This Lottery Business

Everyone at my office is going nuts talking about how big Wednesday’s PowerBall jackpot will be. They’ve started a collection to buy tickets as a group and they’ll divide the winnings if they win. I had to laugh when they asked me if I’d like to join. I don’t play the lottery. I don’t think I’ve bought a PowerBall ticket in well over a decade. Though I do enjoy the occasional scratch off. It’s not that I’m against the lottery, I just don’t see a point in playing the PowerBall.

All this hubbub got me thinking. An estimated $1.3 billion (or whatever it will be) is A LOT of money for one person. I can’t help but wonder about the chaos that much money, suddenly dumped into one person’s care, would bring. The stress and headache of having to now deal with the legal aspects of being a freaking BILLIONAIRE. There’s got to be so much more to it than Average Joe would know. Maybe I’m thinking negatively, but imagine you won that much money – it’s posted all over the news, social media, etc., so the world knows you’ve won. What’s to stop someone from following you and harassing you, and even trying to sue you? That sounds terrible.

It’s depressing to think that if the Wednesday’s jackpot was equally divided to everyone in the US (about 318 million people as of 2014) we all would get over 4 million dollars… give or take various amounts.

Think about that… everyone sleeping in their car tonight, everyone who can’t afford health care with this new “system”, everyone struggling to feed their children healthy meals, all the Veterans that aren’t receiving the proper care they deserve – they all could receive enough money to change their lives. (And hopefully for the better. Four million is still a lot of money to manage.) When the jackpot gets to be this big, what if instead of the usual distribution it was given to everyone? Maybe I’m dreaming and simplifying this too much for it to work. But I think it’s more fun to imagine this scenario, than one person’s life being destroyed by becoming an instant famous billionaire (or multi-millionaire depending on the tax situation) and then becoming bankrupt within 5 years.

This conversation with my coworkers led us to another conversation – if you were to win, how much would you want to win to be able to quit your job and assure that you never would need traditional job again? I said I’d have to do some calculations before I could answer that.

Sharon, I’m retiring in 5 months. The difference between going today versus June would be approx. $100,000. Anymore than that and I just have extra fishing money.

“The stress and headache of having to now deal with the legal aspects of being a freaking BILLIONAIRE.”

If it makes you feel any better about it Sharon, after taxes you would only be a millionaire. In the high hundreds of millions of course.
DT

Its so high now that it would be even more of a life changing event for most individuals. I’m sure not all for the better.

Sharon wrote:

It’s depressing to think that if the Wednesday’s jackpot was equally divided to everyone in the US (about 318 million people as of 2014) we ALL would get over 4 million dollars… give or take various amounts.

Actually, I think you are a little over on your estimate by a couple of zeros. $1.3 billion divided by 318 million people = a hair over $4/person. That’s not quite as depressing a number.

Timmy wrote:

Actually, I think you are a little over on your estimate by a couple of zeros.

Okay, wait, if you take 1.3 billion, and… okay I might be confusing where all these zeros go…But if the jackpot was $318 million, we’d all get 1 million each, right? So we’d have to be getting more than just $4 per person since it’s $1.3 billion. Or perhaps I can’t even hypothetically do the money math when we’re talking billions of dollars.

i’ll deal with the stress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Sharon just watch your office win, and you stayed out, think of all the good that could be done with just half of that, spend $20 bucks and go for it, maybe it will be 2.5 billion by the time the drawing comes.

Sharon wrote:

But if the jackpot was $318 million, we’d all get 1 million each, right?

If the jackpot was $318 Million and there are 318 Million people in the US, then we would each get $1. Lets put this on smaller levels and remove the million. If we were to split up $318 among 318 people, then each person gets $1.

If we were to split up $1.3 thousand amongt 318 people, then each person would get $3.25. Same goes for splitting up $1.3 billion among 318 million.

mnrabbit wrote:

If we were to split up $318 among 318 people, then each person gets $1.

Well that’s a much easier way to think of it. Doy. Okay that makes sense now. D’oh!

