My son is having a Merry Christmas

[ediddy]

I still can't believe this, but here is what happened. My son bought a quick pick lottery ticket wednesday. He had it in his pocket but didn't look at it until last night. He had all of the numbers but the power ball number. He had 16 for the power ball but the number was 32. If he had picked the power ball he would have won 140 million, but he won $250,000. He just left the lottery office with a net check after taxes of $172,500. I told him he has always been my favorite child and I have loved him more than anyone else. I've never purchased a lottery ticket but I think I might buy one each week now.

[halfwitt]

Nice!!! Does your son need any new friends?

[Venturous Randy]

Hey, they are giving my retirement program to somebody else.

Wow, I will ocassionally spend a buck on a lottery ticket just so I can go through a short period of time of dreaming "What if".

RandyA

[ragtop69gs]

I wish I could be that lucky I guess he'll be having a Great Christmas!

[ediddy]

My son just came by the office with his check. The people at the lottery office told him someone had the winning ticket to 77 million and today is the last day to claim it. Wish it was me. Something else I didn't know. If you win the lottery you can claim a deduction on your taxes for the tickets you purchased during the year. Course if you win why would you care.

[Yammer Dan]

It owes me a chunk of change. I'm waiting!!

[BoomerCPO]

I buy 2 Powerball tickets w/Powerplay each week. Not that I need that kind of money mind you....BUT....if I ever hit the big one there's a list I have of family/friends who will never have to work another day of their life.

Boomer....who sez ya can't win if ya don't play....and sending all the pygmies onna one-way Cruise to Alaska sounds purty good too.

[dacheedah]

I buy one from time to time and I figure my chances of winning are the same whether I buy a ticket or not.. Congrats to your son

[GAWildKat]

I play the lotto one in a while. As Mike and I figure, the lotto money is earmarked for education, so we figure we are contributing to the education system by buying a ticket once in a while...

[SilvrT]

congrats to your son!!

 

We have 2 lotterys here that I play ... Lotto 649 and LottoMax. I don't usually buy tickets unless the payout is 10 mil or more. I made an exception to that yesterday (payout was 7 mil for 649) and I ...

 

WON!!!!

 

 

 

 

... a lump sum of $10

 

I never used to buy tickets for lotto until about 5 years ago ... started buying one whenever I felt the urge ... maybe once or twice a month... or not. Now, it's practically every week and on top of that, I'm in on the office lotto pool ... it's no wonder I have no money!!

[dingy]

In general, your son's experience aside, the lottery is a self imposed tax on people who are bad at math.

Gary

[ediddy]

Hey Dingy,

You are so right.

[SilvrT]

In general, your son's experience aside, the lottery is a self imposed tax on people who are bad at math.

 

 

Gary

 

Considering where a large part of lottery money goes (at least around here), buying into it could also be considered as a person's charitable donation or donation to some other worthy cause which, without support from the lotteries, those programs, etc might not exist. Having said that tho does not necessarilly suggest that I whole-heartedly agree on how they disburse the moneys, beit operating costs or otherwise. I also don't feel that large winnings to the tune of 20-30-100 plus millions of dollars should be won by just one person. NOBODY needs that kind of money. There should be a limit...say 10 mil and anything over that is split. For example... if the prize is between 10 and 20 mil then one draw for 10 mil and another draw for the balance. If the prize is between 20 and 30 mil, then 2 draws each for 10 mil and a 3rd for the balance, etc...... in other words, spread the wealth around a bit. 3 people with 10 mil each will spend more than one person with 30 mil and thus enhance the economy (somewhere LOL).

 

 

EDIT: ... and ... NO, I am not giving you any of my winnings over 10 mil!!! LOL

[Flyinfool]

Having all of the big money going to one person helps the economy just as much as spreading it around. The majority of big winners have it all spent and are bankrupt in 5-10 years.

I sure would like to find out if I could handle it or not.

 

In WI the profits from the lottery go to property tax relief, the amount of relief is a line item on the tax bill, every year the relief is more than I spend on tickets so I figure that even though I play occasionally I am still money ahead by the lotto being available.

[SilvrT]

The majority of big winners have it all spent and are bankrupt in 5-10 years.

 

I don't know that it applies to the majority but True enuf, many are bust after a few years... but what do they spend it on and where? I figgure if there were more winners with smaller amounts, they'd be less inclined to blow it all away foolishly and spend more wisely... moreover, and I think most would be like myself, we'd share it with our family which means more people would have more money to spend but not so much that it would be spent foolishly which equates to more cash flowing into our local economy.

[ragtop69gs]

In general, your son's experience aside, the lottery is a self imposed tax on people who are bad at math.

Gary

 

Tow dollars a week ain't gonna kill me and as we see, sometimes you get lucky.

[GolfVenture]

I don't know that it applies to the majority but True enuf, many are bust after a few years... but what do they spend it on and where? I figgure if there were more winners with smaller amounts, they'd be less inclined to blow it all away foolishly and spend more wisely... moreover, and I think most would be like myself, we'd share it with our family which means more people would have more money to spend but not so much that it would be spent foolishly which equates to more cash flowing into our local economy.

 

If more would take the annuel payout then you can't spend it in all one place.

 

This has motivated me to buy a couple of tickets TONIGHT !!! Its my turn.

[Marcarl]

Now consider if you should win big money,,, say 2 mil or more.

So you won, and then you celebrate,, ok, that is over and you have decided that some goes to charity, and some goes to friends and family,,, however that happens,,, now on with life.

