Lottery Girl

Winning money does not really mean that all your troubles are over; on the contrary, for some people it means they only get worse. Irresponsibility, hit men, avaricious next of kin’s and shattered dreams comprise the stories of lottery winners gone badly.

You can find loads of happy lotto winners stories around the web, new and old. Just recently I wrote about Neal Wanless and the possible fall he might experience- this led me to reading some more about the sad lottery winners- the ones that couldn’t deal with the pressure and the winning money.

Food coupons for the Lottery Winner

In 1988, William “Bud” Post won 16.2 Million Dollar from the Pennsylvania lottery; today he fights to exist with his social security. For “Bud” it was a terrible experience, it seems nothing went right, everybody wanted a portion of the money. Not only did his brother try to have him killed, by contracting an assassin and ending up ion jail but he was also dragged into court by his ex-girlfriend attempting to get some of the money. Other family members begged for help with investments that in return not only did not pay off but only caused more debit and worse relations with the relatives. “Bud” was even once forced to spend time in jail for discharging his weapon in attempt to scare off a debt collector. No less then a year to his richness he was degraded to poorness and owed a million dollar to his credits. Currently, 65 year old, he had a major heart operation and tries to live peacefully and modestly with 450 Dollar monthly and some coupons for meals. For Post lottery was not a blessing but a curse.

Bigger debts then Before

4.2 Million Dollar was the sum won by Suzanne Mullins in1993 in the Virginia lottery. Now she owes money to a loan company, Singer Asset Finance Company, the money she used in order to pay the bills of her sick son-in-law, who had no health insurance. Mullins agreed to pay a yearly sum from her winnings that were in return also paid yearly. But rules change and the Virginia lottery allowed her to get the rest of her winnings all at once and so she did. Unfortunately, she also ceased the payments to the loaning company. Eventually Mullins was sued by Singer Asset Finance Company and their representing law office. The representing layer confirmed that they were aware of her circumstance, on account of her sick son-in-law; nevertheless they won their case against Mullins. Now she owes the company 154,147 Dollars but has no money or property left to pay this debt.

Evelyn Adams, twice a lottery winner

Winning the lottery can be for some people an American dream gone awfully badly,
Evelyn who hit the jackpot twice, once in 1985 and once in 1986 and won a total of 5.4 Million Dollar thought it will all be very different. “Now, nothing is left and I live in a trailer”, says Evelyn.
“I have reached Rock bottom from the heights of the American dream”. Not being able to say no to people has helped in the downfall. Once it was known that Evelyn won the jackpot, friends, relatives and even strangers, all came asking for a financial help.
“But, I was to blame too, gambling has always been my week side, I lost great big sums in Atlantic City” remembers Evelyn. She admits and partly regrets her mistakes. It seems she would do it differently now. “All that is left to do is to continue and hope for the best” she whispers.

Returning to the starting point

From the Michigan lottery Ken Proxmire won a million Dollar prize. Now after opening a car business with his siblings the company is insolvency. Rick, his son, tries to explain how his dad, a simple poor guy that met lady luck and while trying to help everybody else got in trouble himself. For 3-4 years it was all hectic for Ken; however now he is back to his old job as a machinist with no worries of what car or airplane to have.

Small Stories

According to the financial advisor of a Southeastern family, winning the lottery was not at all like finding the golden pot behind the rainbow. 11 years after winning 4.2 Million Dollars almost nothing is left. From buying a new big house and a fat life insurance, after a bitter divorce, the father had to move with the kids and the mother got a tiny house. They only tried to help the family and repeatedly helped paying off their debts .They also just didn’t pay attention to the costs of buying cars, a bigger home and other luxuries.

Janite Lee from Missouri, who won 18 Million Dollars, and tried to be generous, ended up with insolvency and 700$. Lee gave money to different charities, the community, politics and education and 8 years later there was simply nothing left for him.

Willie Hurt was accused of murder and drug usage after he divorced from his wife. Two years after the jackpot of 3.1 Million Dollar was won it was all over for him, he ended up penniless.

For Charles Riddle of Belleville, Michigan, who because of the winning got divorced, sued by others and accused of selling drugs, the one Million Dollar was nothing but a headache.

Things to do when getting (un)lucky

Most people rush to decisions once they land on a big sum of money, often they just want to help family and friends or just do something good for themselves, like buying a big house. In most cases it is advisable to first take a short time out, make a decision-free zone, or simply take a financial advisor. Winning the lottery makes people susceptible to manipulations and not only from strangers, family and friends, all in turn will try to get a share of the winnings. This is why rush decisions should not be made. In a survey made on winning in a lottery, people where asked to compose a list of 12 things to do with the money won from a lottery. Buying a house was first place where as investing the money came eleventh. For many people who never owned a house before it is important to buy not just a house but a big on. Not having a previous experience with that, they fail to estimate how much it costs to maintain such a house. Things like tax, insurance and common services like water, gas, electricity and more are often overlooked. This is why most winners should take the time and research the costs of any decision they make, mainly they way they most probably did before.
For Evelyn Adams, who also did not know how to handle her twice won jackpots money, the hard way taught her the consequences of making bad decisions. Evelyn was however happy to state that it took her a few years to learn this and not just a few months.

