No, I wouldn’t do it. I’ve got things I want to do.
I am risk-averse. I am not comfortable with gambling even small sums. I do not like uncertainty. I would not trust the setup.
And I don’t want that sort of money. More than I have now would be nice. But crazy amounts of money? I’d turn insane. I’d be one of those people living on the street with billions of dollars in the bank because I was afraid to spend any. I can feel it in me.
Oh wow. I confused myself in reading the OP at first and thought it was a 1/20 chance of winning, not dying. I was thinking, wow, people are willing to take huge risks. Then I realized it was a 19/20 chance of winning, and felt better. 
I’d do it the other way - if I die Mr. Freakyman pays my family a billion, but leaving them with me dead and no consolation? That’d be tough… Maybe if I had good life insurance.
45 years old, married, 3 kids.
I’d definitely risk 1/20 for a billion. Probably $10 mill. Maybe even a mill (tax free).
I’d take out a hefty term life insurance policy first, tho.
Would the fact that you voluntarily drank the posion (even though you were hoping like hell it was water) affect whether or not the life insurance paid out?
Nearly every life insurance pays off for suicide - tho some require a certain waiting period - couple months or so.
So if you were desparate enough, assuming you weren’t flagged as high risk due to poor health or whatever, you could sign up for a policy, make your first payment, kill yourself and in a couple months your family gets paid? That sounds unlikely to me for some reason, which isn’t to say that it’s not true 
Don’t worry I know all about lack of money. At one time my wife and I were living on a budget of 10 cigarettes a day, 1 pint of milk, a can of soup for lunch, a can of soup for dinner and half a loaf of bread a day. We had no health care, no jobs and we lived in London.
I still preferred it over being dead. The TV worked, I had several library cards and plenty to keep me amused.
Like the old Aussie saying goes: You wouldn’t be dead for quids.
I’m certainly no insurance expert, but chronic physical or emotional health problems would be disclosed during the application process, and would be reflected in the premiums and terms. And the failure to disclose would be reason to refuse payment. I would assume that the overwhelming majority of folk who considered suicide for insurance would have some sort of a record suggesting instability - medical, legal, employment, etc.
Usually it’s 2 years.
A lot of reckless fun can be had in 24 hours. All in all, it sounds like a win-win. Yes, bottom’s up.
One thing that may or may not be obvious is that the answers that people give here are what they think they’d do. When standing with a potentially life-ending drink in their hands, my guess is that many would change their minds. But not me. Show me the money, baby!
Reminds me of a story I read once, and later saw on TV, of an old guy who bet a young American that his trusty Zippo lighter would not light a specific number of times in a row. If it did, the old guy would give the American his car. If it failed, the old guy would get to chop off one of the American’s fingers. As I recall, the American was super confident at first, but got a little trepidatious when the old guy pulled out the knife, and tied his hand down to a cutting board before starting the test…
Anyone else remember this story?
Man From the South by Roald Dahl. Excellent story.
It was an episode of Alfred Hitchcock in 1960 with Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.
::reads story::
And that, my friends, is why Roald Dahl rocks.
Nope, wouldn’t take the offer. I can and do provide for all my needs right now. More money just means that my “needs” would get more expensive, not that I’d be any better and meeting them. I won’t take any bet that I’m not fully prepared to lose, and I’m not prepared to lose this one.
Not for any amount of money.
I do not. I will not even ride a motorcycle. When my children are grown, I will think about it; until then, my life isn’t my own.
My husband says “Hell, yes”.
I say I would probably only do it for 49 in 50 shot at the money. But given 49 in 50, I’d do that for as little as $5 mill. So it doesn’t directly scale.
Being nerds, MrValley and I just each rolled a d20 to see if we’d die or not. We both survived. Where’s our $2 bill?
I wouldn’t do it for any amount.
I would absolutely do it. If I didn’t, I would always wonder what might have been and worry about it and finally probably kill myself. So life wouldn’t be worth living anyway.