Robmaster7's Blog

Here's a great article on 10 lottery myths proven wrong. The good news is - the odds of winning the lottery are better than getting struck by lightning - phew...

Here's the story from NASPL

Myth #1: Odds of being struck by lightning are better than the odds of winning a lottery.

This myth was mathematically debunked by Iowa Lottery Commissioner Ed Stanek (who has a doctorate in physics) in an October 1997 issue of Public Gaming International magazine.

Statistics gathered by NASPL as well indicate that in one year alone (1996) 1,136 people won a million dollars or more and an additional 4,520 won $100,000 or more by playing North American lotteries. By contrast, 91 people were killed by lightning during that same year.

Also, what kind of a second prize does a lightning strike offer? Lottery players can win without actually hitting the jackpot, with lesser payouts for picking some of the correct numbers.

Myth #2: Lottery is a form of taxation.

A tax is compulsory payment to support government. Citizens have no option in contributing to state revenue with mandated levies and other tariffs. In fact, they may go to jail if they don't pay.

Playing the lottery is entirely voluntary. Whether as a regular purchase or as an occasional play, buying a lottery ticket is an individual choice. The only consequence to not playing lottery is missing some fun and possibly a prize.

Myth #3: Lotteries prey on the poor by target marketing to those who can least afford to play.

Come on, what fiscally responsible company would focus its best marketing efforts on people who can't afford to buy the product? This does not make good business sense.

Lottery products are marketed in qualifying retail outlets. These sites are predominantly convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets. If zoning regulations in high-income neighborhoods prohibit convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets, you won't see many lottery retail sites in those areas. If there is a concentration of qualifying retail outlets in less affluent areas of a community, you will see many more lottery retail sites in those areas. This makes it appear that lottery sales sites are chosen by income level when in fact this is just not true.

Also keep in mind that players buy tickets in areas where they work and shop, not necessarily where they live. A Minnesota survey found that more than half the players bought tickets in zip codes outside their own home zip code.

Even if lottery organizations wanted to bow to this common myth and restrict the sale of products in low-income neighborhoods, they would face discriminatory charges from the qualifying retailers who are being denied a government contract. Also, citizens being denied access to lottery products based on their income would probably have as strong a case against the state as disabled people who are denied access to lottery products in retail outlets that are not ADA compliant.

Myth #4: Lottery purchases are made mostly by low-income people.

Many studies show that this myth is unfounded. Numerous surveys conducted by individual lotteries show that their players cross-section the overall population in that jurisdiction.

A 1997 poll commissioned by the Washington Post found that middle income Americans were the most likely group to play the lottery and that the wealthiest and poorest were least likely to play. The survey says:

• Two out of three Americans with annual household incomes ranging $25,000 - $45,000 played the lottery at least once a year; one out of four played monthly.
• Americans earning $45,000 - $65,000 played even more often: three-fours occasionally, one-third at least once a month.
• More recently, a Gallup Poll on Gambling in America this year shows that 57 percent of American adults had bought a lottery ticket in the past 12 months and
  • Those with $45,000 - $75,000 incomes were most likely to play; 65 percent had played in the past year.
  • Those with incomes less than $25,000 were least likely to play (53 percent).
  • Those with incomes more than $75,000 spend about three times as much on lotteries each month as those with incomes under $25,000.

Myth #5: That billboard thing in Illinois.

This myth, like most urban legends, is perpetrated for its sensationalism and does not reflect factual accuracy about the lottery industry.

We who support the state lottery industry take every opportunity possible to correct the bad press lottery has received due to erroneous reporting about billboards placed in Illinois in 1986. Opponents charged the Illinois Lottery with targeting advertising specifically to a poor neighborhood with a billboard picturing a lottery ticket and the wording "Your ticket out of here."

In reality, the billboard read "How to get from Washington Street to Easy Street" and was only one of hundreds placed in various locations (in a variety of income level neighborhoods) with the street name changed for each. The Washington Street location was on the main access road to Chicago Stadium and was chosen simply to reach an entertainment-seeking audience.

Myth #6: You get nothing for your lottery purchase if you don't win a prize.

Lottery is a game. Games are entertaining. The entertainment factor in lottery is multifaceted:

• With the purchase of a lottery game a player gets the fun and suspense of scratching latex squares, breaking open a pull-tab, or choosing his special "lucky" number combination for a winning sequence that may allow him to claim a prize.
• Non-winners often have an opportunity to enter special drawings for a second chance at winning prizes.
• Probability games add to the entertainment factor in that every ticket will be a winner if it is played correctly. How the ticket is played (which areas are uncovered) becomes an entertaining challenge.
• The growing number of television tie-in lottery games also adds another dimension of entertainment to lottery games with comedy, drama and suspense all rolled into the show.

Myth #7: Lottery is responsible for the growing number of compulsive gamblers in the United States.

