# How paranoid would you be if you won a huge lottery jackpot?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-paranoid-would-you-be-if-you-won-a-huge-lottery-jackpot/642343>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 28, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-paranoid-would-you-be-if-you-won-a-huge-lottery-jackpot/642343 "2012-11-28T03:39:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-paranoid-would-you-be-if-you-won-a-huge-lottery-jackpot/642343/41 "2012-12-02T04:49:08Z")

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Well seriously, how stupid do you have to be to have over half a million dollars in cash sitting in your car?

Or to hang out at the local casino frequently and obviously enough to put yourself in danger.

Back many years ago, a young woman in northern MN won what was for a long time, the largest Powerball jackpot in MN. $80-something million. She ran into some problems because she bought a big house and a fancy car (with easily recognizable personalized plates) and kinda set about making herself a public figure. However, at a certain point, that stopped and she faded back into the shadows.

There’s a line in the _I Ching_;

_If a man carries a burden on his back  
Yet rides in a carriage,  
He encourages robbers to draw near  
Perseverance leads to humiliation._

The man with the burden is a commoner. The man in the carriage is a wealthy noble.

Look, if some guy who made, let’s say $50 million by investing or starting a business was at the casino, people may recognize him, but they’re mostly going to give him the respect of “position” and leave him the hell alone. If average joe wins $50 million, he’s going to be treated like some chump with too much money in his pocket.

The moral of the story being that when you win this kind of money, you do not automatically win that ‘position’ in life where people respect and elevate you, and you’re a goddamned fool if you try to act like you have it.

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**Author:** ![computergeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@computergeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/computergeek)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-paranoid-would-you-be-if-you-won-a-huge-lottery-jackpot/642343/42 "2012-12-02T13:06:37Z")

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I wouldn’t let the general public know, so I guess somewhat paranoid. In my state, one can remain anonymous, so I would. I would contact a lawyer friend who handles estates and trusts and either hire him or hire someone he recommends. Then I would set up a trust or something for the money and have him collect the money from the lottery people while I remain anonymous. I would probably tell immediate family and maybe some close friends. I would put aside more than enough for retirement and daily living and give at least some of the money to immediate family and probably quite a bit to charity. Then I would go on with my normal life, including work, until it’s time to retire in a few years.

Of course, I don’t tend to play the lottery when it gets to be huge sums because I wouldn’t know what to do with that amount of money, though I have done office pools at times in the past.

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**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-paranoid-would-you-be-if-you-won-a-huge-lottery-jackpot/642343/43 "2012-12-02T17:19:00Z")

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I’m not sure if you can stay anonymous here, but if I won that sort of money and had to publicly collect it, I’d truthfully announce that I was donating the vast majority to charity- but any charity who attempted to contact me and solicit money would not get a penny.

My dream lifestyle would not be a particularly expensive one; I’d maybe keep around £2-3 million, distribute one or two million more among a few particular friends and family, and the rest of the money would be donated to my chosen causes within a few months, as anyone asking for some would be told.

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