It’s per-ticket, not per-player. I think this actually came up in a case where the administrator of a workplace lottery syndicate bought duplicate tickets of his own - the syndicate won the lottery - everyone got a share, including the syndicate administrator, but he also claimed the prize from his own tickets, which was of course equivalent to the whole amount the syndicate players had to share.
The other people were not happy, but technically, he hadn’t done anything illegal
That seems so wrong but you are absolutely right, nothing technically wrong about it all. Anyone else could’ve done it but as a gut feeling it seems like a dick move.
Certainly not to be recommended if you intend to keep working with the same people, but of course with a big win that’s unlikely to matter.
I don’t know about it being a dick move- nearly every time I’ve joined a group lotto it has been
- Everybody contributes a certain amount of money which buys a certain number of tickets.
- Everybody choses the numbers on the number or tickets that corresponds to the amount contributed. ( Tickets are $1 each, I contribute $2 , I choose the numbers for two tickets. )
If I am the superstitious sort and have “lucky numbers” that I play every week, why would I be a dick for choosing from those combinations for the two group tickets I choose numbers for?
No, you are right, it isn’t really once you give it a bit of thought, “dick move” was too harsh of me but it does feel “off” in some way that I can’t really justify.
No-one would think anything of that tactic right up until the point that it pays off.
It only feels like a dick move if the numbers win. If they lose, it will look like a moronic move that loses money not once but twice, first via the player’s contribution to the group and second via the private tickets. But there wouldn’t be any news reports about it, of course.
I’ve seen some of these kinds of group, in which there’s an agreement that you won’t play outside the group, just to avoid these sorts of issues.
I don’t think there is a legally binding contract that would prevent someone from doing it anyways, but if the group found out, it would be a simple matter to bar that person from participating in future group plays.
The problem there is it is really hard to STAY anonymous in certain situations.
Case in point if you live in poverty and suddenly buy a new car and move into a new house people around are going to figure out you came in a windfall. And if the store where the ticket was purchased is in your town and was a place you regular visit a lot of them will assume you are the winner.
Yup. No taxes so that’s not really an issue.
(We pay taxes on each ticket instead).
The way to optimise the amount I won without making anyone suspicious would be to buy two tickets with the same numbers, and manufacture a story about why those numbers meant something to me. Buying more than that, for a big win, would make people suspicious. Buying 100 or 1000 tickets would bring about so much trouble that it would have been better not to have won.
In fact, since I do play the lottery, one ticket most weeks, and always go via lucky dip, they’d be somewhat suspicious of me choosing my own numbers anyway. And to be honest I’d be fine sharing £10million or whatever with some other lucky person or even three of them - it doesn’t tend to get split up very often anyway.
FWIW, In the UK a relatively large proportion of lottery proceeds goes to fund the arts, sports organisations for disabled people, etc. Not all, but then not all the money I donate to any actual charity goes to the cause either, and lottery money is one of the things keeping some small museums and arts venues afloat. It’s a dream that also happens to help fund local good causes.
Sure, but there’s a difference between people in your near orbit observing your behaviors, etc… and literally broadcasting it on the news and printing it in the newspapers. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are scammers who search for such things with the intent of trying to prey on them.
That buys you nothing. First claim to lottery winnings (and wages) are where the money was won/earned. If you win a NY lottery, the IRS and NY tax the winnings first. The NY lottery commission will withhold the estimated taxes before giving you the money.
As an example of wages, Elton John and the Toronto Blue Jays have to pay US & Illinois taxes when they perform in Chicago.
I recall reading in an investment advice book years ago about the Don’t Touch fallacy. The writer mentioned a family where the grandfather had bought back in the 1920s stock in the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, precursor to IBM. He had managed to keep it through the market crash and bequeathed it in equal shares to his children when he died and they, in turn, bequeathed it to his grandchildren.
Despite being now in the hands of a dozen or so descendants, thanks to the phenomenal growth of IBM and stock splits they were all multi-millionaires – at a time when a million bucks meant something. Yet, the one of writer’s acquaintance was working as hard as any shlub working from paycheck to paycheck because he was afraid of selling off the stock and missing out on any future growth. So far as his day-to-day living meant, he might as well not have it at all.
Did they not get any dividends? That should be enough to live on from multi-million dollars’ worth of stock.
He didn’t cover that part. I’m guessing the dividends weren’t enough to be a life changer.
The obvious solution is to plan ahead - to consume as much of the principal as necessary so as to not exhaust it before you die (planning on an actuarial lifespan, modified by family history…)
A million dollars doesn’t go very far today, when $100,000 is an upper middle class household income. But if you are 50 years old, and if the amount makes a difference, you can get 33 years of $33,000 supplemental annual income not even accounting for growth. That puts you to 83. If you get to 75 and appear to have 20 more years ahead, adjust accordingly. How much travel or “wine, women, and song” will you be doing anyway when you’re 92?
So live a normal life with a normal plan for retirement, just know each year will be that much richer.
How much travel or “wine, women, and song” will you be doing anyway when you’re 92?
Nursing can be very expensive. It’s not rare nowadays for a major part of a person’s life savings to be eaten up by just the last few years of life, if a lot of care is needed and there is no insurance coverage for it, or relatives footing the bill. I think we will, in the future, see more people putting money aside for their final years in a nursing home.
Ah, if we only knew for sure when this spontaneous human combustion was going to happen! I would set up a camera so the world after me finally has proof of this phenomenon. Until then: carpe diem, but memento mori. What else can you do anyway?
The problem and the fear many people have is that care homes and nurses are more expensive than cruises and booze. You feel so helpless. That is bummer. Schnitte is right on that one.
They wouldn’t need to be enough to be a life changer, though. 5% of £1million is $50,000 (before tax, but they’re taxed lower than wages). You wouldn’t live large on that, but you wouldn’t be forced to tough it out in menial jobs, either. And “multi million” would then presumably mean at least $100,00. Keeping the shares is pretty sensible.
I recall reading some time ago a widow with a fair amount of money was looking into assisted living. It turned out that a cabin on a cruise ship was a bit cheaper, a lot more fun, and met her needs at the time so a permanent cabin in a ship was the route she went she went. I would imagine if nothing else, the food was a lot better.
Gamblers are weird and irrational, so I’m not sure how unusual it actually is for people to buy large numbers of tickets with the same numbers. In any case, even if it did attract scrutiny, the OP said “if I knew what numbers would be drawn”, not “if I knew what numbers would be drawn because I was doing something illegal which would come out if closely investigated”. Just assume he’s psychic or something, and then no matter how fishy anyone thinks it looks, he’ll still get paid.
A cruise ship doesn’t provide the same services as assisted living (which includes things like medication management and assistance with personal tasks such bathing and dressing) and a permanent cabin on a cruise ship is not likely to be less expensive than an independent living senior community that provides meals, housekeeping and entertainment. Which is not to say I wouldn’t love to live full-time on a cruise ship - just that it won’t substitute for an actual assisted living facility and is probably more expensive than a room at a independent living senior residence.