# You won the lottery. Describe the first 48 hours. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 9, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605 "2016-01-09T18:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/41 "2016-01-10T19:42:08Z")
I’m lucky in that my husband and I have some unused-but-active credit cards on which we could run up nearly a hundred thousand dollars. So, after signing and photographing the ticket with my ID in the frame, we’d drive to a big downtown bank and place the ticket in a safe deposit box. Then we’d drive to the airport and get on the first available first-class seat to Kauai. Then we’d take a cab to the Grand Hyatt and check into the biggest suite they have. Then we’d call the biggest law firm in Honolulu and arrange for them to visit us. THEN, while waiting for that visit, we’d start making lists and figuring out how to tell family, what to splurge on immediately, what charities to support, and what we ultimately want our lifestyle to be (probably pretty modest; there is no greater luxury than simply having enough money in the bank.) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/42 "2016-01-10T20:28:10Z")
Party! I’m gonna need more than 48 hours, however. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/43 "2016-01-10T20:35:16Z")
If a single person wins this giant pot, they’re going to need serious protection. I fully expect that person to receive phone calls, emails and personal visits from people (friends, family, strangers) who are _angry_ that that person won and they didn’t. Were I to win, I wouldn’t claim the ticket until I moved to a hidden location and cancelled all of my phones. In a way, I feel sorry for the person who wins this. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/44 "2016-01-10T20:44:37Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > You should have a will anyway. It really does help. Shrug, only if there’s any difference with what the law says; people who want to have a fight will have it over a pair of earrings (hi, Aunt M and Uncle I); people who want to get things settled quickly and cleanly will do it anyway. Locally, the paperwork begins by going to the Civil Registry and asking if there is a will: if there isn’t, apply the law, which happens to match what I’d write down (it all goes to my brothers, half and half; if any brother predeceases me and has children, the children get that brother’s half, again in equal parts). The shortest possible will by Spanish inheritance laws says: “I [person’s name], with ID number [number], sound of mind, have as my last will and testament what the applicable law says. Given in [location] on [date].” The location determines which law gets applied. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/45 "2016-01-11T06:17:52Z")
1. Find good lawyer to shield my identity. Arm myself with handguns. If law states that I must be identified, get a Brioni suit, and some expensive eye candy for my photo op. 1a. Take calls at all of my old friends who want to congratulate/spongeoffof me. Laugh at them, and tell them to contact my accountant. Fire all accountants. 2. Get security/bodyguards. Ex-PD. Older, not guys who might be tempted to steal my money and wave it all around to the hookers that they know. 3. Contact banks for deposit boxes, and start stashing (not in US; probably Switzerland). 4. Get ticket to Eastern Europe. Shop the real estate ads. 5. Buy a bunch of travelers checks. 6. Give family and just one of my friends a mil, each. Pay for operation for that one friend. 7. Buy an apartment in NYC for when I want to come back to America and lord it over my ex-friends. Get a limo with about 5-10 killer babes in some hot kind of uniforms to act as bodyguards. 8. Get over to Eastern Europe and hit the clubs. Buy house in E. Europe. ETA: Stop! I know what I forgot-to buy either Dracula’s birthplace or else his castle! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/46 "2016-01-11T06:47:30Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Arm myself with handguns. Sounds like a $700 million civil lawsuit by the assailant’s family waiting to happen (the robber/crook you shot.) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/47 "2016-01-11T15:09:58Z")
Well, I fully expect my first 48 hours will be a blur of ambulance ride + ICU because I’d keel over from the sheer shock of it. Then in the next 48 hours, I guess I contact a lawyer and an investment company and find out ways of setting up annuities, trusts etc., and diversifying so that it’s not all tied to the US economy. I’m pretty sure my state is one of the ones that requires winners to identify themselves, so I guess my next step would be to arrange for better home security to avoid disgruntled non-winners who feel they’re entitled to a share of my newfound wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/48 "2016-01-11T15:42:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > If a single person wins this giant pot, they’re going to need serious protection. I fully expect that person to receive phone calls, emails and personal visits from people (friends, family, strangers) who are _angry_ that that person won and they didn’t. Were I to win, I wouldn’t claim the ticket until I moved to a hidden location and cancelled all of my phones. > > In a way, I feel sorry for the person who wins this. Dewey, I wholeheartedly agree. The most common themes I got while reading this thread were that paranoia, selfishness and isolation are an almost inevitable part of the payoff. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/49 "2016-01-11T16:21:43Z")
