The big news seems to be the mega lottery for Friday-500 million? that is $19.2 million a year for 26 years or a single payment worth $359 million. I seldom buy lottery tickets, I think todays ticket is #4 for entire year I have bought- Jan hates when I buy a ticket- but then I don't buy coffee at starbucks, so figure we are even- as we both are throwing money away? Lottery commercials are always fun to view- sadly they seldom show the money people loose.
-Jack Whittaker: This West Virginia businessman won $315 million in the Powerball lottery in 2002, the largest jackpot ever from a single ticket in American history at the time. After being robbed of $545,000 in cash while at a strip club, Whittaker's granddaughter and daughter were later found dead, and Whittaker was sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino for bouncing $1.5 million worth of checks to cover gambling losses.
-Juan Rodriguez: This New York City parking attendant was earning less than $30,000 in 2004 when he won $149 million in a Mega Millions drawing. But soon after taking the lump sum option of $88 million, his wife filed for divorce and was awarded half of his winnings.
-Fred Topous, Jr.: Topous won $57 million, the seventh-largest jackpot in Michigan state history in June 2008, but eventually took a $33 million lump sum. The convicted sex offender, who was released from prison in 2006, needs to register as a sex offender until 2024.
-Billy Bob Harrell, Jr.: This preacher working as a stockboy at Home Depot struck it rich in 1997, winning $31 million in Texas' lottery. Some 20 months later, after divorcing his wife and buying a half-dozen homes for relatives, he committed suicide using a shotgun.
-Jeffrey Dampier: In 1996, Dampier and his wife won $20 million in Illinois' lottery and used the money to buy relatives homes and to start a gourmet popcorn shop in Florida. Nine years later, Dampier was kidnapped and killed by his sister-in-law and her boyfriend who targeted him for money.
Meanwhile, a man who has won seven lottery drawings told the New York Post that aspiring millionaires shouldn't "go crazy" if they want to win the big jackpot. "Go and buy tickets, but the most important thing I’m telling people to do is don’t go crazy,” Richard Lustig, 61, told the newspaper.
Lustig, citing the long odds of 1-in-176 million, urged those with lottery fever to keep their cool.
“This is the biggest prize in history, and people are going to go out and buy a lot of tickets, and almost all of them -- millions of people -- are going to lose, so don’t spend the grocery money or the rent money,” he said. “You have to buy tickets to win, and the more you buy the better your chances, but don’t go crazy."
Americans are expected to spend $1.46 billion on Mega Millions lottery tickets. So how far does $1.46 billion go?
Trim this year's expected $1.3 trillion federal deficit by just over one-tenth of 1 percent
Feed 238,000 American families for a year.
Trim this year's expected $1.3 trillion federal deficit by just over one-tenth of 1 percent.
Buy 10 F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets
Treat 685,000 average U.S. households to gasoline for a full year.
Pay for just under 3 1/2 hours' worth of federal spending.
Buy nearly 3 million new iPads at the starting price of $499 -- almost as many as Apple has already sold.
Pay a year's worth of health care expenses for 462,000 American average families.
Provide a week of unemployment benefits for nearly 40 percent of America's 12.8 million unemployed.
Buy a 73 percent share of the Los Angeles Dodgers, based on the $2 billion that Magic Johnson and other investors agreed to pay this week for the baseball franchise.
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