I think you have a year to claim your prize which helps with staying out of the spotlight. I also think you can do things like hire a lawyer to claim it for you and stay anonymous. I can certainly see why you’d take every step you could with that kind of money.
If you have the money, you can do anything. Even become a cardboard cutout. :)
Can you send a cardboard cut out of John Candy?
I’d send a life size pewter sculpture of a top hat.
From what has been reported, the Kansas winner showed up in person at a lottery office but then chose not to be publically identified. So no special details are required, apparently, it’s just an option.
I think it varies by state. Some states have public disclosure laws that make winner information public.
$636 million. Is an infinitesimal chance better than no chance?
You can’t win if you don’t play.
You can’t lose if you don’t play, either.
Statistically, you can’t win even if you do play though.
Apparently the odds were changed in October, from 1:176,000,000 to 1:259,000,000 and no one has since picked the correct numbers.
How high will it go before someone wins it?
Your odds are such that it is almost certain that you will not win. OTOH, your odds are exactly the same as the person who will win.
Not if I buy one ticket and they buy twenty (or are in a group that buys 300). But near as makes no difference I guess! It looks like at least two people bought winning tickets this time around (California and Georgia). I’ve never actually partaken.
Maybe next time! :)
Here’s the thing: I know how statistics work. I know it’s nigh-on impossible for me to win the lottery. I look at the odds and half of my brain goes “fuck that.” And yet, the other part of my brain tells me someone is going to win.
People are really, really bad at understanding risks and odds (at least on a gut level).
As soon as the payoff gets above the odds of winning it makes statistical sense to play.
Is there anybody who’s studied the historical payoff / ticket odds to see what the most favorable lottery to enter is? I mean, the house always wins, but I wonder which state / region has the best odds.
Also statistically, playing is free. (Really, spending $1 makes a difference to most folks here?)
Sarcastic reply: Maybe the state or region that sells the most tickets?
Sorry it’s mostly good fun. :)
I do have a story to tell. My father-in-law owns a small apartment building with 4 units. He had one tenant in a small one-bedroom for 25 years. The guy was employed as an aluminum welder or similar and actually made decent money, maybe 40-50K per year, but spent his entire life in his apartment alone and watching TV. My FIL knew the guy also played the lottery. One day some government tax people came along and interviewed my FIL. The tax people said the guy hadn’t paid income tax ever in his life and owed hundreds of thousands. It turned out the guy was spending 400 dollars per week on lottery tickets. The tax people later came back and said they weren’t going to prosecute the guy as he was basically worthless, too big of a loser to even bother chasing. Besides, he paid his taxes in the end.
But you’d think he would have won something with that kind of outlay.
I’d say it makes a difference. First, few people actually spend $1. Powerball is $2, and a lot, perhaps most people, typically spend $5 or more.
On my end, when I’m at the gas station or Walmart and the thought crosses my mind, I usually make a conscious decision to have a beer or whiskey that night. My wife too, she ‘banks’ a Starbucks latte.
Dreaming about a lottery is fun, but having a free whiskey or taking the wife on a free coffee date on a Saturday morning are also satisfying.
Well, yes. That’s how all gambling works as well as it does. The house always wins in the end.
For example, whenever the lottery gets big like this, the news always trots out the same analogies. “You’re as likely to win the lottery as you are to get struck by lightning six times!” or “Your odds of winning are equal to finding a diamond ring in the Atlantic Ocean!” But then the evil side of my brain says, “But the lottery pays out big at least two or three times a year. How many people got struck by lightning six times last year?” Next thing you know, I’m in the office pool.