Remains anonymous
Looming tax increases prompt hasty claim
PHOENIX, Az. — Fallout from the looming fiscal cliff has drifted into the Powerball arena.
A man who lottery officials announced Friday has claimed his half of the $587.5 million Powerball jackpot, decided to collect the winnings now and not next year because of the financial uncertainty posed by the nation's ongoing financial impasse.
The man, who is in his 30s from a wealthy Phoenix suburb, decided to remain anonymous after he bought $10 worth of tickets and kept the winning slip in the visor of his car overnight before realizing he was a multimillionaire.
He gave $20 to the cashier of a Fountain Hills convenience store, and the clerk nudged him to spend the entire amount on tickets. He declined the offer.
After the man and his wife learned of their good fortune, the husband pulled together a team of financial advisers and decided to take all of his share this month to avoid potentially higher taxes in 2013, said Karen Bach, a lottery official.
"He did have concern with the uncertainty with the fiscal cliff in 2013," Bach said, referring to the federal fiscal situation that could result in higher income tax rates.
The man and his lawyer met with lottery officials Friday, and he opted to take the cash option of $192 million before taxes. Lottery officials said his wife owns half the prize because Arizona is a community property state.
"He and his wife couldn't believe it," Bach said. "They checked the numbers over and over again — absolutely shocked."
Bach said the man is smart and wants to take time to make a solid financial plan and set up a charitable entity to aid causes that he and his wife support. Lottery officials say the man told them he enjoys his job and has no immediate plans to quit.
The unidentified winner later issued a statement that said: "It is difficult to express just how thankful we are for this wonderful gift. We are extremely grateful and feel fortunate to now have an increased ability to support our charities and causes. Obviously, this has been incredibly overwhelming and we have always cherished our privacy."
The statement directed all inquiries to an Arizona law firm, which didn't immediately return a call after business hours Friday.
A mechanic and his wife, Mark and Cindy Hill, of Dearborn, Mo., already have claimed their half of the multistate Powerball prize.
The jackpot was the second-largest in U.S. history and set off a nationwide buying frenzy. At one point, tickets were selling at nearly 130,000 a minute.
Before the Nov. 28 drawing, the jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without any winners. In a Mega Millions drawing in March, three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot, the largest lottery payout of all time.
Lottery officials said the Arizona couple moved from Pennsylvania a year ago. While in Pennsylvania, the couple regularly played the lottery but had done so only twice since moving to Arizona, Bach said.
After realizing he had won, the man and his wife spent the weekend "trying to recover from the shock," Bach said.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Congrats to this lucky AZ Family!
The Greensburg Tribune-Review says that the winner is a former PA man.
Hurray for PA!
''The man, who is in his 30s from a wealthy Phoenix suburb, decided to remain anonymous after he bought $10 worth of tickets and kept the winning slip in the visor of his car overnight before realizing he was a multimillionaire.''
Hmmm...
I didn't realize construction paid so well to where he would be able to already be living in such a wealthy suburb. Is this Arizonia winner the black construction guy that was caught on camera or was that video a hoax?
Congrats to him! It should be a very fun Christmas and New Years for the newest powerball family! :))
This would be idea of how I would claim if I ever won in my own fantasy world..lol I would wait a couple weeks and claim anonymous and avoid all press conference. I would NOT wait the two-six months non-sense like some people talk about on here. If my ducks weren't lined up within that time frame then I would march right down to lottery headquarters and get my check, even if that meant I had to be in the spotlight . lol
Only time will tell. I thought the guy lived in Maryland. Never take media to sedulously.
Where is the real winning ticket picture? Was the Afro American man on the video the real powerball winner?
They should allow us to claim anonymously in every state, so we do not have to ask these questions.
there was one ticket in Maryland with the power play option that matched 5 numbers without the Powerball. My guess is that the guy in the Maryland surveillance footage may have been the guy that won a secondary prize.
Not everyone in Fountain Hills is wealthy!
My thoughts exactly... Doesn't mean it was a hoax... I would get that excited over a million dollars too!!!
Right.... Only 99.9% of them are..... and the other .1% lie about it... lol. lol.
If that were the case we would have heard his story by now...... Just another WacArnolds worker....
They should deny anonymity to anyone who cashes a ticket, then these question would already be answered.
Smart thinking...... Thats why we buy the ticket.............
The PB jackpot is $40M for tonight drawing.lol
Both $10 tics with the same nums. I doubt all combinations were sold. That maryland video also broke the anonymity law.
It amazes me how many people buy a ticket with the plans of running scared, hiding, going into seclusion, become a Tibetan monk, jumping off building, buying a deserted island..... Why buy a ticket to start with?
