Author Topic: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news  (Read 12302 times)

Jags4186

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Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« on: May 11, 2016, 03:54:50 PM »
So they just had a story on the 5 o'clock news about a mid 50 year old guy in Long Island who won $1,000,000 on a scratch off. The kicker is, he won $1,000,000 on a scratch off 2 years ago.

Talk about lucky, right?

Then they laid out the real news...he spends north of $200/day and $1000/wk on scratch off tickets.  Net taxes I bet he's spent more than he's made on lottery tickets over his life...

HPstache

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2016, 04:05:43 PM »
What if he actually invested the $1,000,000 in a Vanguard index fund 2 years ago and is buying all of the new tickets using the 4% rule?  Mind blown...
« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 04:09:34 PM by v8rx7guy »

Miss Piggy

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2016, 05:27:05 PM »
That's a gambling addiction if you ask me.

TheAnonOne

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2016, 12:04:06 PM »
What if he actually invested the $1,000,000 in a Vanguard index fund 2 years ago and is buying all of the new tickets using the 4% rule?  Mind blown...

And every time he won 1MM he invested it and doubled down on his lotto ticket buying, until he owned every ticket...

I'm a red panda

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2016, 12:33:50 PM »


And every time he won 1MM he invested it and doubled down on his lotto ticket buying, until he owned every ticket...

I think I read something that basically said it would be impossible to buy all the combinations of a lottery- because the amount of time between drawings don't let you fill out the bubble sheets fast enough.

But these are scratch offs, so not really the same thing.

forummm

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2016, 01:16:57 PM »


And every time he won 1MM he invested it and doubled down on his lotto ticket buying, until he owned every ticket...

I think I read something that basically said it would be impossible to buy all the combinations of a lottery- because the amount of time between drawings don't let you fill out the bubble sheets fast enough.

People who try to purchase all the tickets use preprinted bubble sheets already filled in. And for some lotteries (like Powerball) you wouldn't have time to buy all the tickets. For much smaller drawings you could have a small team buy them all.

JZinCO

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2016, 01:23:11 PM »
Then they laid out the real news...he spends north of $200/day and $1000/wk on scratch off tickets.  Net taxes I bet he's spent more than he's made on lottery tickets over his life...
Well if you want a reasonable chance at winning the lottery you need to spend alot of money, and to afford to spend alot of money you must win the lottery.






duh..

slugline

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2016, 03:26:43 PM »
Back in the 90s an Australian syndicate managed to win a jackpot by buying most combinations of the Virginia Lotto:

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/25/us/group-invests-5-million-to-hedge-bets-in-lottery.html?pagewanted=all

Nowadays I think the number of possible combinations is usually so high that this strategy isn't feasible.

hernandz

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2016, 05:47:45 PM »
The first time he won the big money, his wife was dying of cancer, so he used the money to stay home with her and the three "kids", and presumably pay off medical bills, but yeah, also feeding a good-sized gambling addiction.  Per the NY Post, he is getting annual income of $33K after taxes from the last score until 2031, plus whatever he makes in his construction gigs.  If his addiction is running at $1K/week, no wonder he can't afford to retire. 

plog

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2016, 11:57:54 PM »
Quote
...on a scratch off

I'd mock all of you don't seem to understand the difference between a scratch off and a lottery drawing, but being ignorant of the various lottery games just shows you are doing something right with your money. 

KodeBlue

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2016, 08:05:08 PM »
I don't buy tickets, but my state lottery has "second chance" drawings, you go to their website and enter losing scratch off tickets. I pick up discarded losing tickets that people throw away at the grocery store. I've won $100 several times, also smaller prizes.

Indexer

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #11 on: May 18, 2016, 08:14:09 PM »
This is why states should ban lotteries instead of promote them. It's basically a tax on people who don't understand EV...

In my state the lottery is to pay for education.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who can't do math, and the money goes toward teaching the next generation math.

SwordGuy

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #12 on: May 18, 2016, 08:28:26 PM »
In my state the lottery is to pay for education.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who can't do math, and the money goes toward teaching the next generation math.

