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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: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Monday August 10 2020, @12:57PM (4 children)
Not necessarily, there a lot of stupid people around that brag about things they shouldn't be bragging about. There are other parts of the story that seem more weird such as how he visited 40 stores in just 4h, unless the stores are just next door to each other and there are no other customers anywhere or any kind of traffic on the roads it seems somewhat unlikely.
Also there is either something wrong, or insider information, or there is a serious flaw in the lottery system as one of the basic problems they tend to solve is that there should not be any guarantee of winning, such as in a scenario of buying all the tickets or the equivalent -- as it should cost more then the eventual payout as it is then otherwise no longer a lottery or a game of chance but a guaranteed payout and quite frankly everyone would be stupid not to do it.
(Score: 2) by TrentDavey on Monday August 10 2020, @08:04PM
Indeed. This is how some (lots?) of prosecutions proceed since the law-breaker brags (even if to another criminal comrade) about what cool/stupid thing they have done. The comrade then turns their buddy in to the fuzz. Bazinga.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday August 11 2020, @04:13AM (2 children)
Scratch and wins, I'm fairly sure that if they advertise a top prize, perhaps $100,000 (common here), they have to have a ticket that has the winning numbers on it, along with perhaps 1 or 2 tickets for $50,000, 10 tickets for 10,000 right down to a bunch of $2 winners. There's laws and regulations here that say 50% winnings I believe, so if the prizes add up to $200,000, they print and ship $400,000 worth of tickets. Not sure what happens if they don't sell.
Perhaps you're thinking more of the random draw type lotteries where you pick perhaps 6 numbers and if those 6 numbers come up, you win mod number of ticket buyers with the same numbers and if the numbers weren't sold, the prize usually rolls over.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday August 11 2020, @12:45PM (1 child)
All lotteries are like that, or should be -- there is a slight payout difference between say "pick X random numbers" where there might be no winners this week and some of those potential winnings are rolled over to the next draw and bought tickets (scratch or whatever sort) that have a fixed payout system that is usually printed on the back of the tickets (sort of like this batch of X tickets contains Z tickets with various outcomes such as one ticket for $1.000.000 and two paying $500.000 etc so to calculate the odds are quite simple). The thing is you are in neither system supposed to be able to guarantee your winning by say buying all the tickets or playing all the numbers or combinations. You can guarantee the win but it's going to cost more then what you win. Otherwise it's not a lottery, or game of chance, but just a regular payout. If I knew I could spend X to always win X+1 (or just more then what I paid) I would just borrow money to do it even if I didn't have them just to win since winning was a guaranteed outcome. It would in essence be free money.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday August 11 2020, @03:04PM
OK, I probably misunderstood you and agree with what you just posted.