Review: Vultures feast on desperate lottery winners

Comment #16

tnlotto1 — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:25:34 GMT

welcome to LP Ed and good luck with your book sales

Comment #15

KY Floyd — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:18:27 GMT

As Ed's post notes, nobody got scammed. If somebody offers you $10 for something that may be worth $15 or $20 the options are yes and no thanks, and it's your choice which one to choose. As far as how much they may have lost, the payment is taxable income, so in your example it's the difference between about 2.6 to 2.9 million and 1.3 million, based just on federal taxes of 35%.

Comment #14

RJOh — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:58:32 GMT

Hello Ed, welcome to LP. Nice to get some additional input from the author.

Comment #13

edugel — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:37:46 GMT

Hi folks. I'm Ed Ugel, author of Money for Nothing. I'm happy to see that the book has caught the attention of so many lotterypost members. A few thoughts:

You're correct, it's a tough, competitive business. However, it's totally legitimate. A winner would be well served have expert advice when they enter into a lump sum transaction.Remember, a million dollar jackpot is really only worth around 50% of the advertised win amount.Still, it's not as black and white as some making comments he... [ More ]

Comment #12

hsvscubaski — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:37:08 GMT

The business term for this is Factoring where accounts recievable are sold at a discount. As with all things associated with a large amount of money you should get expert advise.

Comment #11

Coin Toss — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:36:11 GMT

Lttleoldlady

True, but don't forget the subrtitle of the book:

One Man's Journey Through the Darkside of Lottery Millions

I'm guessing that's the main theme of the book, offering people who did not choose a cash option lump sum payments after the fact, greatly reduced lump sum payments.

It would really be interesting if someone read this book and then hit a jackpot to see which payment they'd take. Or to have jackpot winners read this before they got any payment at all.... [ More ]

Comment #10

johnph77 — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:42:46 GMT

Let's do the math here. That company settled an $8M or $9M annuity for slightly less than $2M. If the winners had taken the lump sum to begin with, they would have gotten about $4M-$4.5M before taxes, about $3M after. The winners just got legally scammed for about a mil.

Comment #9

Littleoldlady — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 01:42:44 GMT

Its not just lottery winners they hit..it is ANYONE WITH AN ANNUITY! The VA sent us a warning letter about these crooks when it surfaced that one vet who got $600.00 p/m disability went to these folks or some like them and got $30,000.00 from them. All the vet had to do was sign over his monthly $600.00 to them for 10 or 15 years. whatever..it was totally scary.

Comment #8

konane — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:28:58 GMT

I've seen those ads off an on for years ........ my impression ..... bottom feeding sleeeeeeeeze.

Wonder how these structured settlements effect a person's taxable amount owed when they're discounted and sold

Comment #7

HiYoSilver — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:45:51 GMT

These same ads play all over the country. That grandfather looking spokesman reminds me of the accident lawyers you see advertizing on tv. To me, they rank lower then the lawyers on the snake scale.

Comment #6

jeffrey — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:40:22 GMT

I know what you mean. I have lost 110 pounds and havent seen a donut in a year. It sounded yummy. Don't touch the principle. That's how money gets old.

Comment #5

Todd — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:33:09 GMT

That's the correct spelling, is that what you meant? ( Donut is also correct, but a bit more slang.

Comment #4

LckyLary — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:38:50 GMT

Sorry, I got stuck on the word doughnut .

Comment #3

JackpotWanna — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:18:58 GMT

I think this book is going to be a best seller.

Comment #2

AuntiePat — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:19:58 GMT

I don't know whether this late night ad appears other places but in the Northern OH television markets an ad appears with a man urging anyone with a structured settlement or annuity to contact them for cash. The company is JD W*ntw*rth and they have already converted one winner's lottery annuity (with 8 or 9M left on it) to a settlement of not quite 2M. Somehow there are lottery winners out there (thank gooodness in the minority) who either haven't received good advice (most state's lottery... [ More ]

Comment #1

Todd — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:54:11 GMT

This sounds like a fascinating book.

Review: Vultures feast on desperate lottery winners

Lottery Post — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:05:01 GMT

Money for Nothing is a glimpse into a seedy business few will ever encounter.

Edward Ugel writes about the trade of preying on bottomed-out lottery winners, crazy for cash to meet their growing debts, waiting for their next annual annuity check to arrive from the state coffers.

His tale is a colorfully written account by a self-proclaimed overweight, chain-smoking, Krispy Kreme doughnut-eating, fanatical gambler.

For just shy of a decade starting in the late 1990s, Ugel says he worked i... [ More ]