big Lotto Jackpots

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I got one number right on each of my cards.
Do I win anything?

I don't think that even gets you a lovely parting gift, such as Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Had 2 with none, 2 with 1, 1 with 2, and none with the Megaball. In other words, skunked.

Dammit.

[kingfc22]

Got a whopping 2 numbers on two out of ten cards.

The rest either 1 or 0 and no mega ball on any.

[Scoobz0202]

As expected, looking like we will have multiple winners. Nothing official of course, but I've seen a picture from a local news station in Kansas showing there is a winner there and I read a Maryland news service report a winner in the Baltimore area.

Again, unconfirmed, but I'm interested in seeing how many total winners we will have.

edit: http://mdlottery.com/640-million-meg...t-in-maryland/

[Autumn]

I won $2!

And only spent $3!

The smaller lotteries are definitely the way to go, the ones that actually draw a winner every week. I can deal with $2 million.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

As expected, looking like we will have multiple winners. Nothing official of course, but I've seen a picture from a local news station in Kansas showing there is a winner there and I read a Maryland news service report a winner in the Baltimore area.

Again, unconfirmed, but I'm interested in seeing how many total winners we will have.

edit: http://mdlottery.com/640-million-meg...t-in-maryland/

3 winners in total.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

If I don't win, I hope you do!

My wife stated that if she won, she would continue to teach. Me? Oh, I have a feeling I'd be calling in sick Monday.

Your wife would probably want to re-think that. Do you know how many parents would line up to sue her for "mistreating" their child?

[sterlingice]

Is there any way to win the lottery anonymously? I have to think being a public lottery winner is the #1 way to land in fraud land. For instance, if you're an actual hundred millionaire, you live in rich parts of town, grew up with rich folks, and that's all you know. It's not like Bill Gates is going to sue Warren Buffet for tripping and falling on his lawn.

SI

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Is there any way to win the lottery anonymously? I have to think being a public lottery winner is the #1 way to land in fraud land. For instance, if you're an actual hundred millionaire, you live in rich parts of town, grew up with rich folks, and that's all you know. It's not like Bill Gates is going to sue Warren Buffet for tripping and falling on his lawn.

SI

Coin by Coin: Helping You Work Toward Financial Freedom One Step at a Time » What To Do If You Win The Lottery

Open a Blind Trust
What you need to protect your anonymity is a blind trust. Hire a tax attorney to set one up for you. Once you’ve paid the attorney, he is legally bound to maintain your anonymity. It is through the attorney, and the blind trust that he sets up, that you will contact the lottery board in your state and collect the money.

By collecting the winnings through a blind trust, the lottery board will never know who you are and thus can’t splash your name on the news. The lottery commission wants to put you on the news because it sells them more tickets, not because it does you any good.

Opening a blind trust is vital if you are a minor who won the lottery. In some states, if a minor is given a winning ticket as a gift, and they walk into the state lottery office to collect the money, the ticket is instantly invalidated.

EDIT: It was done by someone in Texas.

http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/...ty-kept-secret

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Is there any way to win the lottery anonymously? I have to think being a public lottery winner is the #1 way to land in fraud land. For instance, if you're an actual hundred millionaire, you live in rich parts of town, grew up with rich folks, and that's all you know. It's not like Bill Gates is going to sue Warren Buffet for tripping and falling on his lawn.

SI

It depends on what state you live in. I think very few state lotteries allow you to do the blind trust.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Is there any way to win the lottery anonymously? I have to think being a public lottery winner is the #1 way to land in fraud land. For instance, if you're an actual hundred millionaire, you live in rich parts of town, grew up with rich folks, and that's all you know. It's not like Bill Gates is going to sue Warren Buffet for tripping and falling on his lawn.

SI

Which is why if I ever won (ha!) a giant jackpot, I wouldn't own any property. I'd hop on a plane and keep on the move, staying in hotel rooms under various fake names, traveling all over the world nonstop...

[EagleFan]

Mega Millions winner won't share with her McCoworkers - msnNOW

Did she give copies to her coworkers?

If yes and this ticket isn't on the copies, then she gets the money. If yes and this ticket IS on the copies, then screw her and give the money to everyone else in the pool.

If no, then she should split this with her coworkers for her own stupidity. Though se deserves a beat down for calling her coworkers afterwards to tell them that SHE won.

[Scoobz0202]

I thought I read somewhere that the pooled money was $80, and it was to be used for $5 tickets. The lottery commission said the winning ticket was a $1 ticket.

