A jackpot-rigging scandal is forgotten as Powerball fever sweeps the United States

It would be easy to claim a winning ticket was sold when it wasn't, then wait a year and the state keeps the money. I think if the prize isn't claimed it should be added to the jackpot of whatever draw is happening the day the ticket expires. I bet a lot of people would suddenly stop misplacing their winning tickets if the lotto commission knew the prize wasn't going to fall right back into their laps.

a reply to: korath
na you need to give them a chance to go visit a financial advisor and figure out where they are gonna put all that money, otherwise we would probably have even more super rich idiots going broke within a year. I would probably buy myself a nice piece of land with a pond on it, a nice solid well insulated house with solar panels and windmills, spme farming equipment, a chicken coop, hunting rifles, silver and gold, and well, aim for self sufficiency. Because in my view, regardless of weather you took the lump sum or the annuity, whatever you don't spend isn't guaranteed to be around long.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: greencmp

We play occasionally when the mood strikes us. We always say our chances of actually winning are worse than being in a jumbo jet having a lava bomb from Yellowstone hit it, surviving that crash only to be simultaneously be struck by lightning and eaten by sharks. In other words, we're throwing our money away ... but someone, or several someone's will eventually win, too.

In the meantime, we can legitimately dream.

I think the radio said this morning the odds of death by hangnail are better for another perspective.

I do know that people enjoy the thrill and it is a legitimate recreation. I just don't think that the state should violate its own laws as it greatly diminishes the validity and respect for every other law.

And once gambling is legal, what place would state run games of chance serve?

I played it when I was young occasionally but, only when it was my very last dollar (a more frequent circumstance than I care to admit). After all, what can you do with $1 anyway, right. I have since come to value that dollar.

When gambling is made legal, I will institute a 50% winners fee at my casinos. Wanna invest?

I see a solution to all of this.....

Make the lottery illegal again like it was in the past.

It's a scam anyway as far as the taxes taken by the states and feds when one wins and the fact that so little of the money is actually paid out to the winners compared to what is taken in.

The whole thing is a scam and it needs to end.

People don't need false hope, they need real hope and real options.

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: Informer1958

I don't think most people who play realize how very small their chances of winning actually are. They get the money, after all, by selling a lot of losing tickets. A LOT. If someone gave me one, and it won, cool. I wouldn't buy one, though.

When the odds are that high, it no longer matters. Your chance of getting struck by lightning is no better or worse than mine.

This was also posted on Dec. 21 here.

a reply to: dawnstar

Maybe require them retain the services of a financial advisor or manager the same as it is a law we have to have health insurance and car insurance and banks and all manner of other things we are forced to do business with we may not other wise desire to if we were allowed to make our own choices.

A lot of laws, if written to be in line with the intent of the constitution, would not be legally/lawfully enforceable according to the constitution.

Business and government are like a 16 year old girl and boy in bed together.

They just can't keep their hands off of each other.

Separation of business and state anyone?.

That comes up by a presidential candidate running for the highest "non-office" in the land and I may drop dead from a coronary on the spot.

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: Informer1958

I don't think most people who play realize how very small their chances of winning actually are. They get the money, after all, by selling a lot of losing tickets. A LOT. If someone gave me one, and it won, cool. I wouldn't buy one, though.

Having met an spoken with a big lottery winner once, I can say that every now and then, lightning does indeed strike from time to time.

I have played at Vegas, Mesquite, and Wendover before and will say I likely will again. And of course I will play lotto or other again from time to time. I just make sure it is money I can afford to lose. When the money is gone, then that is when I go home. But every now and then I come home with more than I started with.

But it isnt an investment.

a reply to: Informer1958

It may sound like a conspiracy, but I was thinking that in 2012, the powerball reached its highest amount in history before someone won. I'm not familiar with how this all works, but I'm thinking that a lot of that money went to the government. So, why not wait for it to get high again and then start rigging it to make sure it gets high enough to pay off some of the debt.

When people get into the frenzy, they'll scrounge up their last dollar and the change out of their couch cushions for a chance to win that much. So in essence (if my calculations are correct), these people are doing nothing but paying a small amount of something off. Or there could be more to it. But there's a reason its gotten this high, and I don't think it's bad luck. I think 25 people won a million from the last drawing too, which is pocket change, considering...

originally posted by: Vector99
This will be the most scrutinized lottery ever. Someone has the potential to be a billionaire through sheer luck, no way in hell a single winner could get away with it.

Imagine paying $390,000,000.00 in taxes. That's IF they get taxed 30%. I wouldn't be surprised if that was upped.

a reply to: Informer1958

I vow right now, that if I hit as the only winner, I would like to give one million dollars to each and every legal household in the US. (There are @ 116 million households in this country). Of course there are most likely legalities and logistic problems associated with a venture of this sort, but I will try if I am lucky enough in the 292 million odds to win. Hopefully this would stimulate the economy, end the welfare state so our leaders in DC couldn't use the welfare excuse anymore as one of the blocks to get us out of our $1.6 trillion quagmire.

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: Informer1958

I don't think most people who play realize how very small their chances of winning actually are. They get the money, after all, by selling a lot of losing tickets. A LOT. If someone gave me one, and it won, cool. I wouldn't buy one, though.

That makes two of us. Everyone I know is trying their luck. Me? I'll just keep going to work everyday and saving like I've been doing since 1996. I wouldn't mind winning the PCH $5,000.00 a week or month thing though. I'd disperse among family and save it back.

a reply to: UnBreakable

That's funny. I never play, but I was just thinking this morning that if I played and somehow won, I'd like to give a million bucks to every tax paying family in America to say thanks for earning your way like me. Of course, then we could all quit for a year and basically destroy the welfare system to the point that changes could be made so that only those who are truly unable to work could receive help. I'd even hire my own crew to investigate. But, that's just me and I don't gamble so there's that.