Compulsive gambling is addictive behavior, and like other forms of pathological addiction, it involves biological and psychological factors that predispose an individual to the behavior. Providing a substance does not create an addict.

A National Survey on Gambling Behavior conducted for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission last year found there is no relationship between problem gambling rates and the presence or absence of a lottery. Survey tabulation noted that "it does not appear that the availability of a lottery has an impact on (problem gambling) prevalence rates."

Other studies indicate that compulsive gamblers choose high-excitement games filled with sensory stimulation, games that involve skill, and immediate gratification for their play. Sensory stimulation, a skill level, and immediate payout are not part of lottery play.

But lotteries organizations do not bury their heads in the sand and deny that the problem of compulsive gambling exists. Most have taken a proactive approach in identifying the problem and providing avenues of help for those afflicted in their jurisdiction. Nearly all U.S. Lottery organizations include a Play Responsibly message in promotion of their games.

Myth #8: Because state governments benefit from lottery proceeds, they can't be trusted to regulate their industry.

We trust states to make their own tax policy-and many other decisions regarding their citizens-so why shouldn't states be trusted to regulate their own lottery organizations? There is nothing to hide. Lottery files are public record and open to scrutiny by the media and by the citizenry. Lottery board meetings and legislative hearings also are open to the public. And these state lottery proceedings are much more accessible than those of federal regulatory agencies.

Myth #9: There is no assurance that lottery drawings are conducted fairly.

The state lottery industry is one of the most scrutinized industries that ever existed. Security has always been of highest priority in selling lottery products and in conducting lottery drawings. A high level of security and public drawings are what separate state lotteries from, and sets them above, numbers games sold on the streets.

Using state-of-the-art draw machines and televising official drawings are means employed to ensure that every player has the same chance to win. For instant games, the lottery industry requires secure printing facilities and controlled distribution; the industry also is moving in the direction of bar coding and all electronic validation equipment.

Myth #10: Since there are relatively few payouts compared to the number lottery tickets sold, few people (only holders of winning tickets) actually benefit from lottery.

Millions of people have won thousands of cash prizes playing lottery games. But there are many more millions of people who also are lottery winners.

• Lottery retailers earn commission on the sale of lottery products, and this income contributes to the economy for everyone in a jurisdiction.
• The vendors and suppliers who provide the hardware, software, tickets, advertising services and the many other goods and services it takes to run a lottery also strengthen the economy through their enterprise.
• Lottery winnings spent on goods and services in a jurisdiction also contribute to economic prosperity for all.
• In the 37 states and District of Columbia that operate government sanctioned lotteries, a total population of more than 230 million citizens wins by benefiting from lottery proceeds that support a variety of projects.

Sharon Sharp's subsequent presentation on "Where the Money Goes" will show you how lottery supports good causes in jurisdictions throughout the United States.

Talk about job security. This UK based lottery syndicate of 13 decided to invest their multi-million Euro jackpot win back into the company. Each would have received about £177,000. Would you have taken your share or got on board with the investment?

Here's the story reported by Casino Affiliate Program.

Winners Invest Lottery Cash in Employer

Lotto winners give £3.9 million to keep company going through recession

Recessionary climates can produce extraordinary events, and the U.K. media are currently carrying an interesting report of a 13-member lottery syndicate that struck it lucky ... and decided to use their winnings to ensure their employer's survival, along with their jobs. 
 
The syndicate won £3.9 million on the lottery, but instead of dividing up the prize they decided unanimously to present the cash to company owner Andy Whitaker (44), who has managed to keep the family-run motor repair firm going despite a terrible time for the car industry.  
 
The employees will pledge most of their winnings into the firm ASK Rewinds  in Accrington, Lancashire, becoming investors in their own future in the process. 
 
Whitaker, his wife and a fellow director are members of the winning syndicate, and have already pledged to plough their share of the lottery windfall back into the firm to help safeguard the jobs of their 18 workers. 
 
Whitaker told local reporters: "Everybody is obviously really delighted to scoop such a big win but it's also great feeling that a lot of the lads have got the firm so close to their hearts and want to be a part of it.
 
"Normally you hear about people wanting to spend their Lotto winnings on themselves and high living but it's great the workforce are thinking about their futures too -- despite it not being a good time for savers. 
 
"We're going to have a staff party to celebrate and I think everyone will be enjoying the win with their families. 
 
"But we'll go back to normality on Monday. Despite the credit crunch and all these companies going under, we have been holding our own and the company is doing fine . 
 
"But we are planning to inject cash into the company and it's nice to know we have a safeguard." 
 
The syndicate matched the winning numbers 6, 25, 33, 37, 42, 43, and bonus ball 23, after buying their winning ticket from a newsagent.

This great story comes to us Brooklyn, NY where a 73 year old superstitious grandmother jumped off the bus to purchase her lucky Mega Millions ticket. Her palm had a severe itch, which her old supersitition told her, MONEY IS IN THE FUTURE! Grandma Mary Shammas got the itch and it led to a $64m Jackpot! Next time you itch - are you going to go and purchase your lucky ticket?