I think he bought 100 $10. tickets........ Most rich white boys do........
The world is moving so fast that yesterday does not even matter as much as today. Claim the stupid jackpot as soon as possible like the hills family.Humans are not too go with speed of light events.
I hope that you get the point.lol
Buying multiple lines increases your chances of winning a lottery jackpot. Quick Picks or Self Picks, it does not matter.Buy more lottery tickets.
There were 66 winners of the second place prize of $1M and I haven't read a story about any of them collecting their winnings. I suppose the only ones interested in them are their local tax man.
My 30 lines did not pay off yesterday, but I will buy more today.......
They quietly slip in, get the check for $700k and go buy a house and a car..........
If you're doing worse than the over all odds of winning then maybe it's time to evaluate your strategy.
Im not looking for "overall" odds...... I dont want $7. as a "winner"
If higher taxes will make sensible people claim prize under lower tax situation, why does this administration thinks I raising taxes on rich won't have an adverse impact on job creation? And using Warren Buffett as a prop is the same as one saying all black people are built like Herchel Walker; his situation is not applicable to all "rich" people, and there is a huge difference between someone who earns $200,000 to $400,000 per year AND someone whose net worth is in excess of $30 billion! Apples and oranges folks. Even Buffett avoids paying too much in taxes.
If you look up Fountain Hills AZ on realtor.com, you will find out that there are regular people living there as well as the wealthy!
I think you mean rich people who are pretending to be "regular" ........
The guy in the Maryland survillance showed the clerks and customers an Arizona ticket.
Nightline did a story that said only 60% of all combos were sold.
Congrat's to the couple in Phoenix, Az., on their Powerball win. Smart move to save on the taxes.
TIME IS MONEY.Buy a $10 powerball ticket today. Hey, you never know. You might win $1M.
60% gives the winning combination a BETTER than 50/50 chance........
Who cares about $1M prize winners after losing so much on powerball. Lol
Don't waste your money on QPs....... Pick your own numbers.........
Are you saying that the chances of winning the powerball are 1 in 175 billions? I knew it. Lol
Yes Thrifty...... Those are the "overall odds".........
I will follow up on that. Lets hope that the lottery pick me up as the winner.
They should publish the real odds of winning.lol
Its nice to dream that QPs have the same odds as chosen numbers, but your living a lie......
There's a big difference between billions and millions. The odds of winning a PB jackpot is a lot less than even 1:1 billions, it's 1:175 millions.
possible combos of 5/59 + 1/35 numbers = 175223510
MATCH ODDS
5/5+B 1 : 175223510
5/5+0 1 : 5153633
4/5+B 1 : 648976
4/5+0 1 : 19088
3/5+B 1 : 12245
3/5+0 1 : 360
2/5+B 1 : 706
1/5+B 1 : 111
0/5+B 1 : 55
______________________________
overall odds 1 : 31.8
I like my 5/5+0 odds......... I will play the lottery today........
I don't like PB $2 ticket price but buying 10 for $20 gives you better odds of winning a millions dollars than any of those $20 new year raffle tickets most states are selling with a top prize of a million dollars. And you'll know tonight if you've won a million dollars, no waiting 'til next year.
I will buy a $20 Powerball ticket someday. Lol
The ticket sold in Maryland for $250,000.00 was claimed by a woman early in the morning, the day after the drawing. She was featured on the news for several days. She claimed she picked her numbers which were the ages of family members and made the mistake of writing down a 5 as the first number instead of a 3. The mistake earned her the $250.000.00. She stated she has poor vision which cause the mistake.
Excellent point........ I like BETTER ODDS............... And no waiting.
I will buy a $50. PB ticket today.......
Self pick is self pick..... Thats why it has better odds......
The "real" odds vary greatly depending on a persons style of play........
I LOVE when rich people win the lottery. I'd like to wish this man good luck, but I wouldn't mean it.
Congratulations to the winners.....
Yeah Ronnie, don't waste your money on QP's. They never win, right? You self pick guru's will never learn!
Wow, never realized QP's won some many jackpots!!!
Are members of LP aware of this.
That's not his story, he never came forward and claimed anything so please
stop comparing him to that McD's employee!! I was the media that claimed he
might have been the other jackpot winner.
I agree with you! I can see if he started telling people he won and doing interviews but that was not the case. However, I do recall a news reporter saying he did indeed talk to that man and he said he won (maybe the news reporter was lying just to get publicity). He could have wery well won $10,000.
He knew he had not one anything over $1m so therefore, it was the stores fault for releasing that video and the media for making the story so big. One thing, I am glad the couple in AZ went ahead and claimed the ticket.
