Wining the Lottery Anonymously: How Could You Do It?

[Silkspinner]

No, haven't won the lottery, more the pity.

BUT, what if I had? What if I wanted to avoid the media spotlight, my life being turned into a spectacle, and every long lost acquaintance wanting to cash in?

I'm basically doing research for a short story. I've thought on this for fun now and again as well, and just trying to see what it would take.

Keep in mind that most states do not allow anonymity.

Criteria
- It's in the U.S., a multi-state jackpot. Mega-million most likely.
- It's no less than 100 million jackpot.
- You decide to choose the increments instead of one lump sum.
- You cannot use more than a quarter of your winnings to retain this anonymity.


Ideas
- Bribe the lotto people themselves to use a fake name/address or even to change the rules.
- Pay someone to be the public face.
- Give information and then move, change last name, the works.
- Move to a state where it is anonymous to cash in.


Some of these may not be feasible, but if that's the case, feel free to supply reasons why this is so, or ways to get around it to make it so.

Because, remember, you have at least 25 million at your disposal.

[Aedilred]

The way to do it is probably via a trust. Set up a trust with an unassuming name and a secret beneficiary and get the lotto people to pay the winnings over to the trust. Assuming they're prepared to cooperate, of course. Also get yourself some good lawyers and accountants to help you manage the trust, and write it into your contract with them that your anonymity is to be preserved.

[Erloas]

Actually I believe all winnings are keep private by default, its up to the winners to release their own names. I think most people do, or someone that is friends with them do, because they want people to know.

[Silkspinner]

A trust could work after the fact, but everyone would still know you have it.


Actually I believe all winnings are keep private by default, its up to the winners to release their own names. I think most people do, or someone that is friends with them do, because they want people to know.
http://www.usamega.com/mega-millions-faq.htm

"In most states, lottery winner information is public domain, therefore it is public information. Publicized information normally includes the jackpot winner's name, city, county, game in which they won, date won, and the amount of the prize."

[LaZodiac]

I know it's againest Criteria, but since I'm Canadian, if I were to choose the whole lump sum, it's not taxed. We don't have taxes on prize winnings.

Anyway, I'd just ask them to not reveal my name. I see no reason why they wouldn't comply.

[Silkspinner]

But those who wish to could still look it up since it's public domain.

Also, that's assuming they don't want to use you for advertisement purposes.

[Aedilred]

I believe in the UK you are offered a choice of whether or not to reveal your identity. If you do then you are also offered financial advice and some sort of "screening" service to stop people harassing you for money. If you choose to keep your identity secret, you're on your own. Most people choose to go public, although there have been a couple of big winners who've kept their identities secret and are still apparently unknown to the public.

I don't know how it works in the US, though.

If it were up to me, like the OP, I'd keep my identity under wraps every time. Eventually my close friends would doubtless discover it, but I see no reason to court the attention of every Tom, **** or Harry who fancies seeing how I'm spending my cash, thanks.



A trust could work after the fact, but everyone would still know you have it.
That's why you set the trust up now, in case you win. :smallwink:

Again, I'm not sure on US law, although I think trust law is similar everywhere, but setting one up is mindblowingly straightforward. If you approach someone quickly enough after finding out you're the winner and get them to agree to take the money on your behalf (obviously someone you trust; preferably a professional) you might be able to manage it even if you hadn't made plans in advance.

[Starwulf]

But those who wish to could still look it up since it's public domain.

Also, that's assuming they don't want to use you for advertisement purposes.

I know in Maryland you're allowed to remain anonymous. No idea if public domain overwrites that, but I'd imagine not. I definitely bank on that fact if me and my wife ever happen to win, because I know more then a few people would crawl out of the woodworks, and while I'd probably enjoy getting to be a total jerk and tell them to fuzz off, after a while it would tax my patience.

[tyckspoon]

Are you willing to put up with a limited amount of spectacle, or do you want to have your life unchanged from the moment you claim the prize (aside from now being much wealthier?) If you can deal with a small amount of disruption, my plan would be to hire an aide for six months/a year/whatever to be your social buffer/PR manager; you pay this person well for a while to fend off the media circus, and then in a while they move on to more interesting things and you go back to your regular life. If you get past the first burst of interest and don't make a public fool of yourself, this should be pretty easy- most people don't actually *care* all that much about the lottery winners, they just want to be able to fill 10 minutes of that day's slow news cycle with 'Bumpkin from Corntown, Nowhere is now richest inhabitant of his county.'