Here's the story as reported by CBS. 

Granny’s Fateful $64M Itch

Mary Shammas Lets Fate Take Her Hand, Follows Itch-Related Superstition, Plays Lottery, Wins Big!

(CBS)  Call it the $64 million itch!

Brooklyn grandma Mary Shammas was on the bus when her left palm started itching.

Remembering the old superstition that an itchy left palm means money is on the way, Shammas, 73, jumped off the bus and bought a lottery ticket.

On Tuesday night, she hit a $64 million jackpot.

Mary told “Early Show on Saturday Morning” co-anchor Erica Hill how it all happened. “I had a terrible itch that I’ve never had before,” Mary said, “within the short while, it was three or four times happening. And I said to myself, ‘This means something. It’s an old fashioned superstition, but you know what, I haven’t played Mega(Millions) in a couple of weeks. Let me just go and validate a ticket’ that I had – an envelope with all my numbers in my bag.”

Mary says she always plays the same numbers, based on her cousin’s family members’ birthdays.

“I went in,” she continued, “and validated the ticket, spent $5, never dreaming that maybe I’ll win $10 or something, you know?”

Sixty-four million dollars, she said, “was not in my brain at the time!”

Days later, when she thought she’d won, she called her son, Joseph, made his promise not to tell his siblings, then asked him to come over to confirm her great fortune.

Before her did, Joseph called his brother, Richard.

“Joseph did not believe me,” Mary recalled. “He walked over. And checked the ticket and said, ‘Ma, you really won! And it was all night back-and-forth conversing. Nobody slept.”

Richard told Hill he “was in total shock, I gotta say, because my brother called me and whenever you get a call late at night, you’re assuming it’s bad news. And you’re never assuming that it’s gonna be this kind of news. So once I got this kind of news, I just — I just was in shock. I really — we didn’t even believe it. Even ’til this day, I think my whole family is still in shock. We’re wondering if we’re gonna wake up and say we dreamed we won $64 million. But it’s unbelievable.

“It’s just been incredible. You know, I don’t even know really what to say, what to do. Right now, it’s so amazing, the feeling and not having to worry. She really outdid herself!”
Mary says, “It’s the best feeling in the world anyone could have, because I’d like to see them (her family) have a better life than I had – (I had) a rough life, and I’m glad I’m able to give them this. This is my joy in life.”

Is there something she’s always wanted to do that now, she can?

“It’s not a big thing,” Mary replied. “Maybe go to Atlantic City. Something like that. … Now I’m playing more and hoping I win again!”

Mary, though, suffers from lung cancer, and can’t leave home most days.

To each his (or her) own. If your dream car is a Puegeot, Kia or one of those awesome new Ford Fiestas... then by all means pick one of those bad boys up. I think most people dream Maserarti, Bentley or Phantom. I think I'm a little more modest since all I would want to do is upgrade my Escape (or Es-ca-pay as Dori would call it) to pimped out Range Rover and pick up a 350Z Roadster for trips down the PCH from my sweet new house in Malibu. Spending a total of $130-$150k on cars. Now my lady friend is a car gal, and if she or I hit the JP, she would most certainly insist on Porsche 911 GT2 RS costing about $245k itself. So I wonder, what car or cars would you pick up?

 

Here's the story of the lovely Brit who won and got her dream car, a $13,500 Peugeot 207. The story is from Mirror a UK based news site.

Lottery winners to start spending £12million win – with Peugeot 207

Mum Sharon Mather yesterday celebrated winning £12.4million on the lottery and immediately picked out her dream car.

She can now easily afford a Ferrari, Porsche or Aston Martin but there’s only one model in her sights – a Peugeot 207 costing just under £11,000.

The EuroMillions jackpot win means a future life of luxury for Sharon, 44, and her family. And it’s all thanks to her dad John Morris, 64, who paid for a week in a seaside caravan with her husband Nigel, 44, and their children Rhys, four, and one-year-old Lewis.

It was while they were on holiday in Minehead, Somerset, that she bought her winning lucky dip ticket at a newsagent’s.

And yesterday she said: “The win is all thanks to dad’s generosity.

“We had to cut the trip short to see him in hospital as he wasn’t well. But he’s recovering and we were thrilled to tell him of his amazing gift. We’ll make sure we return the favour.”

For hotel manager Nigel, the win means Christmas has come early. He has served dinner to his guests every Christmas for the last 25 years but this year he and Sharon will feast at one of the world’s great hotels. Nigel, who has his eye on a £40,000 Audi Q7 fourwheel drive, said: “It’ll make a change to have a turkey dinner myself.”

Sharon, of Sale, Manchester, revealed that before checking her ticket on TV she won £10 on Saturday’s National Lottery and £20 on a scratchcard – and Nigel had landed a £25 premium bonds prize.

