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    IhpsdmHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 9:48am

    I probably shouldn’t even mention this on an anonymous forum, but my brother won 1 million dollars on a lottery scratch off.

    The strange thing about it is that he never even plays the lottery. He just decided on a whim one day to take a couple of tickets instead of receiving change at a gas station.

    He also doesn’t really need it, since he’s a doctor and is single. He didn’t even cash it in for a couple of months because he won in Illinois, which requires that people’s names be announced when they win. He got around it by setting up a trust, so the papers had to announce that “XYZ Trust won 1 million dollars.”

    I think he paid off his mortgage with some of the money and then the rest he just put in mutual funds. After state and local taxes, it came out to about $550,000.

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      KyuzoIhpsdm
      8/15/16 10:27am

      A dermatologist in Orlando who was already a multi-millionaire won a $189 million Powerball jackpot in 2009.

      Because there is no God.

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      Tidal TownKyuzo
      8/15/16 10:33am

      It’s not like those without means have a history of spending large lottery winnings well. The other edge of the sword people don’t talk about much.

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    Armageddon T. ThunderbirdHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 10:26am

    Jesus. I suppose I’m also not the biggest that prostitutes have ever seen either?

    Hamilton Nolan: ruiner of things.

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      MajorBurnArmageddon T. Thunderbird
      8/15/16 11:00am

      You are totally the biggest prostitute I’ve ever seen. <3

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      Armageddon T. ThunderbirdMajorBurn
      8/15/16 11:04am

      Junebug is still looking for that money you owe him...

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    IhpsdmHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 9:52am

    I would recommend reading David Baldacci’s “The Winner”.

    It’s a amazing how many people end up going bankrupt after winning the lottery. You’re giving a lot of money to people who really don’t know how to handle it.


    It also pushes you in to the 39.6% tax bracket, which a lot of people don’t even think about when they win X million dollars. That means your ordinary wages, if you have a job, will also be subject to the 39.6% tax, which is probably way higher than what you are having withheld.

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      Hello my name is MikeIhpsdm
      8/15/16 10:00am

      There was a fellow in West Virginia named Whittaker (different from the Whittaker folks you’ll find south of Beckley, who swing from trees and go all nuts for penny candy.)

      Anyway, long story short, this Whittaker won many millions of dollars and within a few years lost his wife, granddaughter, friends and health. Wound up an old sad sack just for not knowing how to handle that money.

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      IhpsdmHello my name is Mike
      8/15/16 10:05am

      The problem is that a lot of people end up coming out of the woodworks when they see that you won the lottery. A lot of people who won the lottery say they wish they had been able to receive it “anonymously”. It’s amazing how quickly you can go through that money.

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    IAMBlastedBiggsLostBurnerHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 9:58am

    What’s odd is that everybody believes the higher the jackpot is, the better the odds will be of them winning. Me, personally, when it’s $10 mil, it’s not worth my time. I don’t play until it’s at least $200 mil. That's when I bring out my secret system of birthdays, favorite numbers, and picking numbers based on the patterns made by the marks!

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      DaJawnIAMBlastedBiggsLostBurner
      8/15/16 10:18am

      Your strategy is pretty good. The odds are usually around 1/180million, so with a $2 ticket as long as the jackpot is over $360million (180*2) the expected value of your ticket is positive and, statistically, a good idea. Of course there is the chance that you can split it, but I don’t know the math on that and will defer to any Stat PhD’s floating around here.

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      IAMBlastedBiggsLostBurnerDaJawn
      8/15/16 10:22am

      See?? The numbers don’t lie! Anything over zero is just as good as anything else over zero! A .0000000001 chance of winning is the very same as 100%! I knew my system was a *winner!

      * 'winner' not correlated with actual winnings.

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    Graby SauceHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 9:52am

    I saw a homeless woman scratching some lottery tickets the other day. It is foolhardy, but it’s not like she could have paid a deposit and rent with the $5 it took to buy lottery tickets. Unless people can invest a dollar or two at a time, investing in any kind of fund will be beyond a lot of low-income people who play the lottery. And how likely is it that the fund will have a chance to grow? That money is needed for day to day expenses like bus fare.

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      OurDaisyGraby Sauce
      8/15/16 10:24am

      This is what gets me about people who are already in dicey financial straits playing the lottery. I get it that it’s basically a pipe dream and most people know that but if you’re already having a hard time putting food on the table or keeping the lights on, you’re blowing cash that you actually could use right now on the slight possibility of winning cash. Even if you do hit, odds are you’ve spent more than you’re winning back. Having bus fare beats having a pocketful of useless scratch offs.

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      Sobchak SecurityOurDaisy
      8/15/16 10:31am

      I know… RIGHT?!?!? Homeless people are usually so rational. This must have been one of those rare crazy homeless people we’ve all heard of but never encountered.

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    reggieinatlHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 10:13am

    I play about $10 a week (scratch games) and generally break even. For me, it ‘s worth it just for the sake of day dreaming. What would I do with $500k after taxes? It’s like a fast food high with out the fat or calories.

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      Sid and Financyreggieinatl
      8/15/16 10:21am

      I came back from a poker game once, and my dad asked me how I did.

      “Broke even,” I said.

      “Funny thing,” he replied, “how usually a couple of guys win and the rest break even.”

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      Major Shadereggieinatl
      8/15/16 10:40am

      Answer to that is first you hire a lawyer and an accounting. Then you move out of town and cancel your phone. Then you can have your lawyer turn in your winning ticket and collect the money, pay the taxes and send you the rest. By the time it hits the media, you're already gone.

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    Fabian KnockwurstHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 10:26am

    Having identified a person as an avid lottery player (hence loser), how much have you increased your probability in having also selected a trump voter?

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      KumichoFabian Knockwurst
      8/15/16 10:46am

      Venn Diagram for the two groups:

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      EvanrudeJohnsonKumicho
      8/15/16 11:14am

      Not quite, unless Trump is doing way better with African American voters than I have been led to believe.

      A recent review of demographic studies commissioned by the South Carolina Education Lottery showed: African-Americans made up 19% of the state’s adult population but accounted for almost 39% of frequent players;

      http://stoppredatorygambling.org/blog/category/…

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    Desi_RelafordHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 9:54am

    Yea. Most people who play the lottery are stupid.

    But I have a method!!!

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      SktroopDesi_Relaford
      8/15/16 10:15am

      It should pay off any day now...any day now...next week for sure...

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    Sid and FinancyHamilton Nolan
    8/15/16 9:44am

    Average people are so stupid.

    You have to buy the scratch tickets with the beach balls in the summer or the Chrsitmas trees in the winter. Those are the winners.

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      Sean BrodyHamilton Nolan
      8/15/16 10:36am

      Hamilton can we ever get to the bottom of the apparent contradiction between you loving and advocating index funds while you’re also fervently praying for the markets to collapse?

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        KingOfKongSean Brody
        8/15/16 11:34am

        Not until he explains how his support for a $15 minimum wage justifies him bitching about $10 omelets: http://gawker.com/diners-are-too…

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