Michigan lawmaker wins $2M lottery jackpot

Feb 25, 2008, 2:54 pm (10 comments)

Michigan Lottery

A Michigan lawmaker has won a $2 million lottery jackpot.

Southgate Democrat Barb Farrah won the prize during Friday's game between the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks at The Palace of Auburn Hills. She randomly was selected from a pool of five finalists.

It's a nice financial cushion for Farrah. She is serving her last year in the state House of Representatives and can't run again because of term limits.

All the finalists were picked from a pool of 875 people who had bought $20 instant lottery tickets.

AP

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Think's avatarThink

"She was randomlyP***ed selected from a pool of five finalists."

"Randomly"  yeah right! 

dumars798's avatardumars798

 Bravo 





Think's avatarThink

What this article fails to mention is that this woman is the chair of a committee that has dealings with lottery and gaming issuesMad! According to an article I read.  Also it said that another lawmaker wants the win investigated. 

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

When I first saw this, the first thing that came to mind was....uh oh there are going to be questions.  I couldn't care less because the odds aren't really that bad.  I  mean you have a 5 in 900 chance at getting selected and then a 1 in 5 chance of getting the $2million.  If it was fixed it doesn't bother me because I wasn't eligible for it anyway...haha

Brad

Think's avatarThink

Quote: Originally posted by Bradly_60 on Feb 26, 2008

When I first saw this, the first thing that came to mind was....uh oh there are going to be questions.  I couldn't care less because the odds aren't really that bad.  I  mean you have a 5 in 900 chance at getting selected and then a 1 in 5 chance of getting the $2million.  If it was fixed it doesn't bother me because I wasn't eligible for it anyway...haha

Brad

I got to talking about this with someone in a store today and he pointed out what a stupid sucker I am for buying tickets.  He made a very valid point when he brought up the population argument and location of winners.  Anyway to sum up what he said-

Congressional districts are drawn up to have roughly equal population in them.  So, why then do several districts in Southeast  Michigan have Multipe Mega Millions Jackpot wins in them while virtually every other district has never had a jackpot win??

Ok laugh now and tell me if it is fixed it doesn't bother you!!

liberal47's avatarliberal47

I know the win was legit.  Not like the old days. Before the drawing process was reformed, I worked in the building where second chance drawings were held. Incredibly, employees who worked in the building were allowed to select envelopes from the mail tray that were sent in.

There were no controls over how these letters were picked. One of the girls who was selecting  these letters told everyone that her dad had sent a boatload of entries in, and that she sure would like to see him win. I happened to be standing there, when out of all ten employees,

who were LOOKING directly at the letter trays while selecting , that very same girl let out a shirek and screamed I don't believe it!! Her fathers entry was placed into the drawing drum, and wonder of wonders, he won the big prize.  No conflict of intrest there!!!

A big stink was raised over that, and within 6 months, everything was under lock and key , and only lottery employeeswere allowed to be included in the drawing process. 

 Sure,  back in the day you might have been able to pull a scam off , but since the reforms were put into place there is really no way you could cheat your way to a win.

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

If the win was legit, congrats to her. Let's hope there was no cheating going on.

Think's avatarThink

Quote: Originally posted by liberal47 on Feb 28, 2008

I know the win was legit.  Not like the old days. Before the drawing process was reformed, I worked in the building where second chance drawings were held. Incredibly, employees who worked in the building were allowed to select envelopes from the mail tray that were sent in.

There were no controls over how these letters were picked. One of the girls who was selecting  these letters told everyone that her dad had sent a boatload of entries in, and that she sure would like to see him win. I happened to be standing there, when out of all ten employees,

who were LOOKING directly at the letter trays while selecting , that very same girl let out a shirek and screamed I don't believe it!! Her fathers entry was placed into the drawing drum, and wonder of wonders, he won the big prize.  No conflict of intrest there!!!

A big stink was raised over that, and within 6 months, everything was under lock and key , and only lottery employeeswere allowed to be included in the drawing process. 

 Sure,  back in the day you might have been able to pull a scam off , but since the reforms were put into place there is really no way you could cheat your way to a win.

Liberal47 

Do you work for the lottery now??  How exactly do you know the win was legit?  What do you mean "everything was under lock and key"?

You say "since the reforms were put into place there is really no way you could cheat your way to a win."  How do you know this and have you really thought of everything???

Piaceri

"It's a nice financial cushion for Farrah. She is serving her last year in the state House of Representatives and can't run again because of term limits."

 

Actually, if Michigan had lawmakers that had real jobs like the rest of us, she would not have this problem in the first place.  Most states have part time legislatures, and those legislatures get more done than our full time, full paid legislature. What a waste of taxpayer money. Mad No wonder this state is going down the tubes faster than any other place in this country.

Actually, if our lawmakers had real jobs like the rest of us, this state would be doing much better financially.

I would have loved to have the opportunity to tell Farrah "Welcome to the real world", but since she somehow managed to come up a winner in the state lottery, I can't.  What a crock.

Think's avatarThink

Ok, explain this-

Fact Port Huron is not that big of a Town

Fact Port Huron is near a lot of Canadian Population

Fact the company that prints the Instant tickets is Canadian owned

Fact the Canadian lotteries have been notoriously crooked and corrupt as indicated by stories here on lottery post

Fact the big prizes in the scratch offs are really rare

Fact within the last 6 months or a year or so a lady in Port Huron had a big scratch winner ($10,000 or more) and within the same month the same person got another big scratch winner ($10,000 or more)

Fact if you read the February news on the Michigan lottery web sight, it happend again, another lady in Port Huron had a big scratch winner ($10,000 or more) and within the same week the same person got another big scratch winner($10,000 or more)  Now if the big winners are really rare why did this happen twice in one year so near the Canadian border?

 Fact a guy in Dexter won $1,000,000 on a ten dollar scratcher and he went back to the same store a year or so later and bought another ten dollar scratcher and won another $1,000,000 and Dexter is not that big of town!

Fact within the last 2 months there were 3 big prizes left on the 40 Million spectacular game and now there are only 2.  It was never announced on the lottery web sight where that winner was sold!  Why?  Did that guy in Dexter get a third Million dollar winning ticket?  or was it another lawmaker about to get out of office? or was it a Canadian??

Fact someone somewhere along the chain of control knows where those winning books are being sent.  Someone somewhere along the chain of control decides where to send the books with the top prize tickets.

Fact somebody in Indiana (a border state of Michigan) just got sentenced for rigging the scratch games there! 

Fact the chair of a committee that has dealings with lottery and gaming issues just won  $2,000,000

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