“Then I found I’d won EuroMillions in the Friday draw,” she said. “Nigel was at the supermarket and I phoned him to come home quick. He thought there was something wrong till I told him.”

The couple popped champagne corks ZFootball at Manchester City FC’s ground, where Nigel is a fan, and brandished a team shirt with the numbers of their prize.

Sharon had only recently returned from maternity leave to her job as a council information officer. But she said: “I really missed the children when I went back to work, so I’m delighted I can now stay at home with them.”

Nigel, a local hero when he saved an elderly woman from a flat fire 10 years ago, also came close previously to winning £9million on the National Lottery but had to settle for £2,400 for matching five numbers. “I’d thought that was my one big chance,” he said.

He was back at work at 8am on Monday at the Menzies Pinewood Hotel in Manchester, but told his bosses it might not be for much longer. “I’m thinking of taking a year out,” he said.

He has not ruled out a tour of the world’s top hotels to see how they are run – but is not thinking of buying one.

“We have no major plans,” he said. We’ll take our time and enjoy it. I did promise to take Sharon to Venice for her 30th birthday but we had to cancel as she needed an op. We may do that now.”

The couple also plan a sizeable donation to Francis House, a local hospice where Nigel’s niece Shadia was treated for cancer before she died aged 18.

Winning numbers 2, 22, 24, 36, 44 Star numbers 1, 2 £10,995 Price of a brand new Peugeot 207, with three doors and a 1.4 litre engine. Despite its size, it can only manage 0-60 in a snail-like 15.7 seconds, but has a top speed of 106mph.

Patience pays again. The original pool was 5 that pitched in $2 per week for 5 years. Two of the guys dropped out in the last year leaving 3 men to win and split the $26m lottery prize. What was their number system? Choosing sport legends and playing their numbers. The three men walk with $3.6 each and say they won't change much and continue to work. This is a great story reported by Syracuse's website. There is a great video with it as well, so just search the headline to see it.

Five years of pooling $10 each week for lottery tickets pays off for New Process Gear co-workers

DeWitt, NY -- Freddie Hands, Douglas Tedford and Ronald Edwards plan to keep working at New Process Gear until the DeWitt automotive factory closes — despite the fact that all three are about to become millionaires.

Their five years of pooling money to buy $10 in Mega Millions lottery tickets each week paid off June 22 when lottery officials drew their numbers. The trio held the only winning ticket on a jackpot potentially worth $26 million.

Thursday, lottery officials introduced the men at an 11 a.m. presentation at the Price Chopper supermarket at Erie Boulevard East and South Midler Avenue, in Syracuse. That’s where Hands, the customary ticket buyer for the group, purchased the winning ducat.

“Don’t let it change you,” a well-wisher called out as reporters gathered around the winners.

“It won’t,” Hands assured him.

“The only thing it will change is retirement,” Tedford said. “I don’t think it’s going to be right away,” the 44-year-old Canastota resident added. “I mean, we’ve got a lot of planning to do. We’re still working at the plant. We’ve decided that we’re going to stay and pretty much ride the plan out. My plans are to invest the money and just gonna wait and see what happens in the future (and) take care of my kids.”

The windfall comes as Magna International, New Process Gear’s owner, winds down operations at the factory toward an undetermined closing date.

The money they won is less than the jackpot size might indicate. When he bought the ticket, Hands opted to take any winnings in a lump sum, rather than in payments over time. The lump-sum payoff was $16.9 million. Split three ways, that’s about $5.6 million before taxes, about $3.7 million after, state Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman said.

Edwards, 47, of Syracuse, said he planned to go back to college and complete a degree in biology.

Hands, 55, also of Syracuse, said he planned to tithe 10 percent of his winnings to his church and buy a new car for his wife to replace her 11-year-old Plymouth Breeze.

Winning that amount of cash has the potential to be life-changing, Hands said. “But you know what? My thing is, you have to still remain humble,” Hands said. “As long as you do that, everything else will take care of itself.’’

The trio were among five co-workers who originally began buying Mega Millions tickets together, Hapeman said.

Frank Quattrone said he was one of them, but stopped pitching in about a year ago when he transferred to another department. The other member dropped out about two weeks ago, he said.

Rumors ran rampant at the plant last week that Hands and two others had won the $26 million, Quattrone said. Some people thought he was still part of the group. “People have been calling me saying ‘Did you win? Did you win?’ Nah, I dropped out. I wish I hadn’t,” he said.

The group typically never won more than a couple of dollars, which they plowed back into tickets. Each member had their own pet numbers, and it was Hands’ — 12, 17, 21, 23, 30 and Mega Ball 24 — that did the trick. Those were the jersey numbers, respectively, of sports legends Roger Staubach, John Havlicek, Dave Bing, Michael Jordan, Terrell Davis and Sam Jones, Hands said.