If you want to be completely anonymous, I think the most important thing is probably being careful about which lottery you choose to win; you need to make sure there isn't one of those "by accepting this prize you agree that the Lottery can use your name/likeness for promotional purposes" clauses on it. If they can't use you to market, you probably won't experience any significant attention- while the fact that you won may be public information, it's information that people have to go looking for instead of having it splashed all over the evening news. That generally means that the majority of people will have no idea that you are now rich, and the worst you might have to deal with is somewhat-slimy financial services workers cold-calling you to offer to help you 'manage' your new wealth.

[Story Time]

Anyway, I'd just ask them to not reveal my name. I see no reason why they wouldn't comply.

Hi, Z! :smallbiggrin:


...the...the foundational principle of a lottery is to make others see the winner. That's the point of the lottery as a business and a phenomenon. As the media publicizes that, "Oh, this person won!" They're also trying to imply, "You could win too! Pay us money!"


...so to answer the original post: Hire a law firm to collect the funds on behalf of the beneficiary. Of course, the person who won would have to sign a contract and notarized document proving ( possibly along with images ) that they were indeed the person with the original ticket / slip. But by the same token ( huh, in a lottery thread no less ) the beneficiary would need a document of non-disclosure from the staff of the law firm.

[Aliquid]

Hi, Z! :smallbiggrin:
...the...the foundational principle of a lottery is to make others see the winner. That's the point of the lottery as a business and a phenomenon. As the media publicizes that, "Oh, this person won!" They're also trying to imply, "You could win too! Pay us money!"


Further note to LaZodiac

In Canada, if you want your prize money, you have to sign a document stating that the lotto corporation can take your photo and advertise your winning. If you don't sign you don't get the $$

Nothing advertises a lotto better than a real person smiling with a cheque in his hand.

[thubby]

win lottery normally, pay hitman for everyone you know. :smallbiggrin:

[The Succubus]

I wouldn't want that sort of money. Honestly.

Every time something goes wrong in a friend's life, whether their business fails, they become unemployed or they have an accident and need to pay their medical bills, you would feel the onus on you. They'd never ask you of course, they're your friends after all but whenever they'd say "money's a little tight" or whatever, you'd feel guilty.

On top of that, some people will do quite literally anything for a million pounds. Type someone's name into Facebook and with a very small amount of detective work you can find out where they live. I'd be in constant mortal fear of someone kidnapping or hurting my friends or family for ransom money if I had that sort of cash.

Hell no, there's no way I'd want a huge lottery win. Anything at £250,000 would be peachy.

[GnomeFighter]

I wouldn't want that sort of money. Honestly.

Every time something goes wrong in a friend's life, whether their business fails, they become unemployed or they have an accident and need to pay their medical bills, you would feel the onus on you. They'd never ask you of course, they're your friends after all but whenever they'd say "money's a little tight" or whatever, you'd feel guilty.

On top of that, some people will do quite literally anything for a million pounds. Type someone's name into Facebook and with a very small amount of detective work you can find out where they live. I'd be in constant mortal fear of someone kidnapping or hurting my friends or family for ransom money if I had that sort of cash.

Hell no, there's no way I'd want a huge lottery win. Anything at £250,000 would be peachy.

I agree about the risk, but I'd want £1 million. Any more than that would be too much, but £1 million would be enough to by a nice 4 bed detached house, without going overboard, put in a new kitchen, bathrooms, do it up exactly how you want, etc. get a nice new car for me and one for my wife, go on a nice 2-3 week holiday, buy a few other things I want, then put a bit away.

Lets see, house: £750,000
Moving costs: £35,000 (£30k stamp duty + £5k other costs).
New kitchen: £20,000
New bathroom & cloakroom: £10,000
Audi RS5: £30,000
Audi A1: £20,000
BMW K1300S: £12,000
New bike for my wife: Approx £10,000
Celebration Holiday of a life time: £8,000
Thats £895,000 without any major extravagance. The house I based that on no mansion, its a 4 bed detached, 1 bathroom, in a nice area. The new cars and bikes are a bit of an extravagance, but nothing excessive, and nothing that screams "lotto winner" like a 911 or Ferrari. £1 million doesn't really go that far. The other £100,000 would be in savings and investments. Part pension, part long term, part short term savings. I wouldn't feel bad about saying no if it was that much.

Not that I have anything like that much money, or probably ever will, but I have worked in finance long enough to not be impressed by big numbers, and have looked at enough houses when looking for a house we could afford to know how expensive property is in the UK.

On the other hand if you won the £200 million euro millions it would probably be enough that you could give £1 million to everyone you know and then if they started to complain as you say you can tell them they have already had more than enough and it is there own fault.

[Karoht]

No, haven't won the lottery, more the pity.

BUT, what if I had? What if I wanted to avoid the media spotlight, my life being turned into a spectacle, and every long lost acquaintance wanting to cash in?

I'm basically doing research for a short story. I've thought on this for fun now and again as well, and just trying to see what it would take.

