SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the what-if-it-were-in-the-Eastern-part-of-the-state dept.
Man wins $7 million in lottery after buying every single ticket:
Kevin Clark, from Candler in North Carolina, had a hunch that the top $US5 million ($A7 million) prize in the Mega Cash scratch-off game would be won in the western part of the state.
So he came up with an unusual strategy to ensure he got his hands on the lucky ticket – by travelling from store to store and buying every ticket he could find.
Mr Clark spent four hours on his quest to purchase every $20 Mega Cash scratchie ticket he came across in around 40 different stores.
And while it is not known how much he spent in total, it’s safe to say he came out on top after a ticket he bought from a Stop N Go outlet in Swannanoa, North Carolina ended up being the winner.
[...] In the end he decided to pocket a $US3 million ($A4.2 million) lump sum instead of taking the $US5 million as an annuity of $US250,000 ($A350,267) per year for two decades.
After taxes, he was left with a total cash prize of around $US2.1 million ($A2.94 million).
“I had a real good feeling it was going to be in the western part of the state,” Mr Clark said, according to the NC Education Lottery.
However, he said he was still stunned when his tactic paid off.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday August 10 2020, @05:47AM (3 children)
yes, Hence my question.
did he risk $100,000? $200,000? $1,000,000?
He didn't buy all the tickets, only 40 stores' worth - and the tickets would have been on sale for a while before he started his journey; further, he only bought from one part of the state, not every store that sold the tickets.
He bought enough tickets -but not ALL.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Informative) by pipedwho on Monday August 10 2020, @06:04AM (2 children)
Buying just 1 ticket is still enough to win for some people.
This guy probably bought an insignificant portion of the tickets as surely there were many other stores that sold tickets including ones sold before this guy started buying them. Even if he bought 10% of the tickets, there is still a 90% chance of not winning the jackpot.
In the end this guy was still very lucky, just didn't have to be quite as lucky as something that bought 1 ticket. In the end, his investment was far greater, so his luck 'per ticket' wasn't any greater than anyone else. And unless this was a jackpotting lottery, the house will always win.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday August 10 2020, @02:37PM (1 child)
Maybe he was lucky -- maybe he had inside info. I would guess that 40/NumberOfStoresInWV is a pretty small proportion so either he knew something, or isn't great at math.
(Score: 2) by pipedwho on Tuesday August 11 2020, @05:21AM
Or we're only hearing about this story because he ended up with a winning ticket. I suspect there are numerous stories of people with cockamamy plans to win the lottery that end up losing their 'investment'. At some point one of those people wins and they take it as a validation that their 'plan' was the reason for their success.
He had a 'hunch' that the winning ticket was in a specific subset of stores. He just happened to win, I'd wager there are far more unpublished stories of people with a similar 'hunch' that lost.