Hands said the numbers looked familiar when he saw them the next day in The Post-Standard. “Then I went and got the card that I had, and looked at that and went one by one. Then I said, let me check it, it might be a misprint,” he said. “OK, so I went to my computer, then I looked it up again. And once I saw that, I said, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’”

He went to the plant and told Tedford.

“I thought he was joking at first,” Tedford said. He held off telling anyone, he said, until he could break the news to Edwards. “I got no reaction from Ron. He was pretty calm and cool about the whole thing,” he said.

The co-workers frequently had talked about what they would do with the money if they ever hit it big, Tedford said — “Vacation, buy this, buy that and all that.” The reality, he said, is “a lot of planning to figure out what to do — to do the right thing with it.”

So is there anything out there not branded by Kiss at this point? Just another gem for Gene Simmons to add to his insane collection. Must be nice to be him - he probably doesn't play the lottery... Check this story from BrandFreak out!

With lottery-tickets deal, KISS logo is now officially on everything

I wanna to rock ‘n’ roll all night … and gamble ev-er-y-day. Couldn’t resist, folks. KISS has just signed its first licensing deal for lottery tickets. The scratchers, capturing the best of KISS face paint and pleather regalia, launch into the $225-billion-a-year global lottery industry next week. The deal between the band/pop-culture brand and the New Mexico Lottery must represent the zillionth piece of KISS merchandise, or close to it. The finely honed marketing machine that is KISS, indistinguishable from the guys who used to (and still occasionally do) play music, has always been genius about using its image to sell product. (The band has sold 80 million records, too.) This time, fans plunking down hard-earned cash for KISS swag will be contributing to the state’s higher-education fund. If the tickets sell out, they’ll raise about $900,000 for scholarships, New Mexico lotto officials say. If players don’t pocket any of the cash prizes, they’ll still have a chance to win trips to see KISS on its “Hottest Show on Earth” tour in September. KISS, which has its first new record in 11 years to promote, isn’t the only band to go this route: Aerosmith did it last year with branded lottery tickets across several states. Odds are good that more of these deals are coming. Who should be next? Metallica? Bon Jovi? Extra credit for extra bad puns.

Check this story out reported by the Houston Press. She loves those scratchers and for good reason! Some people just have all the luck!

Here it is:

Woman Wins Million-Plus In Texas Lottery For Fourth Time

We're not the biggest lottery fans in the world (tax on the mathematically illiterate and all that), but if we had Joan Ginther's luck maybe we'd change our mind.

Last week Ginther traveled to Austin to pick up $10 million she won from some super extreme amazing give-us-your-money scratch-off ticket.

Which isn't unusual -- someone has to win, after all -- but it was the fourth time Ginther has won over a million dollars in the Texas Lottery.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that Ginther, a native of Bishop now living in (of course) Las Vegas, keeps racking up the wins.

It began in 1993 with a $5.4 million win in the regular ol' Lotto. Thirteen years later, on a trip back home to care for her father, she won $2 million on a $30 scratch-off ticket. (Thirty bucks for a scratch-off ticket? The mind reels, unless your name is Joan Ginther.) Two years after that, in 2008, she won a $3 million scratch-off prize.

When you take into account the lump-sum and annuity stuff, she's won about $20.4 million in the "contests."

Two of the tickets were purchased at the same convenience store, which got a $10,000 check each time.

Lottery officials told the Caller-Times they don't keep track of multiple winners. We assume they check the winning tickets pretty closely.

Ginther requested "minimum publicity" and could not be reached, the paper said. She was probably busy plotting how best to further deprive fellow scratch-off players from the jackpot.

If you have HBO, set your DVRs for Monday, July 19th 9-10:30pm ET/PT for the premiere of Lucky, an HBO documentary. The doc will profile several lottery winners and is bound to be pretty interesting. Here is the synopsis from CinemaBlend.

Fascinated by lottery winners? HBO has the pefect documentary

for you! Next month, the network is set to air Lucky, a documentary that focuses on the stories behind numerous lottery winners.

We’ve all thought about what it would be like to win the lottery. The moment the ticket is purchased, we start spending the money in our heads. Lucky is a documentary that follows some of the people who actually did win big money and how it affected their lives. Below is some more information as released by HBO.

Spellbound; Emmy® winner for “The Office”) crisscrossed the country to see what happened to the not-always-lucky few whose dreams came true, learning that winners’ lives can be turned upside down when they are forced to grapple with their new status in the world. “People who suddenly come into a tremendous amount of money without any preparation are left struggling to come up with a new way to live,” observes Blitz. “They become unmoored. And the world around them closes in. Finding your place on the spectrum of self-interest to altruism is one of the discoveries that the winners have to make.”

Among the people profiled in LUCKY are:

Quang, a Vietnamese immigrant who is one of eight Nebraska plant workers who won $22 million each.

James, a loner who divided his last $3 between food for his cats and a Powerball ticket, and ended up winning more than $5 million.