Keep in mind that most states do not allow anonymity.

Criteria
- It's in the U.S., a multi-state jackpot. Mega-million most likely.
- It's no less than 100 million jackpot.
- You decide to choose the increments instead of one lump sum.
- You cannot use more than a quarter of your winnings to retain this anonymity.


Ideas
- Bribe the lotto people themselves to use a fake name/address or even to change the rules.
- Pay someone to be the public face.
- Give information and then move, change last name, the works.
- Move to a state where it is anonymous to cash in.


Some of these may not be feasible, but if that's the case, feel free to supply reasons why this is so, or ways to get around it to make it so.

Because, remember, you have at least 25 million at your disposal.
Easy. Tell the camera people to go away, tell them that they don't have your permission to photograph you or publish your likeness.
Tell the newspaper guys that they do not have your permission to publish your name.
And remind them that IF they do publish, you now have the money to sue them. They won't publish anything. Do this before you go to collect your earnings.
The minute you have the money safely tucked away in a bank account, leave town. For no less than 6 months. A year is recommended. Have fun on a whirlwind trip around the world.
While you are away, you are in touch with a lawyer or a trusted family member or friend. This person is hard at work ensuring that your house is built outside of any city you like. Perhaps an underground facility with nothing more than a few dilapidated barns on the surface. Or perhaps a functional private airstrip. Helicopters and Private Corporate Jets, junior pilots, that kind of thing.
After that, your friend then hires a few lost souls who no one is going to miss to work in your facility. If anyone asks, they are maintenance staff at the airstrip.

You need a PO BOX for your mail, and someone to go get it. Easily arranged.

The only people who MIGHT care and come snooping would be the government, mostly for tax purposes. As long as you aren't cheating them out of money, they aren't going to care what you are up to, so long as you aren't doing anything illegal. Like building a death laser or trafficing illicit goods. And even if they do poke about, you have a pretty decent cover, a perfectly legit private airstrip.

As far as the world at large is concerned, the most they might know about you is that you won the lottery and then disappeared into obscurity.
As far as the government is concerned, you won the lottery, disappeared for a year, then opened up a private airstrip with large amounts of storage space under it, possibly a bomb shelter, which plenty of airstrips have already.

IF you need to disappear, either fake your death while on vacation for the year, or have an accident occur at the airstrip. Take up a phoney identity after that.

After all that, it is a matter of simply doing whatever it is one wants to do with a facility that hardly anyone knows about. Secret research? Private military organization? Batman? Iron Man? Covert Assassin? Whatever it is, get to it.

[Starwulf]

I wouldn't want that sort of money. Honestly.

Every time something goes wrong in a friend's life, whether their business fails, they become unemployed or they have an accident and need to pay their medical bills, you would feel the onus on you. They'd never ask you of course, they're your friends after all but whenever they'd say "money's a little tight" or whatever, you'd feel guilty.

On top of that, some people will do quite literally anything for a million pounds. Type someone's name into Facebook and with a very small amount of detective work you can find out where they live. I'd be in constant mortal fear of someone kidnapping or hurting my friends or family for ransom money if I had that sort of cash.

Hell no, there's no way I'd want a huge lottery win. Anything at £250,000 would be peachy.

That's only if you are on facebook. As far as I'm aware, you can't find much of anything about me on the internet, especially after a few months ago, when I requested that that one site that sells peoples information take mine down(and they did).

Beyond that, just don't worry about your friends and their money problems. Did they ever help you when you were having troubles? If no, then you aren't expected to help them. That's not to say I wouldn't personally, depending on the lotto size that I won, I'd probably buy my two best friends a house and give them 100k to do with what they wanted. I'd help out my wifes grandmother, and my parents. Beyond that, everyone else could rot as far as I'm concerned. No amount of pleas or sob stories would convince me to give them money.

[Talanic]

There's also the "Most Winners are Losers" technique.

Go public with your win, announcing that you took the lump sum (whether you did or not). Live extravagantly for a while - or at least, LOOK extravagant. Disappear for weeks at a time, coming back with expensive-looking items. Then go back to your old way of living, complaining loudly about how you squandered everything. Get rid of all the cheap souvenirs you picked up when you were really hanging out with distant relatives and lay low for a while; soon everyone will assume you really are one of the common lottery winners who didn't know how to handle wealth and spent it all.

[Tyndmyr]

Me, personally, I don't care about publicity either way. I just wouldn't make a thing of it, and it'd fade when the next big person won. No biggie.

