Posted on 01/06/2004 8:28:02 AM PST by 11th Earl of Mar
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:13:17 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Someone turned in a valid ticket for the $162 million Mega Millions multistate lottery jackpot, the Ohio Lottery said Tuesday, a day after a Cleveland woman claimed she lost the winning ticket outside the convenience store where it was sold.
(Excerpt) Read more at freep.com ...
You are wise indeed. You should sign the ticket and then place it in a fireproof safe, or a safety deposit box if you prefer. (Possibly making some other copies for yourself to hide elsewhere, if you're a "belt and suspenders" person.) Then you should consult a tax attorney and an accountant as there are certain trusts that need to be set up in advance of claiming the ticket that can have significant tax impacts.
I know exactly what im doing and it has nothing to do with fantasy. Its the chance that im paying for. I can fantasize for free. As low of a chance it is to win a lottery, the chances are infinately larger if I never paid for a ticket.
I can help you find cheaper ways to fantasize though...
Not necessarily. Its worth wondering which is more likely -- that you'll win the lottery buy buying a ticket or by scamming the winner.
According to the Georgia Lottery website, your chances of winning the MegaMillions lottery with a single ticket are 1:135,145,920, or 0.000000007399409
Your chances of winning if you buy no ticket is 0.
0.000000007399409 ÷ 0 = infinity!
Well, I'd have to say you have the perfect screen name then. :-)
...especially since after hatching such a plan, you'd be able to wait through several sets of winning numbers until one finally came up that a) had a big prize and b) had numbers that were suitable for claiming as "yours".
Not zero. You could, for example, stumble across a winning ticket in a convenience store parking lot.
;^)
Believe it or not, I have a friend who worked at the lottery commission in WV. All of his officemates went to jail for insider trading and fraud. Just because they work for a nice sounding commission doesn't mean they aren't scoundrels.
If she can prove that (like by having past tickets around with the same numbers), then it's a slam-dunk that the woman who claimed she "lost" the ticket is pulling a scam.
Not only would it obviously show that the woman who won most likely bet the ticket instead of finding it (using ordinary reasoning), but it can also be shown that the odds against that ticket being a "found" one are truly astronomical.
For example, if the odds of winning that particular lottery are about 20,000,000 to 1 (typical for state lotteries), then the odds against the following events happening simultaneously are *HUGE*:
1. Two women at the same store play the *same* numbers.
2. Woman A loses her ticket.
3. Woman B finds a lost ticket.
4. The ticket that Woman B finds is a ticket played by the only woman who plays the same numbers that she does.
The odds against that are at *least* 400,000,000,000,000 to 1...
And don't forget, a reasonable sale location close to where you live.
Can there be more than one winner?
No thanks. $1 for the chance to win $50 million is good for me.
But if you really are in it for the money, I will give you better odds by half than they do. Their odds are 1 in 80,089,128.
Just send me $5 and I'll take care of the details for you.
Ohio Lottery Director Dennis Kennedy said officials were sure that Jemison is the rightful owner of the ticket, saying she provided a receipt from the convenience store marking the time the ticket was sold.
Not only did she have to find a ticket with the same numbers she usually plays, but she had to have purchased a lottery ticket at the same store at the same time.
Lottery-littering the parking lot?
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