BREAKING Did you get your lottery tickets yet?

[Bamaro]

Calculating my odds in dying in a fiery crash on the way to the convenience store vs the odds of winning, nope.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

I have heard all the horror stories. The crop up every time the lotto gets huge like this. About 90% of my family sucks, so if I won I would have to disappear completely. Georgia is a state where you can remain anonymous but people would figure it out. I mean they will say where the ticket was bought and suddenly the designking quits his job and disappears? You don't have to be Columbo to figure it out.

I've heard the horror stories, too. Having said that, gimme the money and I'll try to make the best of it. I'll be changing my phone number, moving to Florida and living in a gated community with other rich people who won't have their hands out every day because they have their own money.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

there is a great reddit thread on why you don't want to win the lottery, full of statistics, numbers and actual results from those who do (spoiler, lots of death, broken lives and bankruptcy) which is then followed by a post for what to do if you win. It is really solid advice but since it is reddit I can't post it here. I will cut and paste the part that answers your question however. If you were to cut and google what I put below you should find the entire post if you want.

I've seen it close up. My stepson's ex's uncle won. It was modest in the context of prizes today, but still middle eight figures. He was a former truck driver who had developed a nice small business, consigning truckloads to various truck lines and indie truckers. He was relocated to south Florida when I met him and got to tour his mansion. He went into a number of ill-advised ventures and lost bundles of money and his family siphoned off a lot. In the end, he devoted the rest of his fortune to playing the lottery, hoping to hit again. He died young and broke...

 

[Tidewater]

If you can play responsibly there's some fun in it.

True. One of my friends suggesting comparing it to going to a movie in a theater. You are guaranteed to lose $10 on a ticket, and in exchange you are guaranteed 2 hours of entertainment.
In the lottery, you spend $1 and are offered the thrill of wondering if you won anything, and daydreaming about what you'll do it you win, and for a tiny fraction, you win a large sum of money.
Looking at the lottery as entertainment makes it look not bad at all.

 

[MobtownK]

I may make the short drive to Mississippi & buy a couple of tickets. I have a few things I could do with the money. But I'd have to have my husband work a little longer if we won so no one got suspicious it was us.

ETA - Mississippi allows winners to stay anonymous - he'd leave work by the end of the day

 

[AUDub]

I may make the short drive to Mississippi & buy a couple of tickets. I have a few things I could do with the money. But I'd have to have my husband work a little longer if we won so no one got suspicious it was us.

Oh if I win I immediately evaporate and y'all would not hear from me again until TideFans is part of "Dub enterprises" lol.

 

[Jon]

I have heard all the horror stories. The crop up every time the lotto gets huge like this. About 90% of my family sucks, so if I won I would have to disappear completely. Georgia is a state where you can remain anonymous but people would figure it out. I mean they will say where the ticket was bought and suddenly the designking quits his job and disappears? You don't have to be Columbo to figure it out.

dont tell anyone, come to work absolutely hammered every day till you get fired and then the narative becomes, "how sad dzynking became a useless drunk" and suddently no one is looking for you and are likely actively avoiding you

 

[Go Bama]

A girl I graduated high school with won $1,000,000 on a scratch off lottery ticket several years ago. She and her husband seem to be doing fine managing their windfall.

I don't buy lottery tickets because the odds are just too small, and I get irritated waiting in line behind someone buying lottery tickets at a gas station.

 

[MobtownK]

A girl I graduated high school with won $1,000,000 on a scratch off lottery ticket several years ago. She and her husband seem to be doing fine managing their windfall.

I don't buy lottery tickets because the odds are just too small, and I get irritated waiting in line behind someone buying lottery tickets at a gas station.

1 million would be amazing - but I don't think it's the kind of money you can retire on - unless you are really good with the stock market - which I'm definitely not.

 

[Bamaro]

Its now over a billion. Any statisticians out there care to calculate the expected value on a 2 dollar ticket, allowing for the smaller payoffs too?

 

[seebell]

Its now over a billion. Any statisticians out there care to calculate the expected value on a 2 dollar ticket, allowing for the smaller payoffs too?

Gurley Statistician here: by my calculation more money than I have ever seen or imagined.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Winning in a state with no state tax seems to be the ideal scenario.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

there is a great reddit thread on why you don't want to win the lottery, full of statistics, numbers and actual results from those who do (spoiler, lots of death, broken lives and bankruptcy) which is then followed by a post for what to do if you win. It is really solid advice but since it is reddit I can't post it here. I will cut and paste the part that answers your question however. If you were to cut and google what I put below you should find the entire post if you want.

This is a very good thread but, this line in step 7 did not age well (the post is 8 years old):

You know you will be getting $638,400 per year unless the capital building is burning

Oh the tings we couldn't imagine back then and how close we came to that scenario.

 

[AUDub]

One of the replies further down that reddit thread

Step 1: Win lottery

Step 2: Better call Saul

Step 3: 40 million dollars worth of coke

Step 2 and 3 are largely interchangeable.

 

[Bamaro]

Gurley Statistician here: by my calculation more money than I have ever seen or imagined.

View attachment 27022

Actually at this point I would think the statistical 'expected value' is in the neighborhood of $2

 

[AUDub]

Actually at this point I would think the statistical 'expected value' is in the neighborhood of $2

Well, -$2.00.

 

[Bamaro]

Well, -$2.00.

Even now after weeks of accumulation of money?

 

[AUDub]

Even now after weeks of accumulation of money?

I'ma make it rain

*throws handfuls of pennies at Bamaro*

 

[Crimson1967]

I would take $10,000 and put it in an envelope. I would drive to Knoxville and mail it to the top prospect in the country with a note attached that said "You'd look great in Orange. Love, Phil".

 

[crimsonaudio]

I literally have zero interest in winning that kind of money - I can only imagine the misery it would invite.