# What wacky ways would you spend a mega lottery win? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 28, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373 "2012-11-28T15:55:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/21 "2012-11-28T17:36:15Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > I’d buy a house with a lot of land, then have the world’s largest arcade built and stocked. Funspot in New Hampshire currently has over 500 games, so I’d need to go a bit bigger, perhaps 1000 machines, though I’d not have stuff like banks of Skeeballs, crane games, etc. I’d also pay through the nose to have them all restored. I’d probably do this as well. I’d especially like to search out the odder games, not just the classics like Pac-Man. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/22 "2012-11-28T17:40:23Z")
> [@Mikemike2](#): > > Why? I’m suspicious. 🙂 So then I can make it look like I was murdered and wait for those meddling kids to show up. I’d also build cottages on the extra land for my friends to rent instead of living the crappy places they do. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/23 "2012-11-28T17:42:43Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > This might not be as successul as you think…I doubt that the average red voter drinks really great micro-brew beer. :dubious: No worry. There will be a “lite” version, with I LOVE HILLARY and a picture of Ms. Clinton on the can. For the “ladies”. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/24 "2012-11-28T17:49:13Z")
I will form the Navin Johnson Foundation and stop cat juggling once and for all! ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/25 "2012-11-28T18:14:34Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Let’s see: I publicly give $10 million to my former church, because even though I don’t believe in Jesus I believe in their good works. This will naturally trigger other local churches to ask for handouts, and I force them all to come up with a full presentation–prepared speeches, PowerPoint slides, interpretative dance, the works–and hten shut them all down. To add to this. Hold a job competition for the position of Reviewer in Chief(public title/Refuser in Chief is the true title). Primary job qualification is the ability to refuse requests in ways that amuse you. Then have all the presentations made to this new employee and live streamed to you and then recorded for later entertainment as well. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/26 "2012-11-28T18:16:23Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I’d probably do this as well. I’d especially like to search out the odder games, not just the classics like Pac-Man. I think once you get beyond 100 or so classics and historically important machines, you’d almost be required to have the odder games. When I visit Funspot, I pay homage to the classics, but then spend all of my time on lesser machines like Pulsar and Triple Hunt. It’d also be nice to buy and restore some of the old simulator center games (Battletech, Red Planet, or even things like Galaxian 3) I’d probably also have all of the machines set to Twin Galaxies specs, and offer to be an official record-setting tournament venue; might be difficult, since my overall desire would be to have it be a private arcade otherwise. Having 1000 different games would almost guarantee having some unique cabinets not available in other venues, which would in turn guarantee new records every time an event was held… and I could kick Billy Mitchell out for being a dick. Oh, and since I’m in “third grader designing his dream home in the margins of his notebooks” territory, there would also be a full-sized movie/video theater attached to the arcade. Just because. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/27 "2012-11-28T18:21:35Z")
Random contests and scholarships. $500 for the best song/poem about sewage\* treatment. $500 for a floating remote controlled mini-raft that strains small trash out of a small lake or pond - must be powered by a shop vac. And one that I keep fiddling with thinking about doing small scale: $25-50 grants to fund elementary school science projects.\*\* I’m sure I’d come up with bigger and better ones if I had the cash at hand. - wastewater for the PC \*\* I keep trying to put together the ideas that: 1. a lot of kids dismiss the possibility of a science career when they’re very young, just on the grounds that it’s not the thing that their sort of person does, 2. not just kids, but most people don’t know that scientists spend about a third of their time writing grants to get next year’s research funded, and 3. a lot of kids don’t think about doing science projects because they don’t have the equipment or the funds to do them. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/28 "2012-11-28T18:27:35Z")
I’d outfit my band with entirely new equipment, upgrade our studio (which is in our bass player’s garage) with all new everything, from boards to wiring to fuck it I’ll just build a new studio in his back yard, and then hire Bob Ludwig to come produce our Tuesday night jam sessions. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/29 "2012-11-28T18:32:37Z")
I’m gonna build a secret underground bunker like in Fallout ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/30 "2012-11-28T18:34:48Z")
I’d colorize the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/31 "2012-11-28T18:35:27Z")
There’s an abandoned, run down train station near the town where I grew up. I’d love to buy it, get the road that goes there paved (once it’s been paved once, the government has the obligation to keep it up, since it’s public) and fix it up. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/32 "2012-11-28T18:49:34Z")