A lottery is really a voluntary taxation scheme with the offer to split the tax with the winners. It's for people who won't go to the casinos but would still throw down a dollar at a shot for big money. Now, the lotteries are playing all the odds and have everything from two numbers to Powerball. This lets those who decide that the odds are better on two or three number daily games play too.
Remember all those evil numbers games that hurt no one [other than people who stole from those who ran them]? Those criminal activities that paid out at 600:1 instead of 500:1? When you could bet whatever you wanted and collect the next day? Well the big crime was not paying taxes on the transfer of wealth, unless you claimed them as winnings on your tax return. [I know of absolutely no one who did this] This untapped source of revenue has now been tapped, for the most part, and expanded as people who wouldn't know where or how to play illegally have online instruction on how to play and where. There are still places to play numbers but the police really don't bother them as they have better things to do and are often customers, themselves. In the past, barber shops and neighborhood grocery stores were the places where you could play because they were run by those with a command of the important language. Some young men[and women] even earned money for themselves and their families carrying paper slips from one place to another in brown paper bags, or so I heard.
Now, the big money games have replaced [mostly] the smaller games and people play games with odds of almost 300,000,000:1 instead of 1000:1. When you do win, Federal taxes will eat 39.1% and some states will tag you up to another 8% [more friendly states don't tax lottery winnings]. If you take the cash, the smart move, I am told, you get about 60% or so of the annuity payout so starting with $1.3 billion is about $800 million in cash and after federal taxes you keep about $480 million. If you live in a state that taxes at 8% you will keep about $450 million. Rule of thumb: If you take the cash, you keep 35-40% of the annuity total after taxes.

originally posted by: UnBreakable
a reply to: Informer1958

I vow right now, that if I hit as the only winner, I would like to give one million dollars to each and every legal household in the US. (There are @ 116 million households in this country). Of course there are most likely legalities and logistic problems associated with a venture of this sort, but I will try if I am lucky enough in the 292 million odds to win. Hopefully this would stimulate the economy, end the welfare state so our leaders in DC couldn't use the welfare excuse anymore as one of the blocks to get us out of our $1.6 trillion quagmire.

The big problem is that you won't win enough to do that. Divide $1.3 billion by 116 million and you get $11.20. It's an admirable concept, though.

originally posted by: Aazadan
Well, I learned something about myself from powerball atleast. A billion dollar prize and I still won't buy a ticket on principal. I was curious if there was a price point that could get me, but now I don't think there is.

I'm with you.
I never play on the basis I already pay enough in taxes.
Even if you win they take half your money.
I'm happier never winning and not having to give all that money back.

a reply to: Informer1958

Wait...what???

The OP article says...

Tipton was able to secure the winning ticket for himself through self-destructing software he installed on lottery computers

If this is true, then several other things must be true in some permutation...

1. Unless Tipton had access to the issuing machine itself, then he must have used a certain sequence of numbers to trigger the "self destructing" code. OR...

2. Tipton would have had to have known how to manipulate the drawing...which is a far bigger issue!! OR....

3. Tipton would have had to have known precisely when (down to the millisecond) when to purchase the ticket and from where.

One way to square the lottery up would be to not allow anyone to pick individual numbers. This way, if the end result can be rigged it wouldn't matter because they would never know where the random number would be generated and when. This, and to never allow any unclaimed winnings to go back to the state.

originally posted by: pteridine

originally posted by: UnBreakable
a reply to: Informer1958

I vow right now, that if I hit as the only winner, I would like to give one million dollars to each and every legal household in the US. (There are @ 116 million households in this country). Of course there are most likely legalities and logistic problems associated with a venture of this sort, but I will try if I am lucky enough in the 292 million odds to win. Hopefully this would stimulate the economy, end the welfare state so our leaders in DC couldn't use the welfare excuse anymore as one of the blocks to get us out of our $1.6 trillion quagmire.

The big problem is that you won't win enough to do that. Divide $1.3 billion by 116 million and you get $11.20. It's an admirable concept, though.

Wait, $11.20? If I cleared $450,000,000 after taxes and gave $116,000,0000 away I'd still be left with $334,000,000, more than I could spend in twenty lifetimes. Maybe my math is off, please explain.

Nevermind, my math is off. I was looking at it wrong. It would be $1, not $1,000,000. Maybe I'd spend the money on math classes.

Powerball moved from $1 single plays to $2 single plays. The reason why they did this what to get the jackpots larger, which is exactly why we're seeing such giant pots today.

If I would win, I would collect it anonymously...

Setup a LLC, hire a law firm to handle all public engagements and stay behind the scenes... With this type of money, you take care of the people close to you and you tell NO ONE ELSE, if they take any money, it's under the condition they can never speak about where it came from... and then you vanish away...

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: Informer1958

I don't think most people who play realize how very small their chances of winning actually are. They get the money, after all, by selling a lot of losing tickets. A LOT. If someone gave me one, and it won, cool. I wouldn't buy one, though.

Regardless of how small the odds, there are still winners. You MUST have a ticket in order to have a chance at winning.

Sooooo. ".....help me out Brandi, buy a ticket."

a reply to: Informer1958

www.infowars.com...

A good video...

I personally think that "They" are showing just how fast our country can come up with billions in a short time, just from the chump change in most peoples couches.