If, however, it were somehow vitally important? Bribes. Look, let's be honest, you can get fantastic service with good tipping and the like. This applies to all manner of things in society. Local newspaper? Have a chat with the reporter. If he's got two brain cells to rub together, he'll be interested in being on your good side. People with piles of money can help him get the good stories or whatever. Work with people, not against them.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Hi, Z! :smallbiggrin:


...the...the foundational principle of a lottery is to make others see the winner. That's the point of the lottery as a business and a phenomenon. As the media publicizes that, "Oh, this person won!" They're also trying to imply, "You could win too! Pay us money!"


...so to answer the original post: Hire a law firm to collect the funds on behalf of the beneficiary. Of course, the person who won would have to sign a contract and notarized document proving ( possibly along with images ) that they were indeed the person with the original ticket / slip. But by the same token ( huh, in a lottery thread no less ) the beneficiary would need a document of non-disclosure from the staff of the law firm.


Easy. Tell the camera people to go away, tell them that they don't have your permission to photograph you or publish your likeness.
Tell the newspaper guys that they do not have your permission to publish your name.
And remind them that IF they do publish, you now have the money to sue them. They won't publish anything. Do this before you go to collect your earnings.
The minute you have the money safely tucked away in a bank account, leave town. For no less than 6 months. A year is recommended. Have fun on a whirlwind trip around the world.
While you are away, you are in touch with a lawyer or a trusted family member or friend. This person is hard at work ensuring that your house is built outside of any city you like. Perhaps an underground facility with nothing more than a few dilapidated barns on the surface. Or perhaps a functional private airstrip. Helicopters and Private Corporate Jets, junior pilots, that kind of thing.
After that, your friend then hires a few lost souls who no one is going to miss to work in your facility. If anyone asks, they are maintenance staff at the airstrip.

You need a PO BOX for your mail, and someone to go get it. Easily arranged.

The only people who MIGHT care and come snooping would be the government, mostly for tax purposes. As long as you aren't cheating them out of money, they aren't going to care what you are up to, so long as you aren't doing anything illegal. Like building a death laser or trafficing illicit goods. And even if they do poke about, you have a pretty decent cover, a perfectly legit private airstrip.

As far as the world at large is concerned, the most they might know about you is that you won the lottery and then disappeared into obscurity.
As far as the government is concerned, you won the lottery, disappeared for a year, then opened up a private airstrip with large amounts of storage space under it, possibly a bomb shelter, which plenty of airstrips have already.

IF you need to disappear, either fake your death while on vacation for the year, or have an accident occur at the airstrip. Take up a phoney identity after that.

After all that, it is a matter of simply doing whatever it is one wants to do with a facility that hardly anyone knows about. Secret research? Private military organization? Batman? Iron Man? Covert Assassin? Whatever it is, get to it.

These two solutions in combination will get you as covered as you're going to get here in the states.

Don't pick up the prize yourself, send a lawyer; and inform any media persons that approach you that -any- use of your likeness without your express written permission will be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows.

If you do this, your name alone will appear in the papers, since most lottos -do- have a clause about using your name in their advertisements and marketing and, as was noted earlier, the fact you won is public domain.

With just your name and the location you bought the winning ticket to go on, most of your aquiantences will probably assume it was some other <insert your name here>; an idea you can reinforce by lying to them. Interest should peter off quickly enough that the disruption to your daily life will be pretty minimal.

As for the government, Uncle Sam picks up his slice of the pie when you collect it. An IRS representative is present when you sign the necessary forms and hands you a few papers of his own. The US government might not be the most skilled spenders in the world, but they're quite dilligent on collections.

[Aliquid]

Go public with your win, announcing that you took the lump sum (whether you did or not). Live extravagantly for a while - or at least, LOOK extravagant. Disappear for weeks at a time, coming back with expensive-looking items. Then go back to your old way of living, complaining loudly about how you squandered everything. Get rid of all the cheap souvenirs you picked up when you were really hanging out with distant relatives and lay low for a while; soon everyone will assume you really are one of the common lottery winners who didn't know how to handle wealth and spent it all.This could work.

You could hide the money in some foreign account, overextend your spending at home then claim bankruptcy. Arrange lots of media attention about being some fool that won the lottery and ended up bankrupt. As Talanic said… this sort of thing happens enough that it would be believable.

[Starwulf]

This could work.

You could hide the money in some foreign account, overextend your spending at home then claim bankruptcy. Arrange lots of media attention about being some fool that won the lottery and ended up bankrupt. As Talanic said… this sort of thing happens enough that it would be believable.

It's actually extremely likely to happen. After that huge 600m Mega Millions jackpot earlier this year, there were multiple articles about lottery winners, and one was done by Suze Orman(that annoying woman from the Oprah show), and she said that statistic show that something like 9/10 lottery winners end up totally bankrupt with no money. I find that absolutely mind boggling. Does large sums of money really drive away all forms of common sense out of peoples heads? I mean, if I won the lottery, I'd build a nice 4 bed/3 bath house, purchase two brand new vehicles, furniture for the house, and build a grotto swimming pool. That would be the total extent of my extragavance, the swimming pool. Everything else would go into multiple CDs and low-risk(maybe a little into high risk) stocks, and we would live off the interest. I mean, yeah, we'd probably take a vacation or two a year(maybe two, likely not tho), but other then that.....