Online banking and shopping, buying music, watching movies and even dating have all become common daily activities. Naturally, since lottery has moved to web, many people use it as an option to buy lottery tickets online. The internet is giving more and more options and games for people to play and try their luck. The online lottery is active for about a decade but even so, the number of players’ only increases. When largely engaging in many online activities, not knowing how to buy an online lottery ticket may seem odd.

If you wish to become an online lottery player as opposed to the regular way of buying the ticket in your local store, online lottery has to offer an advantage not seen before. In most cases the online ticket can offer you the participating in more the one draw at the same time, such as Mega Millions and Powerball for example.

Making the decision to start playing online does not require only internet, computer and credit card. It also requires some informative research ahead. It is best maybe to research in advance what main US lottery games are available online and read about their odds. It is also important to check what kinds of winnings were made previously in each game and the maximum jackpots that were won. After you have informed yourself, a choice can be made as to which online lottery game you wish to buy a ticket for.

An important advantage when playing in the online world of lottery is that many of the games are in fact big syndicates. In this case bigger amounts of money are collected as well as larger amount of combinations, all in turn may increase your winning chances. The internet offers also a place to meet others sharing your interest and grouping with them, thus allowing of higher probabilities of winning the big prizes. In that sense, the online lottery gaming may offer better options of playing and winning.

Now days, traveling abroad while playing the online lottery, pose no problem of missing a draw. One can still venture a vacation or engage in a work trip overseas. The internet as a global medium, allows participating in each lottery draw almost no matter where you are on the globe. Having your laptop and an internet connection is everything you need, in order to buy an online lottery ticket.

The online lottery offers many advantages. No more hustle and trouble to get on time to your local store in order to book the ticket of your choice. It is all in reach of your finger tips; all you need is the internet and you can buy the favorite ticket to any important draw.

I buy my lottery tickets at wintrillions.com, I still have this urge to see my printed version of the ticket and the email the scanned tickets to you.

If you like to play the lottery, you should know that many people like to do this as well. There is a much research done on this topic as far as economics are concerned for example, why do people participate in lotteries in the first place.  Winners of the jackpot are very rare, so you must wonder why people continue to enter knowing there is such a small chance of even winning.

In addition to this, it seems that the amount of fun a person may have in the lottery in highly dependent upon the amount of the jackpot.  This is stated by most players and it seems that more and more rich people are participating in the lottery that has the highest pay-out. Also, studies indicate the richer the player, the more likely they will be educated and tend to play the jackpot more.

The Amount of the Jackpot

If you are interested in the lottery, you may be interested in knowing what the jackpot amount can climb to.  It is interesting to know that some jackpots have exceeded $300 million and yet this also has only 22.5% of lotto sales in the country. Considering the amount of pay-off, this is relatively low, yet the odds of winning are very unlikely.

Most jackpots are a result of lotteries that aren’t won and the money continues to grow when no one wins.  This is how jackpots continue to grow and get larger over time.  So, as you can see, it is very likely that a jackpot can grow into the millions with no problem whatsoever.

Where Economics Come Into Lottery Winnings

Some people that are low income participate in the lottery because they may need the money more so than rich people. Some studies have gone as far to show that people who make even as little as $10000 dollars a year, invest upwards of %3 in trying to win the lottery.  This is quite a large amount of money for such small earnings.

Also, it seems that people who may be much lower income than others are also much less educated.  Economists feel that this plays a huge role in low income families participating in the lottery so much. They simply do not take a realistic approach to their chances of wining and this can cause them to be much more vulnerable when it comes to shelling out money in the lottery with the hopes of winning big.  Even though it is very unlikely based on the odds, lower-income people continue to enter the lottery.

Regardless, if you are rich or poor, you need to realize that the lottery is always a gamble. There is no guarantee that you will win anything and every time you buy a ticket you are risking losing your money.  As long as you know the chances of your winning or losing, you will be a much more educated player and this may help determine if you decide to continue playing or not.

You can read more about economy and lottery here, and here about the history.

Did some research and read about the legal aspects of the lottery, most of the information can be found online, I got it from Google Scholar.

If you are trying to win money, it is very likely that you may consider entering the lottery or a sweepstakes to help you make a lot of money in a short period of time. These have been around for many years and the more you enter, the greater chance you will have of winning. Also, by using the Internet, it allows you to have a much easier opportunity to play and you can do so from the comfort of your home.