If you’re that rich, you get your butler / PA to answer your phone. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/50 "2016-01-11T16:26:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Are corporations allowed to win the lottery in Oregon? Corporations are people, my friend. I have a safe at home, I’d deposit the ticket in it and seek legal help. I’d want to split it with family members so each of us could get our own share and pay our own taxes on it rather than have me get the whole thing and then have gift taxes get in the way of wealth transfers. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/51 "2016-01-11T16:33:48Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > That’s not how it works here at all. I don’t think any state allows online sales. Some states don’t even allow you to use a card to pay for a ticket. Illinois has online sales. ---
**Author:** ![maxjohnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@maxjohnson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maxjohnson)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/52 "2016-01-11T16:36:39Z")
Pay my student loan, fix my car and buy some foods. Pay property tax. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/53 "2016-01-11T18:16:20Z")
Well, the first 48 hours after finding out that I have won would be; \> Deal with my shock and anxiety issues. \> Let two (and only two) members of my family know and swear them to secrecy. This is MY big announcement and there will be no stealing my thunder by telling everyone behind my back. \> One of those two (my BIL) has worked as a Financial Advisor/Broker for 30 years. I’d be talking to him to start getting my team together. \> Second day, go get a storage unit and start packing my valuables. \> Conversation with the Family. Do not speak about this in public. Your friends will ask you about it. Please don’t identify yourself as a relative of a lottery winner in a public place. Any bad people nearby will be looking at your purse, following you out the door, maybe even following you home. Do not ask me for money. I’ll be giving what I give, nothing more. I’m not buying anyone a new house, car or giving you money to start a business. Do not ask me about my money. I don’t ask you about yours. DO NOT DARE promise anyone else a fucking penny of my money. I’ll not only say NO to them in your presence, I’ll likely stop talking to you. If you get a phone call about me, DO NOT admit that you know me or are related to me. That makes you a target. Don’t be stupid, tell them you don’t know me, then agree to take a message for me. If someone calls you and asks about me, say “I don’t know him” and HANG UP. People who really know me know how to contact me. After claiming it; \> Well, the money won’t be in your account until the next day. Not like you claim it and they give you a pallet of cash. \> Change all of my financial account and email passwords to something absurdly complex. \> When it is in my account, go buy a new vehicle. One with some space to haul stuff to my storage locked, and then to my new home, wherever that is. \> BREATHE \> Disappear off the face of the Earth. As an article I read yesterday said “new lottery winners are the biggest potential marks”. Every con man, swindler, thief, burglar and general shitty human being is going to want a piece of your money. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/54 "2016-01-11T20:59:46Z")
Ohio allows winners to remain anonymous, so what I do in those first 48 hours will be considerably bling free. Cue signature, safety deposit box, email to my financial adviser, trip to the lotto office under deep cover, yadda yadda. That’ll take at least a couple of days to arrange. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/55 "2016-01-11T21:10:40Z")
48 hours after learning I won, or 48 hours after getting my money? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/56 "2016-01-14T00:13:27Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > 1. Find good lawyer to shield my identity. Arm myself with handguns. If law states that I must be identified, get a Brioni suit, and some expensive eye candy for my photo op. > 1a. Take calls at all of my old friends who want to congratulate/spongeoffof me. Laugh at them, and tell them to contact my accountant. Fire all accountants. > 2. Get security/bodyguards. Ex-PD. Older, not guys who might be tempted to steal my money and wave it all around to the hookers that they know. > 3. Contact banks for deposit boxes, and start stashing (not in US; probably Switzerland). > 4. Get ticket to Eastern Europe. Shop the real estate ads. > 5. Buy a bunch of travelers checks. > 6. Give family and just one of my friends a mil, each. Pay for operation for that one friend. > 7. Buy an apartment in NYC for when I want to come back to America and lord it over my ex-friends. Get a limo with about 5-10 killer babes in some hot kind of uniforms to act as bodyguards. > 8. Get over to Eastern Europe and hit the clubs. Buy house in E. Europe. All this in just 48 hours? (Re: thread title) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/57 "2016-01-14T00:14:42Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > 48 hours after learning I won, or 48 hours after getting my money? After learning you won. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/58 "2016-01-14T01:03:26Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Corporations are people, my friend. > I have a safe at home, I’d deposit the ticket in it and seek legal help. I’d want to split it with family members so each of us could get our own share and pay our own taxes on it rather than have me get the whole thing and then have gift taxes get in the way of wealth transfers. I don’t think it works that way. I think you have to pay the taxes before the divvying of the money. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/59 "2016-01-14T01:05:07Z")
> [@](#): > > the money won’t be in your account until the next day I just read the California Lottery handbook and it says 6 to 8 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605/60 "2016-01-14T01:58:59Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Well, the first 48 hours after finding out that I have won would be; > > \> Deal with my shock and anxiety issues. That would eat up at least 48 hours for me right there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-won-the-lottery-describe-the-first-48-hours/742605.md?page=4)