[tyckspoon]

It's actually extremely likely to happen. After that huge 600m Mega Millions jackpot earlier this year, there were multiple articles about lottery winners, and one was done by Suze Orman(that annoying woman from the Oprah show), and she said that statistic show that something like 9/10 lottery winners end up totally bankrupt with no money. I find that absolutely mind boggling. Does large sums of money really drive away all forms of common sense out of peoples heads?

The kinds of people who regularly play lotteries are not often noted for having good money-management skills to start with. So yes, suddenly being given what appears to be infinite money can destroy your sense of how much money you have, especially if you take lump-sum instead of the annuity plan.

I think it's continuing costs that get most of those people, incidentally.. sure, you may have enough money to buy that super-car and really nice house, but did you remember to leave enough money for a few years of property taxes on that mansion? How about having replacement parts for that car shipped from Europe and paying $500/hour to the one mechanic in the area that's qualified to work on it? These kinds of things will absolutely destroy the finances of people who don't know how to think in the long term.. and since the whole idea of a lottery preys on the dream of immediate gratification, you can probably imagine how many big lottery winners are used to really thinking long-term.

[Talanic]

I would specify, don't declare bankruptcy in the legal sense, because doing that would probably provoke an investigation into your finances, and actually declaring bankruptcy with millions in an offshore account would be really quite illegal - and if it was found, your whole scheme is blown.

[Kelb_Panthera]

This could work.

You could hide the money in some foreign account, overextend your spending at home then claim bankruptcy. Arrange lots of media attention about being some fool that won the lottery and ended up bankrupt. As Talanic said… this sort of thing happens enough that it would be believable.


I would specify, don't declare bankruptcy in the legal sense, because doing that would probably provoke an investigation into your finances, and actually declaring bankruptcy with millions in an offshore account would be really quite illegal - and if it was found, your whole scheme is blown.

^very definitely this. Declaring bankruptcy when you actually have millions is a serious federal crime. If you do that, you really will be broke afterwards and you might end up in a federal prison. Just don't do it man.

[Aliquid]

^very definitely this. Declaring bankruptcy when you actually have millions is a serious federal crime. If you do that, you really will be broke afterwards and you might end up in a federal prison. Just don't do it man.
The original post was about writing a short story... I think taking the bankruptcy route would be fun for the story. Sure it is illegal, but the story could address that and make tricking the feds a dramatic issue.

[Talanic]

The original post was about writing a short story... I think taking the bankruptcy route would be fun for the story. Sure it is illegal, but the story could address that and make tricking the feds a dramatic issue.

I don't think that actually declaring bankruptcy would be worth the eventual hassle (if you ever start living well again, there's a chance you could get audited and potentially lose everything, etc). If you want to go that far in the story, have your protagonist take out a few loans and lower his credit rating by failing to pay them on time.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The original post was about writing a short story... I think taking the bankruptcy route would be fun for the story. Sure it is illegal, but the story could address that and make tricking the feds a dramatic issue.

I actually lost track of that little detail :smallredface: Oops.

[McStabbington]

The kinds of people who regularly play lotteries are not often noted for having good money-management skills to start with. So yes, suddenly being given what appears to be infinite money can destroy your sense of how much money you have, especially if you take lump-sum instead of the annuity plan.

I think it's continuing costs that get most of those people, incidentally.. sure, you may have enough money to buy that super-car and really nice house, but did you remember to leave enough money for a few years of property taxes on that mansion? How about having replacement parts for that car shipped from Europe and paying $500/hour to the one mechanic in the area that's qualified to work on it? These kinds of things will absolutely destroy the finances of people who don't know how to think in the long term.. and since the whole idea of a lottery preys on the dream of immediate gratification, you can probably imagine how many big lottery winners are used to really thinking long-term.

1) It's not hard to overestimate just how far $2 or $3 million will go. A new house for yourself and your parents, a new car and a startup restaurant, and you've already chewed up a massive chunk of that money.

2) You tend to either get a lot of flak in your community for not contributing, or you become the financier for every guy in the neighborhood who's always wanted to run his own pawn shop.

3) Most of the businesses that are started fail. The failure rate for a new business is well over half after five years. Which means that your investments tend to disappear down sinkholes of money.

