Over the fourth of July weekend, the Florida State Lottery had a game called the Firecracker Millionaire Raffle. They sold a limited number of tickets, with 12 grand prize winners of $1 million each.
It turns out that two of those tickets were sold in the small town where I work (Bambi Hassenpfeffer lives nearby, so it’s famous too!) They were both sold in two different shops in the same shopping center. Both are very close by, and often enough I go to grab some lunch, or do my banking, in that center. But on June 29th they closed the road headed out there for some railroad track repairs, so it’s tough to get to. Not that I was likely to buy a ticket anyway.
But the gang at the office next door to us did. And they bought one of the winning tickets. They are all supposedly getting $93,000 each. Not sure if that’s lump sum, after taxes, or whatever. Not really my business. But it’s good to be them right now. Most are young, in sales, and not particularly well off.
It’s always nice when someone who can really use some cash wins a lottery. And especially a case like this where it’s shared and no one gets enough to go too stupid with it.
How many multi-millionaire lotto winners wind up in financial troubles? I expect there are more than a couple.
And I’ve met both **Bambi ** and **Shibb ** via the Dope. At my going-away-from-Florida party…
You’re right. It’s good to see that good things do happen to really good people. Was there ever an update on how they’re doing after they got the cash?
I saw Steve about 6 months ago, and things are going quite well. The kids are taken care of, they got lots of attention in the press for Garden of Angels, and Debi has more volunteers than she can use. The scholarships are going to good kids. All in all, a good outcome.
A lot do because playing the lottery excessively almost completely contradicts a mindset for successful wealth management. My wife’s uncle was unemployed in the early 80’s. He played the NH Megabucks to the tune of $150 a week. Everyone made fun of him but he WON! It was a $4 million jackpot and he declared that he would have a house in San Francisco, Rome, Florida, and Boston. I am sure that some of you can see the problem immediately but he couldn’t. He had to take the lump sum back then so he got about $140,000 a year for 20 years. It ran out a few years ago. His long-time wife divorced for unrelated reasons and he ballooned up to 350 pounds and has no health insurance.
All this time, my FIL was busting his ass all day long at everything he could find and was many times richer than his brother. Some people think that the secret to wealth lies with a guy name Habeab and a spare penny but it doesn’t.
In better news, I told the story above to a coworker and she revealed that he husband won $1 million on a scratch ticket a few years ago and they just put most of it away for their kid’s college and took a nice trip. I guess there is some hope in the world.
I want all states to get out of the lottery business ASAP. They don’t have to ban the lottery. They just need to turn in over to private corporations so that the state and the public gets nothing from it. It is wrong to promote social welfare by bankrupting people that you target to help.
And my mom works in one of the two lottery retailers in that plaza if it’s the one I’m thinking of. Maybe she sold the winner. More likely someone else in her store, but who knows?
Also, that road closure is turning her 10 minute commute into a 25 or so.