If I am remembering that correctly, does that change anything?

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

I thought I read somewhere that the pooled money was $80, and it was to be used for $5 tickets. The lottery commission said the winning ticket was a $1 ticket.

If I am remembering that correctly, does that change anything?

If you run a pool there is one rule that you need to go by. Copy the tickets for all to see.

It's possible the clerk messed up and entered individual tickets. That happened to me before when getting tickets for my group at work and the first 10 were 10 $1 tickets instead of 2 $5 blocks. They became part of what I copied.

It's not rocket science to protect yourself in case this situation arrises. Hell, there was one time in which I was unable to make copies for the group due to a last minute work emergency pulling me away. I had my own tickets for that drawing too and had already told myself that I was splitting it with the group if those tickets came in. To me it's the most honest thing to do.

[stevew]

Who won the mega millions?

Her Lawyers

[stevew]

Maryland woman claims she has Mega Millions winning ticket and won’t share with co-workers in her lottery pool at McDonald’s - NYPOST.com

I'm guessing this story is bogus.

Mega Millions mania has plunged a Maryland McDonald’s into a bubbling cauldron of controversy hotter than a deep-fried apple pie.
Workers at the fast-food joint who pooled their cash for tickets are furious at a colleague who claims she won with a ticket she bought for herself and has no intention of sharing.

“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The ‘winning’ ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,” McDonald’s “winner’’ Mirlande Wilson 37, told The Post yesterday, insisting she alone bought one of the three tickets nationwide that will split a record $656 million payout.



“I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket,” the single mother of seven said as she and her fiancé left her home in the squalid Westport neighborhood to attend church.
The Haitian immigrant refused to show what she said was the winning ticket, claiming she had it hidden in another location and would present it to lottery officials today.

Pressed as the day went on, she became more cagey.

“I don’t know if I won. Some of the numbers were familiar. I recognized some of [them],’’ she said. “I don’t know why’’ people are saying differently. “I’m going to go to the lottery office [today]. I bought some tickets separately.”
With winning tickets also sold in Illinois and Kansas, a single Maryland winner would get an after-tax lump sum of $105 million, or $5.59 million a year for 26 years.

If Wilson won, and if it was with a pooled work ticket, the situation would be shockingly similar to that of New Jersey lottery louse Americo Lopes, who tried to screw five former colleagues after hitting a $24 million jackpot before a jury ordered him to spread the wealth.

Wilson’s co-workers — who make little more than $7.50 an hour — are sizzling with anger over the notion.

“She can’ t do this to us!” said Suleiman Osman Husein, a shift manager and one of 15 members in the pool. “We each paid $5. She took everybody’s money!”

A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of a McDonald’s manager named Layla, who was part of the pool, said Wilson bought tickets for the group at the 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, where the winning ticket was sold.
The group’s tickets — along with a list of those who contributed to the pool — were left in an office safe at the burger joint, said the man, who gave only his first name, Allen, as he stood next to Layla. She declined to comment.
Then, late Friday, before the night’s drawing, the owner of the McDonald’s, Birul Desai, gave Wilson $5 to buy more tickets for the pool on her way home from work, and she went back to the 7-Eleven and bought them, Allen said.
Wilson took those tickets home with her, Allen said.

But Wilson insisted yesterday that she had bought the second batch with an unidentified pal — not for the pool — and that the winning ticket was among them.

A day earlier, a delirious Wilson had called co-workers to break the news — tellingly used the first-person singular.
“I won! I won!” she cried, Allen said.
Another colleague, Davon Wilson, no relation, said he was there when Mirlande Wilson called.
“She said, ‘Turn on the news.’ She said she had won. I thought it was a joke or something. She doesn’t seem like a person who’d do this,” he said.
Allan said he and Layla went to Wilson’s home and pounded on the door for 20 minutes until she finally came out.
“These people are going to kill you. It’s not worth your life!” Allen said he told her.
“All right! All right! I’ll share, but I can’t find the ticket right now,” she finally said, according to Allen.
Yohannes Michael, a clerk at the 7-Eleven where Wilson bought the tickets, expressed doubts about her story when he said yesterday that lottery officials have reviewed the store’s video and believe that a man bought the winning ticket. Lottery rep Carole Everett would not confirm that.
Reached at his Fairfax, Va., home, Desai, the McDonald’s owner, declined to comment except to say, “It’s all bulls--t, if you ask me. It’s speculation.”

