Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday August 10 2020, @04:52AM   Printer-friendly
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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday August 10 2020, @10:06PM (2 children)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Monday August 10 2020, @10:06PM (#1034550) Homepage

    >Key word: ALMOST
    >It might be them.

    That's why it's a stupid tax. It WON'T be them, period.

    Other than tautologies, nothing has an absolute zero percent change of happening. There is a non-zero chance of all of the atoms in your body existing five feet to the left spontaneously. But it won't happen, period. Humans in general really suck at comprehending scale beyond a few million or so, the magnitudes blur together, and the people buying lottery tickets especially so.

    Just for the sake of argument, hypothetically if they won the lottery (which WON'T happen, period), statistics show that it won't make them happy, except for a few years or so. It will tear apart their family and friends, they will splurge and get used to an extravagant, unsustainable lifestyle, and then fall into debt and ruin a few years later. At BEST, they will return to their previous standard of living; at worst, go into debt and end up even worse off. Don't worry, the statistics of this happening are FAR better than winning the lottery itself.

    That's why it's a stupid tax.

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @10:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2020, @10:57PM (#1034595)

    I'll occasionally buy a ticket if the prize is above a certain point, but in general, It's far better to put the money into some sort of an investment. These days there are fintech outfits that will take as little as $10 and invest it in a small portion of stocks and bonds. Put $5 a week in and over time that gets to be a decent amount of money, certainly far more than you'd be likely to win.

    What's more, when people do win, they tend to wind up bankrupt before too long because they didn't have finance management skills before winning the lottery and they still don't after striking it big.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Tuesday August 11 2020, @02:46AM

    by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday August 11 2020, @02:46AM (#1034691) Homepage

    I'm reminded of this:

    ===
    A man bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

    Come morning, the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, but I've got some bad news. The donkey died."

    "Well then, just give me my money back."

    "Can't do that. I spent it already," replied the farmer.

    "OK then, just unload the donkey."

    "What're you gonna do with him?" asked the farmer.

    "I'm gonna raffle him off."

    "Ya can't raffle off a dead donkey!" exclaimed the farmer.

    "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anyone he's dead."

    A month later the farmer met up with the guy and asked about what happened with the dead donkey. "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at $2 apiece and made a profit of $898."

    "Didn't no one complain?" asked the farmer.

    "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his $2 back."
    ===

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.