4) The best way to use that money, which is namely to sink it into stocks and bonds and live off/roll over the dividend income, is not an intuitive thing for most non college grads to grasp. I've got some (very) limited experience with the underground economy that a lot of poor people live in, and a lot of the traits that are very adaptive when you're very low income, like not keeping a banking account, dealing in cash only, and keeping business arrangements as informal matters of honor rather than formalized contracts, suddenly become hugely maladaptive when you're talking millions of dollars.

So yeah, it's important to realize that it's not hard to blow through a heck of a lot of money even if you're not lining the interior of your car with mink. All it really takes is being a nice person who wants to help your friends more than you want to create a nest egg.

[Kjata]

I'd just disappear. Everybody I used to know would be like "Holy crap, kjata won the lotto! We used to drink a lot together, we should meet up!"

Poof.

All of a sudden, my immediate family (maybe my sisters boyfriend too) would be gone. New names, new identities, new locations, new life. Everybody else would never see me again, and everybody I would meet from then on would never know i had millions. I'd just be a new face in the area, with a nice car (we're talking 20-30 Gs here, nothing too fancy), a nice home (2 mil, tops), 4 of basically every magic card ever printed (No idea, probably 100K), and that I never worked. Inheritance turned into investments, boom backstory, noIwon't help you invest i'm retired from everything that isn't fun forever.

That's probably not all that helpful, but it was nice to dream.

[GnomeFighter]

1) It's not hard to overestimate just how far $2 or $3 million will go. A new house for yourself and your parents, a new car and a startup restaurant, and you've already chewed up a massive chunk of that money.

How many of them go out and buy a Ferrari or something like that thinking "I'm a millionaire now!" not thinking a Ferrari is 10% of your winnings on just a car, then 1% every year just to run the thing.

The type of people who play the lottery allot, and therefore tend to win most, are the type of people who don't realize that it is not actualy that much money if you are going to blow it all, and big houses and fancy cars cost allot to keep running, so you have to keep some back.

I hear people talking about winning the lottery saying they would quit work if they won. Doing the maths if I won £1million on the lottery I could live on it, but I would be no better off than I am now.

[Archonic Energy]

move.
change name by deed poll.
ta-da!.

though in the UK they need your permission to publish your name and any other details. frankly if i won the lottery I wouldn't tell anyone. i'd "lend" some family members some money (not too much) to sort their finances out and "forget" to ask for it back. i'd get an OK house and an OK car. nothing too much... buy a game shop and live comfortably within my means. it's not interesting but it'll do.

[Karoht]

My actual plan would be to work for about another 5 years.
Winning the lotto really just accelerates the timetable of my retirement plans.
In that time, the money gets invested. Stable stuff, nothing risky. If I make 3% a year, I'm laughing, anything else is gravy.
Then I build my fully sustainable house in the exact location I want. Winning the lotto just means I don't sell my old house when I move into the new one.
Winning the lotto also means that I get to build my disaster preparedness system into the house, underground.

After the 5 years of working is up, and I'm all settled in to the new house, then I might 'disappear' or something. After 5 years of no major activity, I'm pretty sure I'll my anonimity will be fine.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Something that might be worth noting for those from outside the US. The two biggest lottos in the US are the Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries. Mega Millions starts at $13 million dollars the week after someone wins the previous jackpot. I don't know the exact figure, but Powerball's starting jackpot, while lower, is still in the range of several million, not just $1M, and it's currently over $400M though that's an anomoly and a new record high.

[Chen]

Something that might be worth noting for those from outside the US. The two biggest lottos in the US are the Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries. Mega Millions starts at $13 million dollars the week after someone wins the previous jackpot. I don't know the exact figure, but Powerball's starting jackpot, while lower, is still in the range of several million, not just $1M, and it's currently over $400M though that's an anomoly and a new record high.

My understanding is that the current powerball jackpot is around $500 million with the odds of winning at 1 in 175 million. At $2 a ticket, this is almost positive expected value (its not because of taxes I believe). The fact that its even remotely close to the point really says how big this jackpot is.

[Karoht]

Just read the wiki article on Powerball lotto. Surprisingly interesting read, including an explanation of how they determine their jackpots.

[Kjata]

My understanding is that the current powerball jackpot is around $500 million with the odds of winning at 1 in 175 million. At $2 a ticket, this is almost positive expected value (its not because of taxes I believe). The fact that its even remotely close to the point really says how big this jackpot is.

550, 360 after taxes I believe. I bought my first ever lotto ticket today, mainly because there was a news story about it on as I was putting my contacts in before work. Honestly, I'd take the annuity because I DON'T want a ferrari and all that crap, all I really want in life is infinite free time. My life's dream is to never work again, and to spend all my time doing what I love. Being able to call my mom and tell her I can now give her everything she wanted to be able to give me would also be amazing.

