Powerball winner: thieves cleaned me out

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Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 3:20 am

True. I'd still like to win one of those huge lotto prizes and find out if I'm really going to be worse off one year later. If I can just manage to lose my wife, even if she takes the money with her, I'll be a winner.

Master Baiter Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 186 Location: GA

Quote:

so you hit casinos, strip bars -- maybe start a drug habit.

And won't nobody put it in the papers unless you win the lottery first.

Sigh.

Lemme have a chance to ruin my life with 100+ million dollars (after taxes).

The people that don't wig out and remain wealthy aren't necessarily professionals. They're just well grounded and realize that their New Job is managing the money and not going crazy about it.

I think its about letting one's lifestyle creep upwards rather than skyrocket. First things first, pay everything off. Next, go on the cruise or trip or whatever.

Me, I'm off to Vegas. But that's a normal vacation for me, so spare the eyebrow lifting. Maybe go twenty dollars a hand at Blackjack versus my normal ten. It's not about the money itself, it's about just plain having fun. Expect to lose every cent you sit down with and the rest is entertainment.

The wife and I buy two dollars on the Lottery each week. No, we don't think we'll win, but it's a fun intellectual exercise to game out what we'd do with the money based on the amount it's at. Is a million USD really "quitting money?" I dunno. Maybe in five years it would be. Or maybe we just would be fine to live off of the interest.

At 300 Million USD after taxes I'd be "that guy, there he is again," on TV. President giving a speech somewhere? I'd walk across the back of the stage, managing to make it into frame just long enough to be seen and recognized. UN General Assembly whatever? Yep, there I am, strolling across the back of the podium area. Even the dumb "red carpet" interviews of celebrities. They're interviewing whomever, and here I go stage right to stage left.

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:39 am

I'm not into gambling myself. I kind of like to keep what I earnt. Or just plain piss it up. My girlfriend likes to by a weekly ticket and always askes me for half. In two years I've never actually paid anything to her. So I guess what will happen is she will win big time
And she will have the last laugh Smile

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:27 am

One of my mum's many homilies is: If you give a beggar a horse, they'll ride it to hell. Makes no difference if it's fast or slow.

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:36 am

But in a wider context you can see how victims get sucked into scams. They probably have all kinds of financial problems that a lottery win would solve in an instant and then Charles Soludo comes along offering them $50mill risky free and so what if they have to pay a few hundred bucks they probably can't afford to get the deal sealed.

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:31 pm

Quote:

Since then, he has faced his granddaughter's death by drug overdose; he has been sued for bouncing checks at Atlantic City, N.J., casinos; he has been ordered to undergo rehab after being arrested on drunken driving charges; his vehicles and business have been burglarized; and he has been sued by the father of an 18-year-old boy, a friend of his granddaughter's, who was found dead in Whittaker's house.

They forgot to mention he got on a plane from Sidney to LA that crashed 1000 miles off course on a deserted island, where he was stuck with 47 other people and all kinds of weird things that tried to scare them off and.. and ..... euhmmm...

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 1:22 pm

I am inclined to believe that trusting a fool with $113 million dollars is a recipe for disaster. Statistics show that those involved in the lottery are, as a majority, less educated. Odds are, they didn�t wisely invest their money before they won the lottery, why would they now? That is not to say that everyone who plays the lottery is uneducated or bad with money, but on a whole, MOST are.

Consider this: A lottery player spends $10 a week for 30 years on the lottery. The person may win a bit here and there, but mathematically speaking, they will not come out ahead. If that was invested in a good mutual fund (earning 12% over the 30 year within a Roth IRA (I am considering this a US scenario), then that person would have $125,000 TAX FREE. Now, that is no $5 million dollar payout, but that is a far greater return for the odds in my opinion.

EDIT: Having never really played the lottery, I am not entirely sure how it works. Do the numbers have to be in consecutive order? How many numbers are there? If I am not mistaken, there are 6 numbers, in no particular order, ranging from 1-50. Can anyone verify this? Just trying to see what the odds are.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 80

jojobean

In the US:

Some states have their own lotteries (Texas, for example). Additionally, there are 2 "mega" lotteries (multiple states) - Powerball and MegaMillions.

I'll let you take a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerball
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Millions
and
everything you never wanted to know about American Lotteries:

http://www.lotterypost.com/

And to counter the notion that only poor, ignorant people play the lotto:

<i> One of the secondary winners to the largest payout was New Hampshire U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, who won $850,000 after buying 20 tickets, one of which matched all the numbers but the Powerball. </i>

See? US Senators aren't poor! Smile

[edit] noticed other comment about $10 a day in a mutual fund

There are some chronically poor and lower middle class workers that work paycheck to paycheck. If there is any money left after rent, gasoline, food, etc., it gets spent. It's "free money". Unfortunately, I am very familiar with this - (no, not me, a relative who used to buy baseball hats every week with any money left over-then got sick)

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:50 pm

Well, after calculating some odds, I find that they are even more alarming than what I thought originally. It seems that in my state, the lottery is 6 numbers, ranging 1-50.