I’d like to buy a ghost town, fix it up, move everyone I know out there, and live like it was the Old West, only with electricity and running water. And paintball. And Playstation 3. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/33 "2012-11-28T19:06:58Z")
In the OP, Silenus said “What ways would you use the money to screw with people?” It all depends, of course, how much money you won. Let us assume since the current payout for the US Powerball is $550,000,000 then your winnings are the same. Pay all of the homeless in Atlanta,Georgia (very well, mind you) to superglue $100 bills to the sidewalks of downtown. That would truly confuse the masses. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/34 "2012-11-28T19:15:11Z")
I like the way you think. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Vita\_Beata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/35 "2012-11-28T19:22:44Z")
Buy up all the foreclosed homes in some of the WI counties. Bulldoze the homes, hire the Amish to build their wonderful cabins on the land. Build/buy a professional building. Hire as many dentists and administraters as possible to run a free dental clinic. Now that’s really screwing with people … no excuses for not visiting the dentist anymore. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/36 "2012-11-28T19:57:32Z")
I would buy [Stone Mountain](http://www.asergeev.com/pictures/archives/2003/367/jpeg/06.jpg), and put a huge mansion on [top](http://robmcqueary.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/stone-mountain1.jpg), but also carve out a secret lair inside. I’ll sculpt and landscape the west side and put in snow making machines for my own ski resort. Then we can have James Bond-style machine gun skiing with hired goons on motorcycles and the like. I’d also put several luxurious cabins along the lakes for friends and relatives to stay and play when they want. There’s already a golf course, but the nearby airstrip is shut down, so I’ll have to re-work that for my jet. And, with 3,000 acres, I should have enough room for all the shelter dogs and cats and horses in the U.S. to come hang out, right? Then, I think I’d buy [Cumberland Island](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_R3nVlB8vmc/Tf1i0i_N86I/AAAAAAAACcs/HwM-Bl_2Y2s/s1600/110609_CumberlandIsland.JPG) or St. Croix. I just want some privacy, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/37 "2012-11-28T20:20:41Z")
I would fund car repairs or replacements. I’d run a tab with the really nice mechanic who patted my hand and told me in a very fatherly way NOT to put a new (or even rebuilt) transmission in my last car. I’d give him instructions to bill me whenever someone came in needing crucial repairs and was clearly undone by the expense. I’ve never been wealthy and it seems that whenever I have a month where the ends actually meet and I’m feeling like i can exhale either something on the car breaks or I need emergency dentistry. So I guess I’d make the same arrangement with the dentist. I’d do some seriously extravagant tipping. And I’d take my whole extended family (not hard, there are only 14 of us) on really nice vacations every other year. That hardly seems wacky enough. I do like the croquet statue idea. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/38 "2012-11-28T20:29:51Z")
You could go nuts if you were a movie buff… Pay to do a shot for shot remake of the movie “Independence Day” with the same cast as the original. Except Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum switch roles. Remake “Road House” using the cast from “The Office”. “Pain don’t hurt.” -Jim Halpert. “I fucked guys like you in prison.” -Dwight Shrute. Make a good Punisher movie. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/39 "2012-11-28T20:40:29Z")
I think I’d convert my garage into just a kickass free bar. Neighbors and friends can pop in anytime. Put in a trampoline farm for the kids to play on while their parents are at my “bar”. My bar also comes with a barbecue artist and rotating (daily) seasonal drafts. Heck, I’m going to have my bartender hand out drinks to passing motorists during slow times on the job. No TVs or cell phones in my bar, just good music and a set of encyclopedias for authority during disputes. The rest of the money would be spent traveling the world to find the good beers to serve at my bar. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373/40 "2012-11-28T20:44:33Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Go through every drive-through in town. Purchase a drink or something else small. Pay for the car behind mine as well. See how long it takes for rumors to become rampant. Continue doing it, with different cars or Groucho glasses or something :). > > I actually did this, once (no Groucho glasses once). Went to Wendy’s with the kids, and asked the cashier to also put the next car’s order on mine. It was worth it just to see the expression on the cashier’s face - I have no idea what the other driver thought. I have friends who’ve been the recipients of this and they tell me it’s really made their day. Heh. I was confused by this until I realized you must live in a place where the drive-through line is busy enough that the cashier would know the total on the next person’s order already. :smack: I’d have to sit there for a little while till someone came along! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-wacky-ways-would-you-spend-a-mega-lottery-win/642373.md?page=3)