It's weird, I always thought I was a selfish prick, but when I think about what would happen if this ticket won, all I can really think about is telling my family their financial problems are over, and that they never has to worry about anything again.

[The Succubus]

It's weird, I always thought I was a selfish prick, but when I think about what would happen if this ticket won, all I can really think about is telling my family their financial problems are over, and that they never has to worry about anything again.

This made me smile. A lot. :smallsmile:

[Cikomyr]

This made me smile. A lot. :smallsmile:

It is a noble sentiment indeed. But what happens when they start going into risky financial ventures and indebt themselves because they don't worry about losing money? What if one goes to Vegas for fun and ends up with 100K$ in debt? Will you just cough up the money to help them out, even if they had immoral behavior?

I am not saying what is right and what's not. Just that this very noble statement of desire might not be the most optimal way to go. I'd probably help them out with some of their debt, and offer to pay up their kid's education, etc.. But they shouldn't start becoming financially careless people because of you.

[Kjata]

Well, i lost (i'm shocked, what were the odds of this?:smalltongue:).

I wouldn't take the lump sum, that's a recipe for disaster. I'd take the annuity. It would come out to something like $12mil a year for 26 years. Plenty to buy a home, a nice car, plenty of magic cards, and be able to support my family.

"Mom, you know the house you love, in the town you love, with all the memories of us growing up? Paid for. Remodeled."

"Dad, you know that classic car your dad gave you, the one you love but never drive because it has a lot of problems that are exensive to fix. Covered."

"Sis, college is paid for. Live your dream."

Oh damn, its January? Look at that, I just got a check for $1mil. What's next?


This made me smile. A lot. :smallsmile:

Haha don't smile too hard because once the ticket got read, all my generosity vanished. Of course, it's hard to be generous when you are barely making it by, and now I know its there.

Honestly, though, I never really cared about making a lot of money and having nice things, but strangely I sort of want to actually make something of myself now, so i can help people.

[Chen]

The annuity for lotteries never really made sense to me. I'm fairly sure its not corrected for inflation which is one thing. The second thing is that taking the lump sum and investing it, even at extremely low rates, is likely to get you more over 26 years than the annuity anyway. Not to mention in a lot of places you stop getting your annuity payments if you die before the time is up.

[Erloas]

So in reading about the latest win I read this:

All but five states -- Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota and Ohio -- require the lottery to release the winning names to anyone who asks, according to the Powerball site.

So it depends where you live. So you have a better then 1 in 10 chance (because not all states have the lottery) of living in a state where you can keep your name hidden.

[Tengu_temp]

I wouldn't want that sort of money. Honestly.

You're still in school, aren't you?

[KuReshtin]

In the UK, Camelot, who run the lottery, advise you to go public, not only because they get to use it for their own promotions, but also because it's less stressful if you do publish your details than if you don't.
If you do publish your name, you will get the initial burst of people trying to get money from you, but Camelot will provide you with trusted advisors that can help with sorting things out for you.
If you don't go public, they can still publish the location of where the ticket was sold, and then people around town will start looking for who won, and then try to get money off you when they figure it out, and they will most likely figure it out.


If I won a massive amount of money, I'd pay off any mortgages and loans my immediate family have (parents, sister and brother) and like Archie said, I'd give them all a 'loan' of a set amount of money and then 'forget' to ask for it back.
I'd get myself a bigger place to stay, but nothing too big, but a couple of bedrooms and a good sized kitchen and dining room and a hobby room. I'd probably have to decide where I wanted to live, Sweden or the UK, and possibly buying a smaller place as a holiday home in the country I decided not to live permanently.
I wouldn't buy a really flashy car, like a Ferrari, or Aston Martin or anything, but I'd afford myself a good, comfortable and useful car. I kind of started liking the Nissan Qashqai this weekend, since my brother had one as a rental car. Good size, performance and plenty of space for stuff.
As far as work would be concerned, I'd take a while off work and then decide what I'd want to do. I wouldn't stop working completely, but I'd make sure that I could do what I'd want to do.
I'd set up some sort of investment portfolio that would sort me with a decent annual income so that I'd not be reliant on work, and could take a holiday trip now and then.

[Traab]

I would do the standard pay off my immediate families bills thing, then the next step is to get together with a professional and design my dream house. That would be my biggest spend. You know, the usual, everything top of the line, massive library room. Im thinking a rotunda style setup with a reading area in the middle. A nice stone fireplace, comfortable armchair, sofa, tables for putting stuff on, etc. (Guess which my favorite room is, go on, ill wait) Then go to the bookstore and buy out the entire collection of my favorite book types, so scifi/fantasy, and the humor books. If I am feeling really crazy I might even hire a "librarian" whose main job will be to hunt down other books in that genre I dont have and procure them for me. I want the fantasy library of alexandria dammit. Toss in a brand new awesome pickup truck, and thats about the limit for my big ticket items. The rest I figure I would invest in an annuity or something so I can live off the interest for the rest of my life. I figure, if I am depositing even half that 360 million into the annuity, thats still a VERY nice income off the yearly interest. But I honestly dont know exactly how those work, so I would need an accountant to help me set all that up.

