An excellent textbook answer, but the real world throws a few wrenches in your plan. Acquaintances and foes would certainly discover your sudden windfall. One well-placed call to the media and your masquerade is kaput. Never underestimate the media’s relentlessness or the pettiness of the envious. And while waiting to claim your winnings is theoretically smart, waiting, say, four months socks you with a huge loss of interest earnings.
I suggest giving your winning ticket to me. I promise not to say a word.
I never play the lottery anyway, because it’s throwing away money i can ill-afford to lose.
But i’ve often wondered if i’d be able to claim the prize. I’m a foreigner here in the US on an F1 student visa. My official status for tax purposes is non-resident alien, and my visa prohibits me from taking work away from my university campus.
I’m not sure whether there would be any rule—whether tax related, visa related, or whatever—that would prevent me from claiming my winnings. If there’s one thing worse than not winning the lottery, it would be winning and being told that you’re ineligible to collect.
There must be some law covering this. I mean, there are thousands of foreigners who stop of in Vegas as part of their US vacations, and i assume that there must be some law that allows them to take winnings (ha ha) with them?
Keeping it from friends and family is one thing, but why the rest of the public? Are there really these kinds of stupid problems? And how good is the publicity? Other than that school teacher in Wisconson several years ago, I have no idea who ever wins the lottery. Where the heck is this stuff publicized anyway? Is it really that big a deal?
I’m not challenging anything here, but rather asking to be enlightened.
Charities and other professional moochers keep track of winners. There are tales of winners being hounded by scam artists, being sued for paternity by “old girlfriends,” and of course parents of “sick children” who can only receive treatment for two weeks in the carribbean.
In CA, you can specify that the Lottery cannot use your name or image. So a winner can remain anonymous, except to the IRS of course!
If I were to win it (heh), I would have a quiet meeting with my accountant, my broker and a great tax guy I know. Once I’d put the various trusts and things in place, I would then claim the prize and pay all the taxes. My immediate family would reap the benefits on the condition that nobody says a fucking word about me winning the lottery, ever. I have kids and they wouldn’t be safe if the whole damn world knew I was a milionaire.
While i understand not wanting the whole world to know, i think the whole “my kids wouldn’t be safe” thing is probably a little paranoid, and the result of too many TV show and movie plots showing kidnappings with ransom demands.
There are plenty of people with plenty of money whose children don’t go around with armed body guards.
If I were to win, I would definitely look for a way to keep it secret. Of course, I’m unlikely to win, since I don’t play–lotteries are simply a tax on people who are bad at math.
Once, long ago, I was written up in a major financial news magazine because of a savvy move made by a company that I started. I was excited by this until the phone calls began. Stockbrockers, insurance salesmen, “investment counselors,” commodities brokers, companies looking for funding… It went on and on and on for close to a year. It was a horrible, nasty experience, and the worst part was that the company’s manouver written up in the magazine didn’t actually make me any money! All of my assets were tied up in this little company I had started and I couldn’t have invested with these idiots even if I’d wanted to.
Some of them actually got rude with me when I told them this, and a couple of them actually swore at me (both New Yorkers, interestingly).
I would never want the media to know if I had money!
I think in Florida you can claim it anonymously. In fact, I think I heard some lottery official say that there are some funds that are paid into a trust and they have no idea of the identity of the winner.
There are also Agents. From here http://www.lotteryshop.com/usa-mega/faq.html
**If I should win the Jackpot, do I have the option of remaining anonymous as far as the public and the media are concerned? **
Normally, in most States, lottery winner information is in the public domain; therefore it is public information. Publicized information normally includes the Jackpot winner’s name, city, country, game in which they won, date won, and the amount of the prize.
If you are playing Mega-millions through OSA, however, you have the option to retain your anonymity, as our accredited Lottery agent will be claiming the prize on your behalf Mhendo (from the same site): there is no law prohibiting a non-US citizen from playing or winning any US lottery. You may enter Mega Millions online through Overseas Subscribers Agents ahttp://www.lotteryshop.com/usa-mega/faq.html
IIRC (and I think I do but I can’t find a link) an illegal (Cambodian ?) immigrant won a fairly hefty sum and some folks wanted to take it away – but he kept it and bought a ton of lawyerin’ that was fighting to keep him in the U.S
"The way you calculate independent probability is to multiply the odds. The odds of being struck [by lightning] once in your lifetime are one in 3,000. The odds of being struck twice in your lifetime are one in 9,000,000.
“…It’s often said that your odds of being struck by lightning are better than your odds of winning the lottery. That’s a vast understatement. Your odds of winning the Powerball multi-state lottery jackpot are about one in 120,526,770.”
Your odds of wasting $100 a week for nothing are, statistically speaking, virtually indistinguishable from 100%. But good news! You can have the same amount of fun and have about the same chance of not winning the lottery by only dropping $1 a week. Here’s how I look at it: My odds of winning the lottery take their biggest jump when I buy the first ticket. That takes me from absolute zero chance (or 1 in infinity) to 1 in about 18,000,000 (I live in Florida). So I drop a buck a week if I happen to think about it. Every subsequent ticket after that makes a statistically insignificant impact on my chance of winning but wastes a lot more money. “Improving” my odds of winning by buying a second ticket only jumps me to 1 in 9,000,000–same as my odds of being struck by lightning TWICE–but costs me 100% more money. Compared to the first jump, that’s not much bang for my buck. And the jumps keep getting smaller from there. Dropping $100 on 100 tickets only gives me a 1 in 1,800,000 chance of winning. I’m 600 times more likely to be struck by lightning. Yet, unfathomably, people do this every week. Blowing $100,000 on 100,000 tickets would still leave me only a 1 in 180 shot of winning the jackpot. Those odds suck. Would I get on a bus if I knew I had only 1 chance in 180 of making it to my destination alive? How about 1 in 18? I sure wouldn’t, and I’ll lay you 18 to 1 odds you wouldn’t either.
Have fun and I hope you win. I hope I win too, but I’m not counting on it.