However, even though you may be trying to win money, you should be aware that there are certain risks that you may be required to take. For instance, there are many promotional schemes that are simply trying to take your money and give you nothing in return. You need to be certain that whatever lottery you are participating in has legalities that it must follow to help protect you.

How the Law Protects Lottery Players

It is important for the person who is participating in the lottery to know that there are certain laws that a business must abide by when they are promoting a lottery or sweepstakes. This works to protect the person who is entering the lottery as well as the business itself. The lottery is governed by federal and state regulations that work together to define specific rules that must be followed.

These laws to change quite often, so if you have a question about how you may be protected as far as a certain law is concerned, you may want to look at the official rules. These can give you an idea of what the laws may be and allow you to feel much better about playing any sweepstakes or lottery and ways you may be protected.

Various Sweepstake Rules

The great thing about sweepstakes as well as lotteries these days is that you are protected by the law and with rules set in place to make certain you are. For instance, each sweepstake or lottery has disclosure rules that should be given out to each person that enters and this will give them all they need to know about such things as, the odds they may win, when the beginning and ending dates of the lottery are. Also, the identity of the sponsor will usually be specified in this information.

When rules are set, it can certainly eliminate potential problems as well as any confusion that may be possible for the people entering the lottery. The best way to avoid confusion is to have everything laid out very clearly and this is what the rules work to do.

In general, some of the basic rules are listed below:

• A statement which explains if you need to purchase something to win or not.
• Details of how to enter and when the drawing will be held.
• Any limits which states the number of times one individual may enter.
• When the sweepstakes will end and other information pertaining to this.

I thought i might try and write something about the odds of winning, it’s not encouraging, I must say.

If you play the lottery, it is highly likely that you may be interested in what your actual chances of winning are.  No one wants to play all the time and never win, so this brings about the question, what is the probability of winning the lottery?  Some studies have actually shown that the probability of winning the lottery may be much higher than  those of other gambling activities.  However, the actual chance of winning the jackpot is concerned to be very small, not surprisingly.

Yet, the attraction of winning the lottery is by far the motivating factor for people to continue to play on a regular basis, even though they may never win.  Just think of all the lottery tickets that are bought with each lottery and only one person wins. Regardless, of this well known fact, many people continue to play and usually the greater the jackpot, the more people will participate.

When Are Most Lottery Tickets Purchased?

It seems to be quite common for many of the lottery tickets to actually be sold during what is known as “rollover weeks.” The reason that this is known to occur is that this is when the jackpot is at the largest amount.  Regardless, of the chances of actually winning the jackpot or not, people will continue to enter in the hopes that they will.

In addition, to the amount of the lottery tickets sold, a common question many people are interested in knowing, is what are the best numbers to draw when it comes to the lottery numbers?  Many people appear to disagree on this topic and some may think the best numbers are 1,2,3,4,5, there are others who say you will actually never win with this combination.  The people who disagree with this say you are far better off choosing random numbers due to past winnings.   This is a very difficult subject to make any real predictions about, because it does appear that both instances, where there are random numbers as well as a sequence of numbers have both been winners

Why Do People Think They Will Win?

Regardless, of the amount of people that play, or the numbers that are picked that help determine the probability of winning, it appears that most people truly overestimate the chance that they may actually win.  This is most likely due to the hopes of winning the jackpot and being able to acquire a huge sum of money, but the chances here again in actually doing this are very minimal.

It is highly likely that many people tend to over exaggerate positive outcomes while underestimating negative ones.  For instance, even though people have a one in fourteen million chance of winning the lottery versus a one in fourteen chance of being hit by a bus, most people automatically assume they will win the lottery but will never get hit by a bus!  People tend to believe more positive outcomes than negative.

And yet- i keep buying tickets hoping to end up like this Math teacher, beating the odds.

Maybe I just do it because I want to keep on dreaming.

If you participate in the lottery, then you most likely may be aware of the emotions that are associated with doing so. Many people can get addicted to the lottery, much like gambling but in a much lesser form than hard core gambling at a casino day after day. However, there are many people who do associate playing the lottery as having a negative impact on one’s life.

Even though there is some amount of controversy whether or not playing the lottery is actually gambling or not, most people do realize that most lotteries have a cause in which the money is being give to. In some cases, it may be to improve education in a community or state, in others it may go to many other worthy causes. This alone should be a positive reason for participating in the lottery and should allow you to feel much better about doing so.

How are Lotteries Perceived Around the World?

Many people all over the world enjoying playing the lottery and it depends on where you may be located as how playing the lottery may be perceived by others. For instance, in Europe, lotteries are being played more and more and are actually perceived positively by most people. The popularity of the lottery in combination with the fact that it is for a good cause most likely are huge contributing factors to this very reason.

For instance, many people believer the lottery that is played in Europe to be a much better activity than drinking or gambling and this most likely helps contribute to the reason so many people feel it to be a more positive than other things such as this. It is true that by participating in a cause that is raising money, even though it may be light form of gambling is much better than any of these other negative activities.