Kristine and Steve, a middle-class couple from Skillman, NJ who won $110 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery, then decided to leave town for a new, more affluent community in the South.

Robert, a Berkeley mathematician who understands better than most the near-impossibility of winning, yet played and won $22 million.

Buddy, a local hero after saving a boy from a burning building, whose $16 million lottery payoff seemed a just reward – until his life came apart at the seams.

Verna, a Delaware woman who spends up to a $100 a day on the lottery and still, after 30 years, believes she’ll soon land the big win.

Along with insightful portraits of winners and losers, LUCKY provides fascinating factoids about the lottery industry, such as the fact that lotteries paid for the building of Jamestown, the first American settlement, as well as for Washington, D.C. Despite the 2008 economic meltdown, 22 states subsequently reported record lottery receipts, with the industry taking in $62 billion annually, well more than the money Americans spent on movies and sporting events combined. Moreover, two percent of all lottery winnings are never claimed, including a 2002 Powerball prize worth $51.7 million.

Lucky premieres MONDAY, JULY 19 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.

It's too bad that even family can't be fair when it comes to splitting the loot. I guess nowadays you just have to put everything in writing. So if you're running your own pool out there with a few family members or friends, make sure you jot something legally binding down on paper and everyone sign it - cause when you do hit it big - there will be NO QUESTIONS!

Here is the story reported by USA Today on May 13th 2010.

By William M. Welch, USA TODAY

An 87-year-old Connecticut woman doesn't have to share a $500,000 lottery prize with her 84-year-old sister, a judge ruled in a case where money fractured family ties.

A winning 2005 lottery ticket left the sisters angry and not talking with each other after one claimed the other had reneged on a deal to share any gambling winnings.

"What came between these sisters was money," New Britain, Conn., Superior Court Judge Cynthia Swienton wrote in a decision released Wednesday.

"There is something in this tragedy that touches most people," she wrote. "While the court may be able to resolve the legal dispute, it is powerless to repair the discord and strife that now overshadows the once harmonious sisterly relationship."

The ruling came in a case of divided sisters that has worked its way through Connecticut courts for five years. During that time, court documents say, the sisters ended once-routine casino trips together and "did not speak or have any contact."

The case arose from Powerball winnings split by Rose Bakaysa, 87, and her brother, Joseph Troy Sr., in 2005. Their sister, Theresa Sokaitis, sued Bakaysa, claiming the two sisters had a written agreement to share their lottery and casino winnings, and demanding that her sister give her half of her share of the prize.

While they once had a rudimentary contract, signed and notarized, agreeing to share gambling and lottery prizes, Bakaysa contended the sisters had canceled that deal by mutual consent in 2004, a year before the Powerball win, in a dispute over repaying a $250 loan.

Sokaitis, the judge said, told her sister during an argument that she didn't want to be a part of such a family sharing deal anymore. The judge ruled that contract was no longer in force because the sisters had ended it a year before Bakaysa and her brother won the Powerball prize.

"Of course it's a tragedy, but things happen in life," said William Sweeney, attorney for Bakaysa, about the sisters' disagreement. "My client had pretty much taken care of this woman for a long time, and pretty much had had it with her."

Samuel Pollack, attorney for Sokaitis, did not return a call seeking comment.

Sokaitis argued that she thought the dispute would get resolved, and that she never intended for it to end their relationship — or their contract.

Sweeney said Bakaysa hopes the decision and time "will allow the bonds that have been broken by this case to heal."

Contributing: The Associated Press

Some people in the UK answered YES and guess what... they got into trouble. Here is a pretty interesting / funny story reported by Sky News.

A hard-up couple found a winning Lottery ticket and used the £30,000 jackpot to pay off their debts - only to land themselves in court.

Amanda Stacey, 34, spotted the ticket on the floor of her local Co-Op store in Swindon, Wiltshire, and took it home to discover it held the winning numbers for that night.

She and husband Michael, 43, cashed in the windfall and spend half of it clearing their debts, as well as buying new carpets, and treats for their children, according to The Sun.

Meanwhile, regular player Dorothy McDonagh, 61, proved to lottery firm Camelot that the Daily Play ticket was hers. Mrs Stacey told police she did not realise she was committing a crime and put the find down to luck. But officers froze the remaining £15,000 and charged the couple. The pair admitted charges of making a false representation, and Amanda Stacey also admitted theft. They were each given 11-month suspended jail sentences after a judge at Swindon Crown Court said they had acted out of financial need, not greed. Rob Ross, defending, told the court: "It is important for the public to know that 'Finders keepers, losers weepers' is not true and never was true."