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

How many powerball tickets is everyone buying?

I am keeping my fingers crossed that someone from walmart wins :-)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Bought 5 tickets yesterday. Think my wife is going to pick up 5 more because she doesn't think I'm lucky enough.

FWIW.......I'd just be happy to match the first 5 numbers. That would pay off the house and college for the kids with some change to spare.

[Coffee Warlord]

I've got 6 right now, trying to find out if our office is doing a pool.

[molson]

I think I've bought about 10 lottery tickets in my life and I've never matched more than one number. I'll pick up 5 for this one. After being really anti-lottery forever, I realized I think I really do get close to $10 worth of entertainment out of it. And the money goes to schools or something.

[cody8200]

I think we picked up 4. I'm not a lottery guy but what the hell, the cost is so low compared to all of the other crap I spend money on anyway.

[Lathum]

I got 5, had no idea they were $2 each now. Like others, not a big lotto guy, I think it is a tax on the stupid, but for half a billion I'll be stupid for a day.

[panerd]

I understand the math behind it but like Molson figure its a couple of bucks I would have wasted on a coffee or something.

The people that scare me are the ones that are buying $20 on a random Thursday night for just the local pick 4. I can't (legally) put $50 down on Bama/Georgia this weekend but they can blow their entire paycheck betting on numbers.

[MacroGuru]

I have a buddy that is driving up to Idaho from Utah with close to $3000 from friends and family that have put in $200 each...Crazy, but since Utah doesn't have the lottery, when they hit jackpots this large a lot of people drive to Idaho for it.

Me, I just threw down $2 on one ticket...figure, why not.

[molson]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

I have a buddy that is driving up to Idaho from Utah with close to $3000 from friends and family that have put in $200 each...Crazy, but since Utah doesn't have the lottery, when they hit jackpots this large a lot of people drive to Idaho for it.

Me, I just threw down $2 on one ticket...figure, why not.

I'd hate to be in line behind him at the border gas station when he's placing his order.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Like others, not a big lotto guy, I think it is a tax on the stupid, but for half a billion I'll be stupid for a day.

I picked up 5.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I picked up 5.

[Ben E Lou]

JUST THINK HOW BIG THE PAYOUTS IN THE CMFL WILL BE IF I WIN!!!1

[albionmoonlight]

North Carolina used to not have the lottery. Whenever I would drive through VA or SC, I would pick up a ticket when I got gas. Now that I have access to it every day if I want it, I almost never buy a ticket. I am sure that economists have a term for that.

As for tonight's drawing, someone at work was taking up a collection so that we can buy a bunch of tickets together as a group. So I am involved through that.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, I pretty much have the usual rule. If the prize gets above about 300 mill, I'll plop down 5, 10 bucks. Aside from that, never play.

[Scoobz0202]

I'll go pick up a few for the same reasons. I won't win, but once it hits a certain point it's worth the cost of a few mcdoubles to dream.

[albionmoonlight]

Hmmm. Just crunched the numbers on if we win tonight:

500,000,000
divide by two since some other ticket would also probably win: 250,000,000
divide by two for taking the lump sum: 125,000,000
divide by two for taxes: 62,000,000
divide by ~40 (the number of people I expect in our lottery pool) = ~1,500,000

Basically, a very nice chunk of change. But not going to quit the day job if we win.

[DaddyTorgo]

Why would you take the lump sum?

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Why would you take the lump sum?

Well, it wouldn't really be up to me, I suppose. But I imagine with a huge group of people, the lump sum would be easier. Get the money, divide by the number in the group. End.

Otherwise, we are in this 30 year financial relationship together, which I would just as soon avoid.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Well, it wouldn't really be up to me, I suppose. But I imagine with a huge group of people, the lump sum would be easier. Get the money, divide by the number in the group. End.

Otherwise, we are in this 30 year financial relationship together, which I would just as soon avoid.

Fair point. I was thinking as an individual, not as a member of a group.

[Butter]

It was worth $2 for me to calm my fear that everyone I work with would be quitting if they won, while I would be shut out. Now we're all in it together, even if "it" is wasting $20 on a 1-in-50 million shot.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Why would you take the lump sum?

economics? the present value is vastly superior.... when I did freshman econ (a looooong time ago) we actually calculated it and the annuity is almost never worth it (unless you dont trust yourself)

[molson]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Why would you take the lump sum?

