Lotto

I'm up pretty big "gambling".... but I play poker

One of our local Cars & Coffee guys won ~$35 million a few years back. Bought himself a Spyder and a few other toys. He is actually D.Wiggs' neighbor.

I play the lotto fairly regularly. Not weekly, but maybe once a month or so.

I generally only buy when the jackpot is 20 million+. In Canada we don't get 100million+ powerballs. Maximum jackpot is 50million.

 

I've never won anything bigger than a couple bucks.

the only person that I ever knew that one something big, won it in a group of 30 people, and to top that off, their ticket was only 1 of 4 that had the same numbers.

The prize was a few hundred grand, but by the time he get his share it was only a few thousand backs.

 

The lottery is always interesting for me, not because I play it, but because its always cool to see cool stories about people whose lives have changed so drastically in a GOOD way, when they least expect it. Its awesome reading those stories, and even better to hear the ones about the people who were SMART with their winnings, and didnt go broke in a few years. Me personally, I actually rarely play, but when the jackpots get BIG, I usually pick up a couple dollars worth of tickets (that NY state lotto jackpot slogan, "Hey, ya never know", always sticks with me! LOL.

 

Lotteries are for dreamers, but they are fun as long as you dont live your life praying that youll win as your only chance to escape the rat race. My Grandmother bought scratch-off tickets for decades (who grew up and lived her whole life as poor as a church mouse), occasionally giving me and my twin sister $1.00 ones when we were kids because we got a kick out of scratching them off. For her 80th birthday, my entire family chipped in and we bought her an entire basket full of scratch off tickets (all different dollar amounts, purchased from vendors alllllllll over the state). Out of the probably $500 worth of tickets that she scratched off in the days after we gave them to her, guess how much she won? Just about $80. So if youre friends are pooling their money to spend a few thousand on tickets thinking it will give them much better odds, I have a feeling they are going to be very dissapointed. They outta just spend $10 or $20 each, cross their fingers and call it a day.

 

That being said, I do have two interesting stories regarding big wins in the state lottery. I have a family member that won $250,000 on a NJ Bingo Spectacular scratch off ticket in 2007. She walked into this little deli near my house (that I passed literally twice a day on my way to and from work), and bought a $5.00 instant-game ticket. When she scratched it off in her car outside the store, she almost fainted because she thought she had one $25,000. Turns out, she didnt have her glasses on that day, as the clerks in the store told her it was indeed her lucky, lucky day.

 

She actually didnt tell anyone else in our family she had won for like 2 years, as I just found out about it last year. Last I heard, they had done a small addition on their house and bought a new car with it. I was told after taxes on the winnings, they didnt get anywhere NEAR $250,000 out of it.

 

The other cool story I have, involves one of my BEST friends who works at a big Toyota dealership in Morris County, NJ. For yeaaaaaars, she worked next to a single mother in the dealerships office who she described as one of the nicest ladies she had ever known. One day on her way home from work last March of 2010, that lady bought a Powerball ticket for the big jackpot that was going off the next day across several states. She ended up winning $211-million, being the sole winning ticket holder. The women has since quit the job at the dealership and according to my friend, is TREMENDOUSLY private, even refusing to do a single interview since she has won. I still remember the excited phone call I recieved from my friend the day she found out, "OH MY GOD, DO YOU KNOW THAT LADY SANDRA I WORK WITH AT THE DEALERSHIP, SHES THE ONE THAT WON THE POWERBALL THIS PAST WEEK! etc. etc. etc." lol. One of those stories of something REALLY good happening to someone who really deserved it.

 

Anyways, good luck to anyone playing. I bought a couple dollars worth of tickets with my morning coffee today, as I remember my Grandmother saying, "Ya cant win if you dont play", LOL.

 

Im holding $5.00 worth of tickets just in case, so cross your fingers for me as well!

 

By the way Sprite, have I told you lately how much I like ya?

I got 20 worth so I'm 4 times more likely to win lol

I never played lottery and I don't know any winners, I do know many that lost

 

One thing I don't understand, why is everyone rushing to buy tickets when the stakes are higher?

 

Aren't the odds the same or less because more are playing?

I never played lottery and I don't know any winners, I do know many that lost

 

One thing I don't understand, why is everyone rushing to buy tickets when the stakes are higher?

 

Aren't the odds the same or less because more are playing?

 

My thought in this situation is if I'm going to throw my money away on a longshot, I want to get PAID if that longshot comes through. If I want a comfortable lifestyle, I'll keep doing what I do. If I win the lotto, I want 'fcuk you' money or at least, retire tomorrow with a baller lifestyle money.

a group of people at the company i work for won last february or so. i think it was 6 or 8 of them and they won something like 15 million each.

 

i put $10 on friday night...new years luck? i've got $1 on tomorrows. i only consider playing a few bucks when its huge....i mean why not?

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-1...ottery-winnings

I never played lottery and I don't know any winners, I do know many that lost

 

One thing I don't understand, why is everyone rushing to buy tickets when the stakes are higher?

 

Aren't the odds the same or less because more are playing?

 

 

Correct, same odds no matter what.

 

That said if it's a big pot I will throw 500 bucks at it to at least have a fistful of tickets. I went to a hockey game in September and bought twenty 50/50 tickets as I usually do. The jackpot was $72,000 that night and I ended up winning so I went home with $36,000. Better than a kick to the nuts.