SO, with that said, the odds are

(6/50)*(5/49)*(4/48 )*(3/47)*(2/46)*(1/45)=1:15,8910,700 Shocked

1 in 16 million?!?!?!? Not great odds.

Again, I only said that MOST people who play/rely on the lottery are not as educated/wealthy. I do believe that there are some who play that are quite clever (albeit they don't have a good notion of probablity). For the most part, they are not wealthy people.

Again, my notion of why people that win the lottery eventually go broke is only verified by this comment:

Quote:

a relative who used to buy baseball hats every week with any money left over-then got sick

My point with the mutual fund is this: I am not even trying to suggest that they find NEW money to invest in mutual funds. I am only suggesting that if one REPLACES the $10 a week that they would spend on lottery tickets, they would come out much better than if they simply threw money into the lottery. However, the poor understanding of math and a lack of education leads to people playing the lottery for years and never investing in anything legit. Note, I would never discourage these people (unless it was someone I knew personally and cared about their well-being) to quit playing the lottery though. It is a tax that I don�t have to pay because people are voluntarily paying one! I went to college on a full scholarship because of people playing the lottery.

AGAIN, there are people that play just for the heck of it and that is their entertainment. That is an entirely different thing than playing with hopes of winning.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 80

jojobean, the odds are even worse for powerball.

Here's why :

5 numbers are taken from a pool of 1-55, THEN another "powerball" needs to be chosen from a pool of 1-42.

The odds of winning all five numbers with the powerball to get the jackpot is
1:146,107,962

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:40 pm

Astranomical odds or not, when everyone in this office is putting together a group buy, I allways get in on it.

I DO NOT want to be the only one left trying to do the jobs of the 20 who just quit!

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:43 pm

That's my one and only lottery ticket purchase. When the Powerball got up to something like 300 million, we purchased a few as a department for fun, and joked about immediately quitting.

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:48 pm

jojobean wrote:

... the odds are ... 1:15,8910,700 ...

True, but actually buying a ticket cuts the odds down tremedously from what they are if you don't buy a ticket: 1 : infinity. Wink

419Eater is my life Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 482

DrBillBlaze wrote:

That's why they call the lottery the IDIOT TAX.

I think the expression was the SUCKER TAX, and it was coined by politicians in the legislatures where state-run lotteries were created.

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:48 pm

I'll buy a ticket very rarely, just for fun when the jackpot is so high it gets mentioned on the news. It's only a buck.

Just imagine though, if someone had that much money to blow, how much fun they could have with a mugu! You could buy the guy a plane ticket and strand him anywhere in the world you wanted. He'd get on too, he'd be absolutely convinced you were for real. That'd be a scammer's worst nightmare, an anti-scammer with a crapload of money.

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 4:05 am

I believe most lottery ticket consumers actually believe they're "ahead". I've seen it too many times. They just don't remember what they've spent to get that $50-$100 they get from the scratchers, etc. My Grandma is a gambling addict. To see the physical things She goes through when planning a trip to the casinos, etc. is sickening.

Master Baiter Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 186 Location: GA

LOL, I guess I'm the only gambler here!

Okay, I'm not serious about it in the "normal" sense.

However, the good people at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV are quite quick to let me know that they have a room for me - no charge - any ole time I (and the wife) can make it up there.

It's great fun and a perfect vacation for the wife and me. We get to go to the same place, relax, and do different things in the same room (I play Blackjack and Craps, she like slots) until it's time to do something together.

I like to refer to it as co-located seperate vacations.

Anyhow, gambling is a blast so long as one remembers a few basic ground rules:

1) You will lose every single dollar you gamble. Period. Maybe not today, but eventually.

2) Keeping number one in mind, set a specific amount of money you are willing to lose in a single 24 hour period. At midnight, zero out. If your gambling fund for the day is one hundred dollars, at midnight you allow yourself one hundred dollars. Whether you're busted or six hundred up, the kitty is reset.

3) Pick a game you enjoy that takes your money as slowly as possible. Blackjack is great, as it's easy to slow the dealer down (by getting conversation started and playing side games - more on that later), one can take breaks any time, and the odds are slower in the House's favor.