I guess it's an expensive insurance policy against economic depression and the state becoming insolvent and trying to get out of paying somehow. I'm sure it's legally ironclad and maybe even handled by a third party, but, ya, I'd rather get the money up from and then in 10 years if it looks like civilization is breaking down I can prepare and build my self-contained personal desert supercity.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

economics? the present value is vastly superior.... when I did freshman econ (a looooong time ago) we actually calculated it and the annuity is almost never worth it (unless you dont trust yourself)

That's what I've always understood. Especially with 500 millions dollars I would rather just take the lump sum and rake in that sweet sweet interest on my own.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

economics? the present value is vastly superior.... when I did freshman econ (a looooong time ago) we actually calculated it and the annuity is almost never worth it (unless you dont trust yourself)

Advice for the lucky so-and-so who wins *the huge Powerball jackpot - Business on NBCNews.com

[MacroGuru]

Dola

Office went in today...$5 per person...

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

That's what I've always understood. Especially with 500 millions dollars I would rather just take the lump sum and rake in that sweet sweet interest on my own.

Even if you're only getting 50% of what you would be?

I had always thought that too, but I mean...now I'm not so sure.

Aaah - fair point about all the various taxes and all though.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Why would you take the lump sum?

Because if you have a good investor, you can almost always come out better than by taking the payments, especially factoring in inflation.

[Easy Mac]

Not sure what I'd do if I won.

Since I'm in South Carolina, my social and bank accounts are floating out in the ether after the state got hacked. Now anyone could pretend they're me and withdraw my winnings before I'd even know it.

Yes, I'm still bitter.

And I am playing the lottery, only because I happened to have $5 in the car left over from vacation.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Hmmm. Just crunched the numbers on if we win tonight:

500,000,000
divide by two since some other ticket would also probably win: 250,000,000
divide by two for taking the lump sum: 125,000,000
divide by two for taxes: 62,000,000
divide by ~40 (the number of people I expect in our lottery pool) = ~1,500,000

Basically, a very nice chunk of change. But not going to quit the day job if we win.

I'm not a greedy guy, and would certainly love having a cool $1.5 million in the bank to buy a house/set aside money for college, as just having those taken care of would allow me to live a pretty nice life on my current salary...

...but I still feel like every day I'd wish I bought tickets on my own and ended up with the mountain of money instead of splitting it 40 ways. Probably one of those "curses" people talk about with lottery winners.

[Logan]

Thought this article (found within the other CNBC linked article) was pretty interesting. Nothing we didn't know before, but I enjoyed this piece especially:

The logistics of the operation are a bigger problem. Let’s say it takes about one second to print each number combination. With 86,400 seconds in each day, it would take you over six years (2259.82 days) to print all the required combinations. But you only have four days between the Saturday and Wednesday drawings.

This time constraint means that you’d have to recruit other ticket purchasers into your syndicate. More specifically, you’d have to recruit 565 people, each of whom you’d supply with around $691,148 to play the $2 game. (Actually, they don’t quite need that much but since you can’t play fractional games, you wind up buying a few extra tickets.)

This creates a major problem: do you know 565 people you would entrust with $691,148 in cash? The incentive to take the money and run is pretty extreme. If your syndicate of 565 people divided a $425 million jackpot evenly, each one would get a bit more than $752,212 if you hit the jackpot. But each syndicate member would know that the defection of other syndicate members could put the jackpot at risk. Remember if even one of them absconds with the money, you lose your guaranteed win and must depend on luck. So a rational syndicate member would prefer to take the $691,148 in cash and not risk it buying tickets.

Can You Guarantee a Powerball Win? - CNBC

[stevew]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Why would you take the lump sum?

I guess you're "that guy" this time.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by stevew

I guess you're "that guy" this time.

Nah - I mean I'd always said I would totally take the lump sum because it makes more sense. I guess I was just starting to second-guess how/why I came to that conclusion.

I guess 35% over 20 years is really not all that impressive a ROR though. Especially when you figure that with $100m+ in assets you'd have access to top-tier investment talent. Duh. Okay...brain refreshed.

[Lathum]

I bought tickets but I honestly don't know if I would want to win. Maybe match enough numbers to pay off the house etc. but I have a great life and not sure there is any punt of money worth upsetting that complex ecosystem.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I bought tickets but I honestly don't know if I would want to win. Maybe match enough numbers to pay off the house etc. but I have a great life and not sure there is any punt of money worth upsetting that complex ecosystem.

Put it in the bank as a safety net. No need to let it upset your life.