A reporter had even tracked the MD man down to where he saw him getting into that black van and approached him. The media sometimes cause a big ruckus in people lives without even knowing the truth.
So, let's give the man a break because he did not make a fool of himself, he never said he won--we never heard from him again.
Let's give MD. players another chance:)
Can't wait until the next big jackpot, at least over $100M before CA get in the game:)
Oh, one more thing--I live in TX and how come we have been off the map since 2007 for winning any major jackpot...gosh..
Hey my brother! I hope LP members are aware now! If you want to win the jackpot, it's all luck!
So play on America!
Texas will win when they take the border fence down.
Congratulations! This large amount of money from a Powerball jackpot win excites me, I welcome one soon.
I feel so happy for this Arizona man...I admire because he is a smart guy and take out the money today before 2013 come. I feel so jealous and envy of his wife, because she already have half of the $192 million. Wow...they are both so happy...
Not in FL....the odds are:
1:142,857.14
Where to win cool $1,000,000 in Powerball the odds are:
Weird this was in response to Rjoh.......not Jamella.....
Not in FL....the odds are:
1:142,857.14
Where to win cool $1,000,000 in Powerball the odds are:
How much does one of those raffle tickets cost, compared to a PB ticket?
Im happy too.
I got excited easily too..... Can you imagine making it rain money.....
The only way a QP player CAN win is by a stroke of luck......
QP players have no skills............
VA is 1 in 110,000
and PA is 1 in 125,000
Both are $20 for a ticket
I feel so jealous and envy of his wife, because she already have half of the $192 million.
Would you had felt jealous and envious of her husband had she bought the ticket instead?
How come the skilled players didn't win?
This is for the skilled self pick players who didn't win. I'm sure this would help hone your "skills". Sorry all the skilled players were "unlucky".
OOPS! Article rating should be 5 stars.
lol. lol. Too late....... What you rated, you rated.
I have a highly sensitive and blind mouse. It just about does anything that it wants to do!
It controls my highly sensitive computer, too! I just supply the cheese! Expensive cheeses!
mcginnin56 has a cat like that.............
Sounds like a story that wasn't updated after sales went higher than what the original advertised jackot was based on.
There were nearly 270 million tickets sold for the drawing. If all combinations were chosen randomly that would result in roughly 80% of combinations being played at least once. Of course a lot of combinations aren't picked randomly, so the percentage of combinations that do get played will always be less than what's suggested by a purely random distribution, but I think it's a very safe bet that as sales volume goes up a higher percentage of tickets are QP's, which reduces th epercentage of tickets that aren't random.
Still, even if only 70% of the tickets (the low end of what MUSL lists for the perecentage of tickets that are QP's) were QP's, that's still about 189 million tickets with combinations chosen randomly. A purely random distribution of 189 million tickets would still use close to 70% of the possible combinations. If all of the remaining 80 million tickets were chosen from calendar numbers they would be limited to about 5 million combinations. That would mean those combinations were played an average of 16 times each, with 70% of them also having been used a 17th time by one of the QP tickets.
Those 5.2 million non-random combinations make up about 3% of the total combinations, so figuring that the vast majority of them would have been played at least once we can figre that as an absolute minimum about 73% of the possible combinations were in play.
It would be nice if Chuck S would pop in and give us actual numbers, which I'm sure he has available. Absent that I'll guess that with all of the new and infrequent players buying tickets that QP's accounted for 85 to 90% of sales, and at least 80% of the combinations were in play. Of course that still means that at that level there's still a 10 to 20% chance of a rollover that could take the PB jackpot to the $800 million range or beyond.
Guess u missed when they said the jackpot would be 900 mil if it rolled again...
And that black guy at the gas station didn't win <snip>. If he won 10 grand, the people interviewed wouldnt have said he won the jackpot. The news guy said if he was the AZ winner he was now a "multi multi millionaire". So, that rules out 10 grand and a mil...and we know he didnt win the jackpot, so......
Anyway, why lie if they knew eventually the truth would come out. How does that benefit that news channel at all?
The media still managed to disclose the Arizona Powerball winners name.He wanted to remain anoymous but the AP filed a freedom of information act and revealed the winner to be Mark Good, 37 of Fountain Hills.
Saints be praised. Two MARKS won either half of the record Jackpot!
Everyone knew it was Mark anyway.... No biggy.....
They were right on the "Mark"
Rich people need to get a big win every once in a while just to keep the playing field even.
I love it when the rich get richer..... Its the way it was meant to be..........
Sorry, the winner was Matthew Good not Mark.
Congratulations Matthew Good for the jackpot win. I hope you end up living the good life.