Statisticians search for how to beat the lottery
You've probably heard the saying: Liars figure, but figures don't lie. Well, it's probably true the chances of winning a Powerball jackpot is more than 1 in 175-million. Still, there's always somebody that thinks they can beat the system.
Whether it's your wedding anniversary, your birthday, your child's birthday, or the date of another event that's important to you, people typically pick random numbers as any state lottery official will tell you, every number drawn is completely random.
A ...
Feb 20, 2013, 9:26 pm - Lottery News forum
Lottery winner Jack Whittaker's losing ticket
Jack Whittaker, a 55-year-old contractor from Scott Depot, W. Va., had worked his way up from backcountry poverty to build a water-and-sewer-pipe business that employed over 100 people. He was a millionaire several times over. But when he awoke at 5:45 a.m. on Christmas morning in 2002, everything he'd built in his life held only passing significance next to a scrap of paper in his worn leather wallet a $1 Powerball lottery ticket bearing the numbers 5, 14, 16, 29, 53, and 7.
Whittaker had pu ...
Dec 19, 2012, 10:03 am - Lottery News forum
The man who lost a $5 million lottery ticket
Like many who buy a Lottery ticket, Martyn Tott never seriously contemplated the possibility that he would actually win.
Of course, it would have been wonderful, but he was largely happy with his rather humdrum life. When he realized he'd scooped the 3,011,065 jackpot, however, his opinion changed somewhat.
Suddenly, a social life that revolved around Chinese takeaways, pints of ale and Saturday nights spent rock 'n' roll dancing at the local town hall seemed positively mundane.
So, too ...
Dec 19, 2012, 8:51 am - Lottery News forum
How lottery winners spend their money
Lottery winners: What separates the ones who live happily ever after from the ones who, five years later, wind up drunk, broke, in jail or hounded by the IRS?
Stephen Danish knows. In fact, the Virginia Commonwealth University professor of psychology is such an expert on the subject that the Virginia Lottery has hired him to counsel winners. Asked how many winners he has helped, he puts the number is in the double digits.
He once told the Roanoke Times that he can tell how well (or badly) ...
Dec 15, 2012, 12:41 am - Lottery News forum
Big lottery winners offer advice, cautionary tales as $500M Powerball drawing approaches
So you just won the $500 million Powerball jackpot, the second highest in lottery history. Now what?
Perhaps it's time for a tropical vacation or a new car. There are bills to pay, loans to settle, debts to square.
Past winners of mega-lottery drawings and financial planners have some more sound advice: Stick to a budget, invest wisely, learn to say no and be prepared to lose friends while riding an emotional roller-coaster of joy, anxiety, guilt and distrust.
I had to adapt to this ne ...
Nov 28, 2012, 9:08 am - Lottery News forum
Thursday is a numerologist's dream day
What are you doing on 10-11-12?
On Thursday, some people may be marking, in some way, the fact that it is a special day, numerically speaking: It's 10-11-12.
Nice, but how significant? Those who study numbers say, well, not too much. Or perhaps it's better to say that it's as significant as you want it to be.
Significant enough to influence your wedding date? At one wedding chapel in Las Vegas, Forever Grand at the MGM Resorts, there's a special numerology package, including a chapel, a ...
Oct 10, 2012, 7:45 pm - Lottery News forum
Lotto winners get torch-carrying teen new prosthetic leg
A 13-year-old who lost a leg to cancer will get a new life-changing prosthetic limb from Britain's biggest-ever lottery jackpot winners.
Heartrendingly Kieran Maxwell had to be helped from the ground after he fell carrying the Olympic torch last month in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, because of his current heavy artificial leg.
But now he will be able to walk, run and climb just like his friends, his emotional mother Nicola said today, thanks to Euromillionaires Colin and Chris Weir.
...
Aug 1, 2012, 8:49 am - Lottery News forum
Mass. Lottery knew about exploited game's flaws for years, IG says
Massachusetts State Lottery officials knew for years that a small group of gambling syndicates had virtually taken over a game called Cash WinFall winning most of the prizes during high payoff periods but did nothing about it until the local media began investigating, according to state Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan.
Sullivan's report details the way a handful of math and science wizards, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduates looking for an interesting school ...
Jul 31, 2012, 8:43 am - Lottery News forum
Montana Lottery celebrates 25 years of jackpot dreams
The Montana Lottery celebrated its 25th anniversary late last month with parties at retail locations around the state and knowledge that it was on a roll.
We had a successful first 24 years, said Montana Lottery Director Angela Wong, who's been in the role 18 months. And we just completed a record fiscal year, with sales of more than $50 million for the first time and weekly sales exceeding $1 million for an unprecedented 19 weeks.
Fiscal year 2012 ended June 30, and preliminary data ind ...
Jul 23, 2012, 8:39 am - Lottery News forum
The lottery fantasy: How much money do you need to say 'buzz off, world'?
By Peter McKay
We don't play the lottery very often. So I always get a little aggravated when I'm standing in line to buy Junior Mints and some clown in front of me has an inch-thick stack of lucky numbers he's going to play. But every once in a while, when the jackpot gets into ludicrously high levels, so high that it makes the 6 o'clock news, we break down and get a ticket.
And even though we don't actually play the lottery very often, my wife and I spend an inordinate amount of time pla ...
Jun 24, 2012, 8:52 am - Lottery News forum