A court hearing in July will decide if Ms McDonagh will get the £15,000 that remains. The only way she can recover the other half is by launching a private action - after Camelot refused to pay out a second time. Neither Ms McDonagh nor the Staceys were available for comment when contacted by Sky News Online. A Camelot spokesman said: "The dispute is now between the two parties involved. "We are reminding players to keep their tickets safe and fill out their names and addresses on the back. That way there can be no dispute. "We have a clear lost and found policy so if a member of the public finds the ticket they should send it to our prize payout department, setting out in writing the circumstances of the find and the steps they took (if any) to reunite the ticket with its rightful owner. "If no corresponding prize claim or lost ticket notice has been received, the prize may be paid to the finder at Camelot's discretion after the expiry of the 180-day claim deadline."

Obviously there are pros and cons to playing in pools - I haven't done it yet, but I've been thinking about it - here's a cool story... comment you're thoughts and experiences, I interested, I'm sure many folks are!

Here is what the Arizona Daily Star reported last month.

Friday, May 7, 2010 12:00 am

A pool of 12 workers from Tucson claimed a $250,000 Mega Millions lotto prize.

The company that employs the workers was not identified in a news release issued Thursday by the state lottery office.
The workers, who bought 60 Quick Pick tickets at the Diamond Shamrock Corner Store at 1895 E. Valencia Road, said they had been purchasing Mega Millions tickets since the game was introduced here last month.

Each worker is to receive $14,583 after taxes. They declined media interviews.

The state lottery office identified the winners as: Danielle Deller; Maria Felix-Gray; Christine Garcia; Juan Guerra; Anthony Jackson; Betty Larsen; Norma Lopez; Rebecca Onofryton; Jessica Peralta; Charles Portillo; Teresa Vega-Murrieta; and Jaime Yslas.

This is the second ticket sold in Arizona in recent weeks that has won the second prize by matching all five white ball numbers. Michael Pettigrew of Yuma claimed his $250,000 prize on Monday from the April 27 drawing.

Once in a while, lets stop talking about all those lottery winners and increasing your odds of winning the lottery. Let's step back and educate ourselves :-)

Here is a very philosophical posting around the question "would you continue to work if you won the lottery?". This was posted on May 19th by The Hidden Brain Blog

Hidden Brain Puzzle and Answer: If you won the lottery and had enough money to live comfortably the rest of your life, would you continue to work? The number of American adults who answer YES to this question is (a) About a quarter of all adults (b) About half of all adults (c) About two thirds of all adults (d) About three quarters of all adults. The correct answer is C — about two thirds of Americans say they would continue to work. What is more interesting than the answer, however, is how Americans have responded to the question over time.

In 1955, researchers posed this question to a representative sample of Americans. They found that about 80 percent of Americans said they would continue to work if they won the lottery and had no financial need to work. By around 1980, the number of Americans who said they would still work was about 72 percent. Scott Highhouse, Michael J. Zickar, and Maya Yankelevich at Bowling Green State University recently completed the trend line between 1980 and 2006 and found the number of Americans who said yes continued to decline gradually until 1994, and then has leveled off around the two-thirds mark.

Some people wonder whether the declining number reflects a decline in the famous Protestant work ethic, which celebrates hard work and self-denial. Has America moved, or is America moving, from a culture of work and industriousness to a culture of enjoyment and hedonism? Highhouse and his colleagues caution us about drawing too much from this one question and the answer, and I think they are right. This is an interesting piece of trivia, and not something that necessarily tells us anything meaningful about the American work ethic.

After reporting and writing The Hidden Brain, I am especially cautious about taking people’s answers to such questions at face-value. For one thing, the answers do not tell us what people would actually do, were they to win the lottery. We only know what they say they will do. The trouble is not only that people do not accurately tell us what is happening in their minds, but that very often, people do not know their own minds.

As the brilliant Dan Gilbert has shown us in a number of path-breaking studies, people are not very good at predicting what makes them happy. (Lottery winners may quit their jobs on the day they win — one my friends told me last night he would fax his resignation from the nearest fax machine as soon as he knew he’d won! — but may start applying for new jobs three months after they win.) Gilbert’s research, in fact, has looked at the lottery question and why it is people mistakenly believe that winning the lottery will make them deliriously happy on a permanent basis.

The following story was reported last year by a very "interesting" blog called "Don't mess with taxes". To be honest, I am not reading it daily :-) but they reported a nice story that caught my attention. The power of Office Pool struck again!

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Eight women who work in the Monongalia County, W.Va., sheriff's department tax office are millionaires, thanks to their lucky numbers coming in Powerball Lottery.

Since the $276.3 million winning ticket wasn't confirmed by the start of business Monday, all eight showed up at work. Wanna bet how many won't be back once the lottery check clears?

Once their win is confirmed, they will receive a lump sum payout of $140 million before taxes. After Uncle Sam gets his cut, the women will have about $95.5 million, or roughly $12 million apiece.

And Monongalia County might need another lawman, too. One of the winners is married to a deputy sheriff.