Referring to the UK as a past example, you may be interested in knowing that many of the concerns about the lottery, actually had nothing to do with the fact was it right or wrong but more of the majority of concerns were based on the legislation. There were many issues concerning gambling as far as stimulations were concerned.

Who Plays the Lottery?

Studies have also been geared to the people who participate in lotteries. What are the types of people who will play and why do they? Many of the people who play lottery are interested in making money of course, but there are some who play for leisure and others who play more of a serious nature.

These are classified as listed below:

1. Investor: This is a very knowledgeable player who actively participates by watching who won in the past and analyzing the results
2. Plunger: This type of player is desperate, they are deep in debt and trying desperately to win to save themselves.
3. Believer: This player has great confidence they will win at some point and play a lot.
4. Participant: This person just enjoys scratching off the ticket and plays only for fun.

Resources:

http://www.huvi.ee/esileht/teised/loterii/

P Rogers – Journal of Gambling Studies, 1998 – Springer

Article on  MSN Money Central: Why Poor People Win Lottery

Well, I just couldn’t ignore this week’s news; actually, I don’t think anyone could, this brings up tons of questions.

Facts and references

Ever since Neal Wanless stepped to claim his Powerball Lottery prize (which by the way was one of the largest prizes in Powerball Jackpot history) the media is filled with “nice people” trying to help that guy with his money, and even nicer people that predict his big fall to booze and ladies.

The New York Post shows pictures of the Wanless home where he and his family live.

Yahoo! Answers surfers debate on the important question “will he piss away the money?”

The Examiner gives some good advices

My thoughts

In the beginning I was outraged, “who are you people?” I thought, “What makes you think that you know better: Going around and assuming, guessing and foretelling a bad future for this guy?

Now I don’t know what to think anymore. Obviously he needs the money (just check out his farm and trailer) but will it corrupt him? Can money destroy your life? Will he be a happier man because of it, or despite of it?

This reminds me of the Marquez book Chronicle of a Death Foretold, can we stop it if we know it’s going to happen? Do we have to stop it? Is there a chance it won’t happen? Is it our moral duty to “Protect him from himself”?

It all sounds so pretentious…

Anyway, 232 million Dollars is not a small deal, even if you only get around 80 after taxes.

I hope he makes it, I hope he can prove all the doom-mongers wrong. Deep inside I hope he can prove to them that money may, after all, bring us incontrovertible happiness.

Lately I’ve been getting tons of bogus lottery tickets by email, most of them are foreign lottery scams so I’ve decided to write about it.
Foreign lottery scams might take any number of different forms. They may claim that you’ve won the national lottery for a particular country, for example. The key thing to remember here is that national lotteries can be verified rather easily. Most countries have some form of governmental web site that gives information on their lotteries. If you can’t find that kind of information online, you should be able to contact the embassy for the particular country to find out if the lottery is legitimate.

Did you know that it’s illegal?

On top of all of this, however, there is something else to consider about foreign lottery scams. It is actually illegal for a citizen of the United States, for example, to participate in foreign lotteries. This falls under the crime known as “racketeering,” and is punishable by law.
Unless you’re traveling to a foreign country and have bought a lottery ticket while you are there, you need to be very cautious of foreign lottery scams. People have lost thousands of dollars falling victim to these types of crimes.

Fraud aid about lotteries: http://www.fraudaid.com/ScamSpam/Lottery…
An example for a Foreign lottery scam from the FBI site http://www.fbi.gov/page2/aug05/scam08150…
DA warns about Lotto scams- not far from here http://www.wickedlocal.com/belmont/news/…

If you’re like most people, you’ve gotten pretty good at being able to identify lottery scams. The fact is that lottery scams have been around for a long time, and there are distinct characteristics that appear over and over again. Here are seven ways you can identify a lottery scam:

1. Look for a request for money. The fact is that a legitimate lottery pays you for winning, not the other way around. In fact, it’s illegal for a lottery to charge you to receive your winnings.
2. Check the email address. Legitimate companies rarely use free email accounts from Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail, at least for the purposes of contacting winners in a lottery.
3. Check the spelling and grammar. More often than not, lottery scam emails are poorly written.
4. Don’t give away personal details. Social security numbers, credit card information or bank account information can all be used to steal your money. Never give them out to someone you don’t know.
5. Look for a street address. A legitimate lottery has a real office somewhere. If there is an address in the email, check it against a program such as Google Maps.
6. Check the phone number. You can also do a web search for the phone number, which will often show you that the number is associated with a lottery scam.
7. Find out how you were entered in the lottery. Legitimate lotteries tend to charge you for a lottery ticket, or at the very least require you to sign up. If the email says you were randomly selected, it’s probably a scam.