In my state the lottery is to pay for education, which allows the legislators to reduce the general tax revenue allocated to education by the lottery profit, so that tax money can be squandered on corporate welfare for their campaign contributors.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who don't understand politics and the money goes towards screwing those folks over even better next time.

There, fixed it for you.

forummm

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #13 on: May 19, 2016, 09:16:27 AM »
In my state the lottery is to pay for education.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who can't do math, and the money goes toward teaching the next generation math.

In my state the lottery is to pay for education, which allows the legislators to reduce the general tax revenue allocated to education by the lottery profit, so that tax money can be squandered on corporate welfare for their campaign contributors.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who don't understand politics and the money goes towards screwing those folks over even better next time.

There, fixed it for you.

+1

MrMoogle

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #14 on: May 19, 2016, 11:46:32 AM »
In my state the lottery is to pay for education.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who can't do math, and the money goes toward teaching the next generation math.

In my state the lottery is to pay for education, which allows the legislators to reduce the general tax revenue allocated to education by the lottery profit, so that tax money can be squandered on corporate welfare for their campaign contributors.

I think of it as if we have a tax on people who don't understand politics and the money goes towards screwing those folks over even better next time.

There, fixed it for you.

+1
Yeah, I saw somewhere that after adding lotteries, education funding in that state either increased as it had the past years, or increased by an additional few percent of the total lottery earnings.

They just use "education" to get it passed.

Anon in Alaska

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2016, 01:10:24 AM »
A lottery ticket (not that I would buy one) is an entertainment expense and should be compared to other entertainment expenses. Spending $2 on a lottery ticket and having a nice half an hour imagining what you would do if you won is just as much of an entertainment value as spending $8 on a ticket to a two-hour movie, even if your chance of winning is zero. Since your chance of winning something is a hair better than zero, it is arguably better.

While it may be better still not to make either purchase, looking it as an entertainment expense explains it.


Threshkin

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #16 on: May 23, 2016, 10:05:42 AM »
I agree that lotteries, including scratch tickets, are a scam but I would not call it a Tax.

Taxes are mandatory payments levied for services.  This includes property taxes, vehicle taxes, sales or income taxes, etc.  You can argue that these taxes are too high, improperly used, etc. but they are all clearly Taxes.

Lotteries are completely voluntary.  No one is forced to buy a lottery ticket.  They are not taxes on the poor or mathematically challenged.  They are just a scam people fall for.

I fine it interesting that when the mob ran numbers games (lotteries) it was evil and against the law but now that the government runs it everything is fine.  The government was not opposed to the numbers game scam, they just didn't like the competition.

Mac_MacGyver

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #17 on: May 28, 2016, 04:00:03 AM »
I watched a guy the other day getting scratch off tickets at a lottery kiosk. He was scratching off the bar code portion of the tickets only and scanning them to see if he won. He had about 200 dollars worth of tickets. It was fast and efficent. For the curious, he did not make his money back.

slugline

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #18 on: May 28, 2016, 05:13:49 PM »
I watched a guy the other day getting scratch off tickets at a lottery kiosk. He was scratching off the bar code portion of the tickets only and scanning them to see if he won. He had about 200 dollars worth of tickets. It was fast and efficent. For the curious, he did not make his money back.

This might be the saddest way to "do" the lottery. The odds are against you whether you buy one or a hundred, so I'd think that brief period of time the ticket is unscratched should be savored a bit with at least a little fantasizing. The behavior you describe above reminds me of someone who has developed a "tolerance" for a drug and needs to consume ever increasing quantities for diminishing return of pleasure.

Cyaphas

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #19 on: May 28, 2016, 05:24:00 PM »
I buy $20 worth of tickets when the Powerball gets massive. It's a great amount of escapism and what if's. It's also fun to talk about it at work. Interestingly enough those conversations are good lead ins for MMM blog plugs. "Well there are a lot of people who early retire without winning the lottery."

Joggernot

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2016, 06:04:15 AM »
I'd think that brief period of time the ticket is unscratched should be savored a bit with at least a little fantasizing.
This must be Schrodinger's ticket?

