I think what Phat might have meant is someone who 'needs' the money...
That is indeed what I meant.
quote:Lottery ticket-holders in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland each selected the winning numbers and will split a $640 million jackpot that was believed to be the world's largest such prize, a lottery official said Saturday.
Now that I am again disappointed by the reality that is gambling, I feel strongly that I have to make a decision about quitting all gambling. I have done this many times before, usually for no longer than a week or two, and in fact the longest I have ever gone without gambling was 2 months...which happened roughly three years ago. I even had another topic here at EvC called The Philosophy Behind The Twelve Steps which I attempted. Back then, Crashfrog mentioned an alternative...
Crashfrog writes:
I don't think it would be anything so glib as a bunch of steps, but why don't you look up Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, as mentioned in my link, and we can discuss it as an alternative to woo?
At that time, I was reluctant to consider any other alternative therapy...I had already been brainwashed by the 12 step people..they even had a Christian version known as Celebrate Recovery, a brainchild of Pastor Rick Warren.
I have started reading it, and as of this moment have already decided that I want to quit gambling. I went through a bankruptcy, numerous losses of money approaching $100.00 a week for 5 years, and now...as we speak...I find that I need to ask a rent advance from my room mate. The shame is a good sign, according to the author...one needs to start by feeling their addiction. The only step required is to decide that one wants to quit....now and not sometime in the future.
At that time, I was reluctant to consider any other alternative therapy...I had already been brainwashed by the 12 step people..they even had a Christian version known as Celebrate Recovery, a brainchild of Pastor Rick Warren.
As you have already experienced, addiction cycles are incredibly hard to break. I'd be careful about taking glib advice, which I believe includes the glib advice that crashfrog gave you.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead. William Lloyd Garrison
The odd thing is, if this calculation is true, then you could gurantee a winner by buying 147 million different tickets (assuming there were no duplicates of all numbers).
This would cost you $147 million, but you would win $500 million. I'd like someone to actually do this, but unfortunately, the bank laughed at me when I asked for the loan to do this.
Yeah, but if there were other winners (in this case 3 separate winners), then you'd have to share the winnings. In this instance, that would still leave you with $2 million, but ordinarily you would be in the hole.
Secondly, even if you had a team of 20 people working around the clock, filling in bubbles and filling in every combination possible 147 million times, the contest would be over 8 months ago by the time you finish.
Sounds good in theory, but has no practical basis.
"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it" -- Thomas Paine
If i won such a large amount of money, i would transfer everything but about 2.7M USD (15M DKK), into some kind of foundation, where i could give the money away to charities over the years.
2.7M USD is the amount of money an average Dane will earn over a lifetime, and seeing as im almost 25 and i have already made some money, that means i would be able to live slighty above average for the rest of my life. I'd like that.
Secondly, even if you had a team of 20 people working around the clock, filling in bubbles and filling in every combination possible 147 million times, the contest would be over 8 months ago by the time you finish.
Here's a story about an investment group that tried the strategy. Although they failed to cover all of the possible combinations, apparently the group did manage to win the lottery and make money.
Yeah, but if there were other winners (in this case 3 separate winners), then you'd have to share the winnings. In this instance, that would still leave you with $2 million, but ordinarily you would be in the hole.
Secondly, even if you had a team of 20 people working around the clock, filling in bubbles and filling in every combination possible 147 million times, the contest would be over 8 months ago by the time you finish.
Sounds good in theory, but has no practical basis.
I was actually under the impression that this is either illegal or against lottery rules and results in the 'winner' not getting anything.
Yeah, but if there were other winners (in this case 3 separate winners), then you'd have to share the winnings. In this instance, that would still leave you with $2 million, but ordinarily you would be in the hole.
Well, there are two potential issues here. For one, there are many weeks when no one wins. For instance, the drawing before was for over $300 million, and no one won it (obviously) so doing it thern would have guaranteed you a single victory.
Secondly, you wouldn't just win the jackpot. You'd also have every possible combination of the lower payouts, too.
Secondly, even if you had a team of 20 people working around the clock, filling in bubbles and filling in every combination possible 147 million times, the contest would be over 8 months ago by the time you finish.
I wouold suggest starting the process early. Once you get the self-pick tickets filled in, you can use them at any time, so you just need to find people who are willing to help you fill them in, or just do nothing else during your down time for a year, and you'll have all the possible combinations.
The hard part is getting all of them printed. You'd almost certainly need to spread out your purchases, and with three days between drawings, you'd have to work fast, smart, and with help. You'd probably need to coordinate with the owners of a few establishments (they get money for printing a winner so they have some incentive to work with you) to have a stack of those tickets dropped off and printed, then picked up later.
But beyond that, you'd need to have the money to pay for them all, in cash. That means a loan, and then some rather large stacks of money being transported.
All in all, it would be quite the undertaking, but if you could pull it off, you'd be famous, and rightfully so.
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