318 Million People.
1.3 Billion Dollar PowerBall.

To split up the winnings evenly among the entire country.
$1,300,000,000 (1.3 Billion)= $3.25 person
$10,300,000,000 (10.3 Billion)= $32.50 person
$100,300,000,000 (100.3 Billion) = $325 person
$1,300,000,000,000 (1.3 Trillion) = $3,250 person
$10,300,000,000,000 (10.3 Trillion) = $32,500 person
$100,300,000,000,000 (100.3 Trillion) = $325,000 person
$1,300,000,000,000,000 (1.3 Quadrillion)= $3,250,000 person

This is the most math I’ve done in years! Always hated that subject!
*This may not be accurate either.

mnrabbit wrote:

This is the most math of done in years! Always hated that subject!

Oh man you went all out there! LOL, I like algebra. Throw a dollar sign in there and I get all confused. Obviously.

I hated algebra. I can kind of due math when it involves numbers, but once they started throwing the alphabet in with it, then I was done.

mnrabbit wrote:

$1,300,000,000 (1.3 Billion)= $3.25 person

When you put it like this… yes, I want the entire amount. That is a lot of lead jig heads.

Not to be a math jerk but isn’t the total per person $11.01

I can see why you don’t like math

mnrabbit wrote:

318 Million People.
1.3 Billion Dollar PowerBall.

To split up the winnings evenly among the entire country.
$1,300,000,000 (1.3 Billion)= $3.25 person
$10,300,000,000 (10.3 Billion)= $32.50 person
$100,300,000,000 (100.3 Billion) = $325 person
$1,300,000,000,000 (1.3 Trillion) = $3,250 person
$10,300,000,000,000 (10.3 Trillion) = $32,500 person
$100,300,000,000,000 (100.3 Trillion) = $325,000 person
$1,300,000,000,000,000 (1.3 Quadrillion)= $3,250,000 person

This is the most math I’ve done in years! Always hated that subject!
*This may not be accurate either.

Joe Scegura wrote:

Not to be a math jerk but isn’t the total per person $11.01
I can see why you don’t like math

That’s why I put a disclaimer on the bottom lol!

I just redid it and this time I got $4.09 person. So who knows! If I am correct, 318 million goes into 1.3 billion 4.088 times, giving each person $4.09 if split up?

Joe Scegura wrote:

Not to be a math jerk but isn’t the total per person $11.01

Rest assured, If I win, I’ll make sure you, and you only, get your $11.01 The rest of the guys can

I can assure you if I won, the only stress I’d have is making sure there was enough food and gas in the boat to be offshore fishing the gulf for long, long periods at a time. yep I could easily handle the stress.

You can’t win if you don’t play

If you burned a $100,000 a day. $100,000 a day times 30 days is 3 million, times 12 months is 36 million, times 10 years is 360 million so it would take approximately 22 years at $100,000 a day to burn it all.

If you burnt a $20 dollar bill every 5 seconds. That’s $240 a minute times 60 minutes that’s $14,400 an hour, times 24 hours is $345,600 a day, times 30 days is $10,368,000 a month, times 12 months is 124,416,000 a year, so it would take about 7 years to burn it all at $20 every 5 seconds 24 hours a day. so about 7 years it would be gone. If you just burnt it at 8 hours a day it would take about 28 years to burn it all. That’s a lot of money, go for it Sharon. You know you’ll need some help spending it, so hire me at $50,000 an hour to help you spend it on things and it won’t take so long!

people really do win lottery’s. my neighbor lady won the publishers clearing house back in 2004 for 10,000,000. they bought the house next store because they could. I have never heard them talking/complaning about beggars and people looking for handouts. I would be more than happy to win and have to deal with everything that goes along with winning. bring it on, and when that office pool wins, hopefully you will be a part of it. whats $2 in the big scheme of life

Ha Ha insert foot in mouth! I thought there was 118 million in the US. Way off 318 million! oops

mnrabbit wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Scegura wrote:</div>
Not to be a math jerk but isn’t the total per person $11.01
I can see why you don’t like math

That’s why I put a disclaimer on the bottom lol!

I just redid it and this time I got $4.09 person. So who knows! If I am correct, 318 million goes into 1.3 billion 4.088 times, giving each person $4.09 if split up?