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #21 on: May 30, 2016, 08:13:24 AM »
A lottery ticket (not that I would buy one) is an entertainment expense and should be compared to other entertainment expenses. Spending $2 on a lottery ticket and having a nice half an hour imagining what you would do if you won is just as much of an entertainment value as spending $8 on a ticket to a two-hour movie, even if your chance of winning is zero. Since your chance of winning something is a hair better than zero, it is arguably better.

While it may be better still not to make either purchase, looking it as an entertainment expense explains it.

This is the only way I can look at purchasing a lottery ticket (BTW at least Mega Millions is $1 a ticket, but your logic holds). You get to day dream about all the things you could do living off of 4 percent of such a large windfall (at least for the intelligent). If you are lucky you might get more than half an hour out of it; after all you day dream, if it is a big lottery there is conversation at the office, and I imagine some people get a little thrill out of checking their ticket.

I agree that lotteries, including scratch tickets, are a scam but I would not call it a Tax.

Taxes are mandatory payments levied for services.  This includes property taxes, vehicle taxes, sales or income taxes, etc.  You can argue that these taxes are too high, improperly used, etc. but they are all clearly Taxes.

Lotteries are completely voluntary.  No one is forced to buy a lottery ticket.  They are not taxes on the poor or mathematically challenged.  They are just a scam people fall for.

I fine it interesting that when the mob ran numbers games (lotteries) it was evil and against the law but now that the government runs it everything is fine.  The government was not opposed to the numbers game scam, they just didn't like the competition.

I agree that technically a the lottery is not a tax, but if we are going to be technical . . . the lottery is not a scam as it is not a dishonest scheme; pretty much every aspect from the methods to the odds are disclosed and procedures are in place to ensure the "integrity" of that system.

Are the advertisements confusing: sure and are the disclosures often buried in the fine print of course like everything else in our society.

Calling it a tax on the poor and stupid is shorthand for not-a-tax-but-augments-tax-revenue-through-a-voluntary-system-which-primarily-comes-from-minorities,-the-poor,-and-the-underprivileged.

Just like calling it a scam is shorthand for not-dishonest-in-that-all-relivant-information-is-disclosed-but-not-easily-accessed-execpt-by-those-who-are-looking-for-it-and-advertised-and-distributed-in-ways-to-target-the-most-vulnerable.

I do agree it is odd that our government runs what could easily be called a social evil, but there are difference from a secretive and illegal operation; such as procedures, disclosure, and accountability and recourse if the system is violated.

dycker1978

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #22 on: May 30, 2016, 09:06:34 AM »
For those talking about education:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA

The education bit starts about the 10:00 min mark.  It is all good though.

talltexan

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #23 on: July 01, 2016, 09:06:08 AM »
There is one interesting property of lottery revenue: it goes up when other sources--sales tax and income tax--go down. So there is a stabilizing force here, as typically need for public spending remains high during the types of recessions where sales and income are lowered.

FIRE Artist

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #24 on: July 04, 2016, 11:09:07 AM »
I'd think that brief period of time the ticket is unscratched should be savored a bit with at least a little fantasizing.
This must be Schrodinger's ticket?

Hahahahahahahahah

ThatsIt

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #25 on: July 05, 2016, 02:57:08 PM »
About 5 Years ago Wired magazine had an article about people who have 'cracked' the scratch-off game.  They are basically running some scam on the tickets, and even the lottery guys can't quite figure it out. 

Here's the article: http://www.wired.com/2011/01/ff_lottery/

The reason you probably don't hear about it more is because the winners keep their mouths shut! 


slugline

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Re: Crazy lottery story I just heard on the news
« Reply #26 on: July 05, 2016, 03:25:10 PM »
About 5 Years ago Wired magazine had an article about people who have 'cracked' the scratch-off game.  They are basically running some scam on the tickets, and even the lottery guys can't quite figure it out. 

Here's the article: http://www.wired.com/2011/01/ff_lottery/

The reason you probably don't hear about it more is because the winners keep their mouths shut!

I think the lottery guys have it figured out, and they are hoping that the public stays clueless that someone else has figured it out.