4) One can play side games of one's own invention. In Blackjack, the modality for tipping the dealer is to place a bet for them (usually a dollar) on top of your own. If you win, they double the tip. If you lose, they get nothing. It won't improve your odds, but it's cool. A side game that I invented on a full Blackjack table is to get everyone seated to pony up a dollar for the tip/bet, put it in one of the little metal cup holders they have, and then put the amount in front of whomever isn't doing so great.

The player will feel like everyone's rooting for them, as often it's by vote, the dealers think it's cool, and the pit bosses love it. A happy table is a gambling table.

I'm there to have fun; when everyone at the table has 17 or 18 and the dealer is showing a five, it's time to reverse one's cap (in baseball, it's known as a "rally cap") and stand up. When she busts, everyone do the wave!

5) One can smoke ANYWHERE in a casino with two exceptions - elevators and the poker room. It's 1962 era tobacco regulations! Hurray!

6) Be nice to everyone, especially the folks that work in the casino. Dealers work minimum wage, as it's expected that they get tips. They want you to win, especially if one is courteous and having fun.

The last time I was in the Sahara playing craps I forgot to place "odds" behind my line bet on a point of six. I'd asked the bet man on my end to remind me of it, but he missed it and I flat out forgot. Sure as anything, the roller made the point.

The pit boss called for a halt.

"(My name), put five dollars on the table."

I did so in a heartbeat.

They not only asked that I make a late bet, but paid me for it.

Pennies to the casino, but it sure made me feel like they gave a damn.

7) Las Vegas has the best, cheapest souveniers one can get anywhere. Go to the craps table. Cash in forty bucks. They'll give you a bunch of one dollar chips. Pocket five of them. As you win a little, you'll get one dollar chips as part of your winnings. When you have 20, you're all set for everyone at the office. A genuine casino gambling chip.

LOL, I actually had a coworker hold a one dollar chip like it was precious and ask - with all seriousness - how much it cost and could she re-imburse me for it...

Laughing

On the Lotto, it's not about winning (see rule number one), but about sitting around talking about the "what if's." Sure, the money goes for scholarships and stuff, but at the end of the day it's about the super long shot of winning and the fun of wargaming if it happened.

Besides, I've had so many weird events that defied probability happen in my life that one in several billion odds aren't unimaginable.

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:45 am

Yeah, I take a $NZ8 ticket every time the Big Wednesday lottery goes up to $NZ12 million (converted to real money, that's about $US 5.95 ), then I forget to check the ticket and when I do discover it in my wallet weeks later I already know from the lack of newspaper headlines reading "Mystery Jackpot winner doesn't claim prize!" that I haven't won anything anyway.

However, I've just had an incredible piece of luck, I've just got this e-mail from Holland letting me know I've won the lottery there. Fantastic!!!!

So what I'm going to do (after I've cleared the Dutch tax payments and paid the solicitor for handling matters for me) is buy a little seaside holiday home - about half a million, nothing too flashy, take an around the world trip, buy an Aston Martin for me and a Porsche Boxter for the wife, buy a 40 foot yacht and moor it at the local marina, and just invest the rest at 6.99%. Boy it was fun handing in my resignation today Laughing

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 11:06 pm

Nelson you didn't calculate in anything for the mistress. It's standard protocol to have a mistress now your so rich.

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:18 am

harrya wrote:

Nelson you didn't calculate in anything for the mistress. It's standard protocol to have a mistress now your so rich.

You're very right, harrya, but Nelsonsbattle should just calculate the expenses involved ... Because the mistress comes as part of the deal ... When he gest all the money transferred, Marian Abacha comes with the "all inclusive" package ...

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:34 pm

He did mention the mistress. The 40 foot yacht.

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:33 pm

I knew this guy for several years before he hit it rich.
If you knew him then, then you are not the least surprised in what has happened to him since.
All that money only made an asshole a bigger asshole.

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:42 pm

Sometimes it only happens to the best of us then Wink

Master Baiter Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 123 Location: UK

My mother has played the UK lottery for years, and she said the strangest thing once when I asked her why she still played when she hadn't won a penny in the last five years: "Well, if I didn't play one week, my numbers will probably come up"...

In other words she pays �1 a week to stop her numbers from being drawn? It has actually come to this point in her mind! She knows that she hasn't won once in five years, and knows that her �1 will almost certainly be wasted, but plays her numbers almost to stop them coming up! When she pays at the till, the largest belief in her mind is not "I'm gonna win", but "If I don't do this my numbers will be drawn". I find that very interesting... But then again I'm pretty screwed up...

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:48 am

Here in Ontario, the majority of the money that the lotteries and casinos take in is used to fund things like gamblers anonymous and other such things.

Speaking of casinos, I'll be going to Monte Carlo this summer in one leg of my European tour and in Monte Carlo, I will be visiting the local casino. Anyone knows which slots pay out the most Very Happy

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