I'm your friend and we used to go out for supper together, the four of us, once a month. This month though, because you won, you offer to pay. That's nice, but who pays next month,, well we pay our own, but you arrived in Lexus, and we still drive our Sunfire. You also would like to go to something better than the greasy spoon we thought was good enough before,,,, get the picture, soon enough we don't go out together any more.

This is only one scenario, as a winner your life will change because of these happenings, which will happen more and more frequently. Actually, you start to loose your friends, little by little, but seeing as we all need friends, you'll go to look for others,,,, those who have money and are rich like you,,,,, but you are not in their class, you don't think the same and don't talk the same and don't have the same background, and they know you won your stuff, so you are still kept in a different class. You may be friends for a while, but only until the well runs dry. Now who do you have as friends,,,, the ones you had when you were 'poor' are gone, the rich ones are not really heart to heart friends,, so you are left alone with your money and you can't buy LOVE.

I like my friends here,,, I don't want to loose them,,, so I don't buy no lottery tickets.

 

On the other side,,, if the lotteries would quit paying for all the social services, we could do that as a community and we would all be much better off for it.

[SilvrT]

In response to Marcarl's post ....

 

Such a scenario would never happen to me because ... I have no "friends" outside of my immediate family. I have a lot of acquaintances .... but I don't hang out with any of them on a regular basis. So, my family, who are my real friends, will never go away and we are all very, very close. As for those once considered friends outside of my family.... ha! ... turns out they weren't real friends at all. In my entire life I've rarely had more than one or two close friends outside of my family. My last (so-called) friend of over 10 years dumped me over a stupid matter that, if he were a real friend, we'd still be friends and hanging out together like we always did. That was the last time I will ever put any trust in such a relationship ... I don't need those kind of "friends" in my life. I'll stick with casual acquaintances.

 

I don't think I'm the only one who is this way but no doubt I'm in a minority but I'm fine with that.

[Venturous Randy]

I can guarantee you that if you win a 100 million that you are going to have more friends than you could have imagined and more family.

I may play a couple times a month and when I do play, I will get one big game lotto and a Tennessee mega-millions. After reading this post yesterday, I looked at my tickets and realized that the clerk had given me a Tennessee mega-millions and a Tennessee cash, which only pays out $220,000 as a max prise. I did not even have the Big Lotto. So, since I did not get the right ticket and it was an easy pick also, maybe that helped your son's easy pick to land on him.

My frustration with the lottery systems is with them adding more numbers. I remember when it was about 43 numbers and now it up in the 50's. Every number added on changes the chance of winning by a bunch.

RandyA

[Guest]

In response to Marcarl's post ....

 

Such a scenario would never happen to me because ... I have no "friends" outside of my immediate family. I have a lot of acquaintances .... but I don't hang out with any of them on a regular basis. So, my family, who are my real friends, will never go away and we are all very, very close. As for those once considered friends outside of my family.... ha! ... turns out they weren't real friends at all. In my entire life I've rarely had more than one or two close friends outside of my family. My last (so-called) friend of over 10 years dumped me over a stupid matter that, if he were a real friend, we'd still be friends and hanging out together like we always did. That was the last time I will ever put any trust in such a relationship ... I don't need those kind of "friends" in my life. I'll stick with casual acquaintances.

 

I don't think I'm the only one who is this way but no doubt I'm in a minority but I'm fine with that.

 

Couldnt have said it better myself.......

 

But since this thread is being sidetracked, let me say congrats to Ediddys son on his win. Sometimes you dont need millions but something like that sure can take some of the financial strain off your shoulders. Use it wisely.

 

I remember when I first moved to Florida in 1990. We didnt have a red cent to our name after we bought our first (and only) house. We went pay check to pay check for a while but one Sunday I played pick 4 with 1 dollar straight and it hit for 5000 dollars. That helped get us back on a good financial track.

[SilvrT]

We went pay check to pay check for a while but one Sunday I played pick 4 with 1 dollar straight and it hit for 5000 dollars. That helped get us back on a good financial track.

 

yep... a small injection of a few thousand dollars can make a very big difference. As many of ya'll know, Nina and I were in a Campbells Soup commercial a couple years ago. It didn't make us rich by any means but it was almost like winning a nice sum on a lotto ticket.... and it sure helped us "move forward" on some things. .... now, we sure could use another injection! LOL

 

We have a number of localized lotteries as well. Current one is http://millionairelottery.com/ ... since the proceeds go to a real good cause, I generally buy a ticket. The odds of winning something are very good but we haven't won anything .... yet ... but really, the cause is what is important.

[Sailor]

The only lottery I play regularly is the meat draw at our legion. The odds are really good, better than you will get anywhere else, and ALL the money goes to local good causes. I buy the lotto max when it is 50 million but the odds are 1 in 32 million of winning. With 649 they are 1 in 14 million. What I object to is the way the government starts out saying the lottery is for charitable causes then gradually the government coffers become the only good cause. For many years the B.C. government has been after our legion to give up their 50/50, bingo and meat draw licences so they can build a "community gaming center" ( casino) which would take 80% of the income for the government and give 20% back to the community for government approved projects. The legion gives back 100% and to he!! with government approved projects.

[Dragonslayer]

I still can't believe this, but here is what happened. My son bought a quick pick lottery ticket wednesday. He had it in his pocket but didn't look at it until last night. He had all of the numbers but the power ball number. He had 16 for the power ball but the number was 32. If he had picked the power ball he would have won 140 million, but he won $250,000. He just left the lottery office with a net check after taxes of $172,500. I told him he has always been my favorite child and I have loved him more than anyone else. I've never purchased a lottery ticket but I think I might buy one each week now.

Congrats to you son, I bet the Christmas lights are bright down there in Albany.