[ForzaFiori]

Every time something goes wrong in a friend's life, whether their business fails, they become unemployed or they have an accident and need to pay their medical bills, you would feel the onus on you. They'd never ask you of course, they're your friends after all but whenever they'd say "money's a little tight" or whatever, you'd feel guilty.

Honestly, if you win the mega-million or powerball, which are commonly $50 million or more, and reach the hundreds of millions enough that it's not a news story till they hit $500 million, and then don't help friends or family when they're in a financial bind, you'd kinda be a ****. Assuming you know how to handle money, you should be set monetarily for life. You can afford to throw your friend a couple thou if their car breaks down and their in a jam.

Personally, I'm with the crowd that would take the annuity probably. I'd help my family out fixing up the house and cars, then get some land, put up a house, and invite my friends to come live with me.

[Traab]

Honestly, if you win the mega-million or powerball, which are commonly $50 million or more, and reach the hundreds of millions enough that it's not a news story till they hit $500 million, and then don't help friends or family when they're in a financial bind, you'd kinda be a ****. Assuming you know how to handle money, you should be set monetarily for life. You can afford to throw your friend a couple thou if their car breaks down and their in a jam.

Personally, I'm with the crowd that would take the annuity probably. I'd help my family out fixing up the house and cars, then get some land, put up a house, and invite my friends to come live with me.

The problem with helping them out is when do you stop? Do you act as their very own welfare system? Giving them money so they dont have to do squat to get by? Its one thing to say, toss your friend a few thousand when his car drops dead on him so he can buy something better than a semi mobile junk heap, its another when its a situation you find yourself constantly hitting as they always need just a bit more.

[Archonic Energy]

which is why I'd "loan" my sis the cash, she really needs to learn the value of money before she can be trusted with a couple of mill.

pretty sure you can get a bankers draft that doesn't have the account holders name so the recipent doesn't know the name. :smallconfused:

[Traab]

One thing I wanted to add. I wouldnt stop working. Not entirely. The thing is, I might want to go on cruises or vacations to awesome locations for awhile, but after that, I have been unemployed for long periods and it is BORING. So I would likely find myself a fairly low stress part time job, basically an excuse to get out of the house on a regular schedule. Im not a very self motivated type of person, so getting a hobby wouldnt help much, I would just start to slack off without someone to keep me moving.

[Karoht]

One thing I wanted to add. I wouldnt stop working. Not entirely. The thing is, I might want to go on cruises or vacations to awesome locations for awhile, but after that, I have been unemployed for long periods and it is BORING. So I would likely find myself a fairly low stress part time job, basically an excuse to get out of the house on a regular schedule. Im not a very self motivated type of person, so getting a hobby wouldnt help much, I would just start to slack off without someone to keep me moving.
I would keep 'working'
If by 'work' you mean contributing to society in a meaningful way.
I would 'work' on charity projects, probably involving myself in event management, though I might fund and take part in something serious in an impoverished nation.
Perhaps building some combination of the 3 following awesome things:
www.omegagarden.com
www.earthship.net
www.growingpower.org

But it's still 'work' and all. A schedule becomes important, even if it's charity.

[Gnoman]

It's actually extremely likely to happen. After that huge 600m Mega Millions jackpot earlier this year, there were multiple articles about lottery winners, and one was done by Suze Orman(that annoying woman from the Oprah show), and she said that statistic show that something like 9/10 lottery winners end up totally bankrupt with no money. I find that absolutely mind boggling. Does large sums of money really drive away all forms of common sense out of peoples heads? I mean, if I won the lottery, I'd build a nice 4 bed/3 bath house, purchase two brand new vehicles, furniture for the house, and build a grotto swimming pool. That would be the total extent of my extragavance, the swimming pool. Everything else would go into multiple CDs and low-risk(maybe a little into high risk) stocks, and we would live off the interest. I mean, yeah, we'd probably take a vacation or two a year(maybe two, likely not tho), but other then that.....

What you have to understand is that, to someone who is trying to support a family on <$15,000 a year, $40,000,000 looks well-nigh indistinguishable from $∞. It's so far beyond their mental horizon that the concept of it having a limit is incomprehensible, especially for the sort of person that plays all the time and spends idle moments mentally "spending" the winnings, which is a normal and harmless form of daydreaming (and great tension relief), until they hand you that massive check.