Prepare for Billon-Dollar Lottery Madness

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me
I play every week but just a 4 dollar ticket.
About 50 of us at work are buying a ticket for the next drawing on Wednesday.

I just checked and woo woo I won the power ball number. A huge $4. Oh well, I only bought 2 tickets in the first place so now Im even.

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me
I can assure you I'm not saying this to counter a lot of the other comments but there is no reason in hell someone should have a billion dollars (pre tax of course)..

You could essentially repair Haiti with all that money (jail the crooked government officials first)...you could say I hope it goes to a needy family but that much money is so overkill...

I guess I still cannot wrap my head around the amount of money spent but I am buying some tickets...you can bet your bippy..

I'm going to buy a congressman if I win.

I've always wanted one and I promise that I will feed it and take it for walks and keep it clean.

They are so cute when you bring them home for the first time!

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

I think it's rigged. Having said that I will be playing, however. If I won I think I'd like to build a Starship that would be self sustaining.

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

I think it's rigged. Having said that I will be playing, however. If I won I think I'd like to build a Starship that would be self sustaining.

You might be right about that...

DES MOINES, Iowa — The allegations read like a movie plot: a lottery industry insider installs undetectable software giving him advance knowledge of winning numbers, then enlists accomplices to play those numbers and collect the jackpots. And they secretly enrich themselves for years - until a misstep exposes them. Eddie Tipton, former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, has been convicted of fraud for fixing one jackpot in Des Moines, but prosecutors say his high-tech scheme extended far beyond Iowa. He's accused of tampering with lottery drawings in four states over six years, and investigators are expanding their inquiry nationwide.

Link
Also here.

a reply to: Azureblue

The next drawing is estimated at $1.3 billion. With that kind of money, I wouldn't have to manage it myself.

What I would do is hire an investment councelor and an accountant to do the money management. I'd probably also need a group of attorneys to manage taxes, contracts and general legal advice.

a reply to: Teddy916

You can play! I'm in the SF Bay Area and have been buying too many tickets

a reply to: chrismarco

It would be very nice to see it go to a non greedy person so they could do something wonderful with that much money. I personally would buy a huge piece of land and start a wild people refuge. Where homeless people could find peace and freedom to live on the land how they choose. Yes, I know the almighty govt would never allow it. Fee's fines, permits, a full time govt staff just to be the jailers and tormentors. I hate rules and rulers.

originally posted by: misskat1
I just checked and woo woo I won the power ball number. A huge $4. Oh well, I only bought 2 tickets in the first place so now Im even.

I hardly ever buy lottery tickets, but yesterday at around 6PM I got the whim and drove to the corner ARCO station to try my luck.

OMG! The line of people waiting to purchase lottery tickets wrapped all around the store! Oh well, everyone was jovial and joking about the last minute rush, so I got in line and bought 4 quick pick tickets.

2 POWER BALL 13 WINS Yeah!

Think I'll try again for the 1.3 billion.

Someone has to say it:

Playing the lottery is kinda stupid. You'e not going to win. Yeah, yeah, I know--somebody has to win eventually. But, for you (and me), it is so highly improbable that it is as close to impossible as it can be.

Let's do some simple math real quick. My grandmother is 93 years old. She has spent as least $20 a week on lottery tickets for the past 40 years (at minimum).

$41,600 is the conservative estimate of what she's thrown away. That's more than the annual salary of most Americans these days. That was a down payment on a new house, or tuition money for her children.

I love my grandmother to the end of the Earth and beyond, and wouldn't change a thing about her...

...but that's still kinda irresponsible, isn't it?

a reply to: NthOther

Maybe you think her money would have been better spent on birthday presents for you? You should lighten up on your granny! We all pay $$ for roller coaster ride and horror movie type experiences. Besides, you can't tell me that in all those weeks and years your granny never won anything back!

a reply to: windword

Actually, she's the one who told me to never start playing because it becomes a mild form of addiction and incessant financial drain.

She wants me to learn from her mistakes.

a reply to: NthOther

Okay. Then, for your granny it's a form of addiction. But the rush that your granny seeks, and others that maybe are not so addicted, is tangible. In my experience, the worst and most self loathing gamblers are the ones who've won and don't know when to stop. I think that's a different problem than the phenomena of massive amounts of people suddenly buying lottery tickets when the winnings and hopes are so high.

a reply to: windword

Fair enough. But the higher the winnings and hopes, the lower the probability. Let's be rational about this for a minute: it would make far more sense to play when the pot is smaller (less people playing, higher chances of winning), would it not? What's a few million bucks at that point?

That is, if winning is the goal. If you're just playing for an adrenaline rush... well, there are ways to do that for free (and far more worthwhile).

a reply to: Misterlondon

Ok I'll keep a mil, burn the rest and watch you reaction

a reply to: NthOther

But the higher the winnings and hopes, the lower the probability.

I don't know about that. For example, I hardly ever buy lottery tickets but I bought 4 last night and won on 2 of them. No, I didn't win the whole pot, but I think I broke even. What are the odds and do they change with pot? I don't know?

That is, if winning is the goal. If you're just playing for an adrenaline rush...

Speaking only for myself, winning is the goal, but the adrenaline rush was an unexpected bonus, lol. I guess for some, it tastes like heroin.

originally posted by: AmericanRealist
The only reason the electronic system that calculates and chooses the numbers based on what is known to have been recorded and played in every state is because something devastating is coming that will make that money worthless. Having said that, 1 in 280+ million is significantly better than 0, and I will be playing ten different tickets. Whats $20 when the possibility is half a billion after taxes up front in cash??

Devastastion, as in a sudden collapse of the USD?

People have been saying this for years... can you elaborate on why you think this is such a sure/soon thing?

a reply to: FamCore
Nope, its pure conjecture and speculation on my part. Although I do find it highly unusual that global geo-political tensions and resource wars are raging as hard as ever, and suddenly nearly all commodities are not only dropping in price quickly (except food oddly enough), but access to large sums of money are also increasing in line with lies about how well the economy and jobs market is doing.

Its no coincidence that many states have changed the requirements to receive unemployment benefits to a week to week procedure. Anyone who forgets to do so will no longer be counted in the unemployment numbers.

I just see patterns that in my head, are trying to tell me something and connect dots. I just cant quite figure out the correct pattern to connect the dots in yet. I suspect doing so would yield an actual date.

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

I think it's rigged. Having said that I will be playing, however. If I won I think I'd like to build a Starship that would be self sustaining.

How about the video from Serbia that recently was shared?
Serbian lottery probed after winning number shown before draw

The incident happened on live TV, sparking claims of a fix and forcing the head of the lottery to resign. During the broadcast the number 21 was shown on screen before it became the next ball pulled from the machine. The Serbian State Lottery (DLS) said it was "pure coincidence", but prosecutors have launched an investigation.

Source-BBC- Video of the lottery airing included.

My stance is you never know, and wouldn't put it past them. Of course, people do win, but wonder how they are selected if the process of the lottery is most always cheating. I figure it's more for keeping the winnings down, or to bring up the jackpot for whatever reasons. After all some states do get a lot of money from the winner.