Board 8 > Is 1.1 Billion Dollars enough for you to take a chance?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Xeybozn posted...

The casinos don't want the competition.

Wow, never knew that

Obellisk posted...

Nevada, Utah, Alabama, Alaska and Hawaii.

5 states don't participate.

Utah is Utah
Alabama is a red state? But most red states allow it
Alaska and Hawaii... no clue

https://np.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb4v05/

Maniac64 posted...

It's actually to much.

I live in a state where they announcer the winner so my name would be all over the newspapers.

I don't want the constant harassment that would come with winning this.

this minus the state part

Buy a few lines, spend a couple of days wondering what it would be like if I won, grumble that I don't live in New Jersey where the winning ticket was sold, move on with my life.

Uglyface2 posted...

New Jersey where the winning ticket was sold,

Yaaaaasssssss

Let's not forget that the lottery is essentially a poor tax, disproportionately played by lower income people. Thus, it's not surprising that lower income people win the jackpot from time to time. These people often have very little education, have lived paycheck to paycheck their entire life, and often already deal with some form of substance abuse or addiction. Now throw a ton of money at them. It's not surprising that horror stories follow in some circumstances.

No doubt winning a large sum like that can create a lot of potential problems, but if handled smartly, you can come out of it very happy. There are happy endings to some lottery winner stories, we just like to obsess over the unhappy ones for some reasons.

guffguy89 posted...

Thus, it's not surprising that lower income people win the jackpot from time to time. These people often have very little education, have lived paycheck to paycheck their entire life, and often already deal with some form of substance abuse or addiction.

What about low income people who live paycheck to paycheck, have a typical amount of education, and have no substance/addiction problems? Or is this one of those "all poor people ruined their own lives" posts.

Did I use the word "all" anywhere in my post? I was speaking in generalizations, not absolutes. Quit projecting.

Lottery winners aren't the only rich people, you know. It's strange that people point to all these specific cases of unhappiness or ruin, but the ones you can't read about are the ones that didn't end that way because people are only obsessed with strife. For example, that reddit topic does list several horror stories; but in Powerball alone there have been nearly 400 Jackpot winners since it was created. Where are all those other hundreds of stories? Mega Millions according it its website has over 200 jackpot winners. That's 600+ winners but because a dozen or so cases are so sad we just focus in on that for whatever reason, conveniently ignoring the large majority.

Just because you become wealthy doesn't mean you will be unhappy; it's much more likely that won't be the case. If being wealthy also means you are constantly harassed or stalked, then I guess all our favorite celebrities should be giving away their vast millions are all those poor, poor CEOs of companies just can't sleep at night from all the hounding. I suppose the constant woe surrounding the lotto is simply because some people don't want to see low income people essentially waste their money, and yeah gambling can be a huge issue. But that isn't all that common, especially with a game like MM or PB, because of their nature it's a little more difficult to get addicted to playing them and many people only try when the jackpot gets this huge.

People should just let others have their fantasies, without constantly bringing up a dozen or so stories about how bad it would be if they won. Hundreds of other stories ended a lot happier, or at least that can be assumed since no one is reporting on them. No news is good news.

v_charon posted...

Lottery winners aren't the only rich people, you know. It's strange that people point to all these specific cases of unhappiness or ruin, but the ones you can't read about are the ones that didn't end that way because people are only obsessed with strife. For example, that reddit topic does list several horror stories; but in Powerball alone there have been nearly 400 Jackpot winners since it was created. Where are all those other hundreds of stories? Mega Millions according it its website has over 200 jackpot winners. That's 600+ winners but because a dozen or so cases are so sad we just focus in on that for whatever reason, conveniently ignoring the large majority.

Just because you become wealthy doesn't mean you will be unhappy; it's much more likely that won't be the case. If being wealthy also means you are constantly harassed or stalked, then I guess all our favorite celebrities should be giving away their vast millions are all those poor, poor CEOs of companies just can't sleep at night from all the hounding. I suppose the constant woe surrounding the lotto is simply because some people don't want to see low income people essentially waste their money, and yeah gambling can be a huge issue. But that isn't all that common, especially with a game like MM or PB, because of their nature it's a little more difficult to get addicted to playing them and many people only try when the jackpot gets this huge.

People should just let others have their fantasies, without constantly bringing up a dozen or so stories about how bad it would be if they won. Hundreds of other stories ended a lot happier, or at least that can be assumed since no one is reporting on them. No news is good news.

Nobody said anything about wealth, just that people statistically become unhappier after winning the lottery.

I've seen that word used a few times, but I'm still waiting for the study that shows it. I'd be happy to check it out.

full disclosure- i love arguing about the lottery

MacArrowny posted...

people statistically become unhappier after winning the lottery

statistically speaking, people don't have distinguishable traits or personalities, have 1.8 children, etc etc

i have a strong sense of who i am and what i care about. i am also aware of the risks and downfalls. i personally guarantee that i would be happier after winning the jackpot

MacArrowny posted...

Nobody said anything about wealth

Also... uh, yeah. That's the whole argument. Wealth is the reward of the lotto. The whole argument would be about that wealth and what the effects are from it, good or bad. I'm saying that wealthy people already exist and I doubt most of them are unhappy about it.

About the only things you could pull from are some studies that suggest lotto winners are x times more likely to x. I mean they're also x times more likely to x in positive ways too, you would have to guess. People who are rich go bankrupt more often than people who aren't; that's kinda how it works.

https://twitter.com/donhertzfeldt/status/687469663828115456?t=aKmgJ04NsifCwZYZQOa6tg&s=19

MacArrowny posted...

Nobody said anything about wealth, just that people statistically become unhappier after winning the lottery.

Isn't it that those who win the lottery are unhappier than average, which is obvious from the selection bias?

I didnt win

I didn't win the money. But we spent two hours on the couch last night laughing about all the amazing things we would do if we did win. And that was really enjoyable. So i still won a good night.

Oh wow. The winning ticket was bought in my hometown. That's scary close.

A single winner for a jackpot that big.

Absolutely insane.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

A single winner for a jackpot that big.

Absolutely insane.

Are we sure it was a person and not a group? Even then, good for the winner(s). They can pay off their debt and figure out what to do with the rest of the money.