different ways. Some states require the winner to appear at a press conference, like Missouri winners Mark and Cindy Hill did on Nov. 30.

Arizona and other states allow winners not to appear in public, but their names can be obtained through public records laws. The Arizona winner, Matthew Good, was not identified at the news conference a week after the Hills' came forward, and has not given interviews or appeared in public.

When news media including The Associated Press learned of his name through records requests, TV crews and reporters flocked to Good's neighborhood to get reaction from the winner of a lottery that captivated the nation.

Jeff Hatch-Miller, executive director of the Arizona Lottery, said he understands winners' desire for privacy, but he argues they are essentially entering into a large contract with the government that is public. Others argue that appearing at a news conference helps defuse media interest because the winner is available to answer questions that satisfy the media's interest in telling their stories.

In Michigan, Republican state Sen. Tory Rocca pushed a lottery bill that allows winners to remain anonymous. It didn't pass, but in arguing for it, he cited cases where lottery winners were shot and killed because of their newfound wealth.
A Florida woman was convicted last month of first-degree murder after she befriended a man who won a $30 million jackpot in 2006. Prosecutors said she took control of his assets, killed him, buried him in her yard and poured a concrete slab above the grave.

An effort in New Jersey by Democratic Sen. Jim Whelan took a middle ground between public release and privacy, calling for a one-year delay in releasing winners' names. It also didn't make it out of the Legislature last year, but he said he'll keep pressing to get it passed.

Whelan said a one-year delay would give winners a chance to adjust while still keeping the public disclosure lotteries say they need. However, Whelan said he doesn't really buy the agencies' arguments for public disclosure.

"I'm not sure how many people are spurred to buy a lottery ticket because they see a picture of someone in the paper holding up a big check - and I don't think people don't buy a ticket because they think the whole thing's fixed," Whelan said.

Of 44 states participating in Powerball and 33 in Mega-Millions, only Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota and Ohio allow blanket anonymity, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees the games.

"Obviously, it is a law that is designed to ensure an open and transparent process, so that the public can be ensured that insiders are not winners," Strutt said. "But in today's world, most of us can understand the wish to remain anonymous."
The most famous modern lottery fraud case happened in 1980 when Pennsylvania Lottery district manager Edward Plevel and TV announcer Nick Perry were convicted of fixing the result of the Daily Number drawing.

Authorities found that some of the ping pong balls used in the game were injected with paint to make them too heavy to float up the winning slots. The result paid $3.8 million, a record at the time, and eight people involved in the fix won a total of about $1.2 million.

Former Missouri child services worker Sandra Hayes shared a $224 million Powerball jackpot with a dozen co-workers in 2006 and said she understands the push for anonymity.

Hayes said she received many requests for money or to make investments, both at work (she kept her job another month) and at home, where she'd find people waiting on her porch. Her lump sum payout after taxes was more than $6 million.
Even if people are allowed to remain anonymous, it's often inevitable that their identities will become known.

Steve Thornton, a lawyer in Bowling Green, Ky., has helped two big lottery winners shield their names through corporations despite rules in his state that require disclosure of winners. Even though they were kept out of the public eye, one winner couldn't stay hidden.

"It was not many months later that lots of people knew who won, even though it was not released, because of their gifts and their spending." Thornton said.