Other winners: According to Online Gambling Paper, 12 other tickets matched all five numbers, but missed the Powerball. They were sold in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky (two), Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina (two), Pennsylvania (three) and Wisconsin.

Each of those ticket holders will collect $200,000. That's, of course, pre-tax money. They'll likely end up actually pocketing about half that.

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This story is really cool and comes from our friends across the Atlantic. We told you many times how you can increase your odds of winning by playing in groups. Here is a great example of people who listened to us :-)

It was reported by the Herald Scotland on May 29th 20210.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Phil Miller, Arts Correspondent

It may be the first national artistic movement inspired entirely by cold, hard cash.

With government cuts, standstill budgets, the financial crisis and the ongoing recession, many young and established visual artists are facing a bleak financial future unless they get a lucky break.

But a new collective of UK contemporary artists – led by Glasgow-based Ellie Harrison – have decided to engineer their own luck, with a scheme which maximises their chances of winning large amounts of money on the various National Lottery draws.

To be launched nationally in July, the Syndicate, as they call themselves, will “strategically” play the lottery games using a mathematical system they believe increases the odds for the 40 players to win large amounts of money, which will then be shared equally.

The group of artists – including Harrison, who graduates from Glasgow School of Art’s esteemed MFA course this summer, John Beagles, S Mark Gubb, who is representing Wales at the Venice Biennale, and the Becks Futures-nominated Hayley Newman – will purchase 44 lines on each of the two weekly UK Lotto draws, at £1 a ticket, and 36 lines on the weekly EuroMillions which is £2 a ticket.

Each artist joining the Syndicate is therefore required to pay £4 a week for the duration of the year, or a total of £208 a year for each artist.

Each of the 44 lines they choose will use the same five Artists’ Lottery Syndicate numbers, which are secret, with the sixth number on each line being unique to that ticket.

The numbers on a lotto ticket range from 1 to 49, so the remaining 44 numbers available will be entered on the lotto lines filled in by the artists.

This system, the Syndicate said, hugely increases the chances of winning the Lotto or EuroMillions jackpots.

Harrison said the system means they will try to utilise the idea of luck, which has always played an important part in artistic careers, as well as a new way to access Lottery cash which has, since its start in 1994, been a boon for the cultural sphere.

She added: “I had the idea for the Artists’ Lottery Syndicate when it appeared that the glory days of arts funding which we witnessed under New Labour were drawing to a close.

“It seemed clear that artists would have to find new ways of funding their work and surviving in what was being referred to as a new ‘age of austerity’ for the arts.

“The Artists’ Lottery Syndicate aims to be a speculative new way of acquiring funds for artists. I thought it could be a fun collective activity, which would act as a gentle critique of artist’s relationships to the economy, as well as a potential money maker.

“It is a group of artists who are still aspirational, despite this time of economic doom and gloom, and who are coming together to support each other in their attempts to hit the jackpot. We’re using a specially calculated combination of numbers to maximise our odds of winning prizes. At the end of the year, each of the artists will receive a cheque for one-fortieth of the money we accumulate.”

The Syndicate is being run by Harrison and its other members include MFA students and artists from Birmingham, Cardiff, Fife, Glasgow, Lancaster, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Plymouth, Preston, Stoke-on-Trent, Suffolk and Worcestershire.

It will initially run from July 1 this year to July 2011, but may be continued if it proves to be successful.

The GSA Master course has produced artists such as the Turner Prize-winning Richard Wright, Douglas Gordon and Simon Starling.

This year its graduation show is being held at the Glue Factory and the CCA in Glasgow, and runs from June 11.

The big winners

The odds of winning the jackpot with a single ticket are nearly 14 million to one, but for a group running 30 tickets the chances are better, at 466,666 to one. The individual prize each person takes will fall in proportion to this, however.

Around a quarter of all jackpot wins are by syndicates, according to the National Lottery, but organisers warn would-be syndicate managers that they should sign contracts beforehand to avoid disputes.

Issues such as whether or not to go public in the event of a win can be divisive, and even close friends are advised to set out ground rules in advance.

Seven IT workers from Merseyside shared a £45m lottery jackpot in November last year, taking home more than £6m each, just two months after another group of nine friends, based at the Doon Inn in Blantyre, shared £4.5m.

Five years ago a syndicate of six women at the Morrison Bowmore’s bottling plant in Glasgow each won a £2.5m share of the total £15m jackpot.

I thought this was pretty funny and cool. You kinda gotta see the video to see the humor.

A Missouri man hit the 1oth largest Powerball Lottery Jackpot ever.  He purchased the ticket from the gas station convenient store where he worked in Marshall, MO.  When asked by The Early Show news reporter what he was going to do with his lottery winnings, he responded “I don’t have any idea”.  His wife, however, seems to have an idea or two of what he can do with it… including buying her a couple new toys.

If you want to see the video just search "Store Clerk Hits $258m Powerball Lottery Jackpot" you should be able to find the full story and video!

Let me know what you think!