 

My Dad won a house a few years ago worth around 1MM. He just sold it and called it a day.

Correct, same odds no matter what.

 

That said if it's a big pot I will throw 500 bucks at it to at least have a fistful of tickets. I went to a hockey game in September and bought twenty 50/50 tickets as I usually do. The jackpot was $72,000 that night and I ended up winning so I went home with $36,000. Better than a kick to the nuts.

 

My Dad won a house a few years ago worth around 1MM. He just sold it and called it a day.

 

Awesome!

 

I never play but I would certainly need some extra coin

My thought in this situation is if I'm going to throw my money away on a longshot, I want to get PAID if that longshot comes through. If I want a comfortable lifestyle, I'll keep doing what I do. If I win the lotto, I want 'fcuk you' money or at least, retire tomorrow with a baller lifestyle money.

 

 

I don't smoke and I rarely drink, so if my only bad habit costs me $4 dollars a month and has the potential to win me $290 million, I can live with that.

Correct, same odds no matter what.

 

That said if it's a big pot I will throw 500 bucks at it to at least have a fistful of tickets. I went to a hockey game in September and bought twenty 50/50 tickets as I usually do. The jackpot was $72,000 that night and I ended up winning so I went home with $36,000. Better than a kick to the nuts.

 

My Dad won a house a few years ago worth around 1MM. He just sold it and called it a day.

 

that sounds awesome, but still not interested in playing I get too agro if I lose

A girl I know works with the people that just won the $50 million lotto here in Canada.

 

It was an office pool type thing with I believe 19 winners.

make sure you keep the ticket just in case...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110103/od_af...nlotteryoffbeat

One of my clients won $189M and a couple of friends have won smaller amounts.

 

I pick up tickets every now and again.

You guys inspired me to get a couple of tickets. Wish me luck.

 

ESTIMATED JACKPOT $330 MILLION Draw Date: JANUARY 4, 2011Cash Option: $208.3 Million

If anyone wins from LP, they must fly everyone out to or at least host a massive LP party!

Lump sum or annuity?

If anyone wins from LP, they must fly everyone out to or at least host a massive LP party!

 

 

That's a great idea.

 

 

I might have to pick up a ticket, 200 mil... I was just having a dream about it I'll buy three LP700's and randomly give them away here if I win

i picked up a ticket, i figured 1 dollar what the hell i was in the store anyway

I can't remember where I heard this.

If you play $ 50.00 a day your chances of winning are once every 50,000 years.

 

For Powerball, if you play $50 per day you'll be guaranteed to win at least once in 4 million years

 

The odds are astronomical. That's how there can be tens of millions of people playing weekly and still there's no winner for weeks on end

 

Lump sum or annuity?

 

Thats a good question. For me it would be dependant on the sum of both. If it was under $10 million I would do an annuity. If it was over that, I would do a lump sum.

 

If you are the sole winner of $10,000,000 with taxes subtracted, you will get roughly $20,000/month for the next 30 years.

 

I would rather do it that way than have $7,000,000 in my bank account. A Veyron, a few other exotics, and a $3,000,000 home later and you are back on poor street. The

 

annuity way would force me not to go bankrupt unless I financed things I couldn't afford which I wouldn't do.

 

$100 million would be a different story as I would live off the interest, and not touch the principal.

Why doesn't this work? Law different for taxes on lottery wins?

 

You can write off gambling loses against gambling wins, so I assume the lottery falls into this category. Couldn't you spend $1.75B on 10x every winning number? Assuming only one other person won, you'd get 10/11 of the jackpot. You'd then end up with a jackpot of $1.75B+$335MM. That would be $1.86B. You then write off roughly $1.75B in loses. That would leave you with a cool $100MM+ in profit. Obviously no average man could do this, but seems like a nice investment strategy. You'd also win all the smaller tickets as well. The more duplicates you buy, the high guarantee you have on % win.

 

Feed 1.75B slips into a custom machines to fill out correctly, You can do this over time since blank tickets don't have dates. Buy a shit ton of scanning machines to enter each ticket. Invest a few million dollars in such a factory and wait for giant pots to come up.

 

Where does this idea fail other than time, money, and risk?

Why doesn't this work? Law different for taxes on lottery wins?

 

You can write off gambling loses against gambling wins, so I assume the lottery falls into this category. Couldn't you spend $1.75B on 10x every winning number? Assuming only one other person won, you'd get 10/11 of the jackpot. You'd then end up with a jackpot of $1.75B+$335MM. That would be $1.86B. You then write off roughly $1.75B in loses. That would leave you with a cool $100MM+ in profit. Obviously no average man could do this, but seems like a nice investment strategy. You'd also win all the smaller tickets as well. The more duplicates you buy, the high guarantee you have on % win.

 

Feed 1.75B slips into a custom machines to fill out correctly, You can do this over time since blank tickets don't have dates. Buy a shit ton of scanning machines to enter each ticket. Invest a few million dollars in such a factory and wait for giant pots to come up.

 

Where does this idea fail other than time, money, and risk?

 

Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m. Five balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 56; one ball is drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 46

 

As a rough estimate (unless my math is off)

 

56 * 55 * 54 * 53 * 52 * 46 = ~ $21,000,000,000 in tickets for one of each combo.