This is why I’m an estimator by profession, there is no exact right answer, I just have to be close. LOL!

Maybe my office pool will have a better chance of winning big if I don’t participate. Boy will my face be red. I’d be the only fool at the office on Thursday.

One of my coworkers told me that your odds of winning don’t increase with the more tickets you buy. I’m hesitant to believe what they tell me after this $4 million each ordeal.

So, many years ago…..

Minnesota had just started participating in the lottery. Around Christmas time my Mother gave all of us scratch-off game tickets. My wife scratched at her ticket and announced, “Oh, I have a winner!”

A certain little read headed daughter who’s name I will not mention jumped up Like a shot, raised her fists in the air and started to shout “WE’RE RICH! WE’RE RICH!!”.

We had to explain that sometimes you win $2.00.

SR

Lottery is simply another form of taxes on the lower/middle class. Only cleverly disuised as a game.

Another state run failure IMO. You take these games, keep it on a much smaller scale, that way you have heck 10,20, 50x more winners with that much more money getting spent locally. Everyonw says what in heavens name can someone really do with that much money.

Have it pool up in each state, then cap it off at say $5million? How many millionaires that would add to the state each year, spending that much more on new houses, remodels, new businesses, fancy suits, going out to eat, boats, trucks,etc etc.

If I ever gamble I like to consider it an entertainment expense. If I go to a casino I typically value the entertainment with a $60 bankroll. If I lose all $60 I got my money’s worth of entertainment. If I walk out with some of that $60 left in my pocket I’m more than content. If I actually make money, that’s a bonus! With a lottery I like to approach it the same way, but for me the entertainment value is much less. $20 on a big ticket, that’s worth the suspense for me. That way when I don’t win, I’m not bummed out. If I do win… Well, I won’t win, haha.

I hated algebra. I can kind of due math when it involves numbers, but once they started throwing the alphabet in with it, then I was done.

Try doing it when they start throwing in the Greek alphabet! Alpha this, lambda that, theta, pi…. I don’t miss those problems.

I bought my first powerball ticket in years last week on a whim. I needed bananas so I stopped into Kwik Trip and remembered hearing something about $700 million. When I think of those dollars I think about how many square miles of hunting land I could purchase. If I figure $5000 acre or $3,200,000 per square mile and $320 million after taxes, I could buy 100 square miles. That’s a lot of pheasants. That’s a chunk of ground 10 miles x 10 miles. I don’t know of anywhere in the Midwest where one could ever purchase such a large chunk. Heck, it’s probably hard to find just a square mile contiguous piece of ground in Iowa or Wisconson. I suppose in the arid, western states it might be easier.

Boone

Your chances do increase Sharon, if you don’t play you have no chance at all. If you get into the pool at work you do have a chance at winning with their money and yours pooled in together, because the office is buying more tickets with your money included. With all the different people buying tickets between now and the time of drawing the odds are lessened but you and your office friends still have a chance. Maybe just maybe that extra $5 you gave and yours only, will help buy the winning ticket, in other words just that little extra money you put in may be the sum that buys the ticket. With all the lotto people playing the chances go down, but you and your office still have a chance. For $5 bucks what do you have too loose, not much.

You must be an accountant…

I once walked into a casino near the MN / Canadian border and had $5 of Canadian coins to burn. 1st hand on a poker machine, hit the 4 of a kind and walked out with $35 of Canadian to burn!

I won the NCAA football office pool ($40) last week. Will be playing with house $ come Wednesday.

Can’t win if you don’t play and yes please bring the stress. It can’t get worse for me as of right now.

Ben Putnam wrote:

If I ever gamble I like to consider it an entertainment expense. If I go to a casino I typically value the entertainment with a $60 bankroll. If I lose all $60 I got my money’s worth of entertainment. If I walk out with some of that $60 left in my pocket I’m more than content. If I actually make money, that’s a bonus! With a lottery I like to approach it the same way, but for me the entertainment value is much less. $20 on a big ticket, that’s worth the expense for me. That way when I don’t win, I’m not bummed out. If I do win… Well, I won’t win, haha.