This makes no sense to me 1.58 Billion lottery

[NowsTheTime]

Imagine you could have 1,580 million dollar winners instead of one winner. Even with taxes that a hell of a chunk of change.

I simply do not understand it!


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mega-millions-august-8-numbers-did-anyone-win-158-billion-jackpot/ar-AA1eZGDl

[Bucky]

1. That's why I call it the stupid tax

[brooklynite]

2. Not clear what you don't understand

Its not possible to win that much?

Nobody should have that much money?

[NowsTheTime]

3. I mean you could do more good for more people...that's all I mean..

[brooklynite]

8. The intent of a lottery is not to "do good" for people with the prizes.

The intent is to provide an outlet for gambling desires and use the net profits for public services.

If the top prize was $1 M (about $250 k after taxes) the number of players would be substantially smaller.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. I cannot see how you say 75% of the win goes to taxes

https://smartasset.com/taxes/how-taxes-on-lottery-winnings-work

This says it's standard federal income tax (so 37%) and up to 13% state tax.

[brooklynite]

28. The announced prize is paid out as an annuity over 20 years.

Most people take a lump sum which is about half of that...and Federal taxes are about half of the payout.

[edisdead]

46. Not necessarily and it depends on which lottery

There is usually a lump sum option but it too benefits the public greatly.

[brooklynite]

51. we are discussing the high jackpot lotteries

Both Powerball and Mega Millions have the same payout options.

https://www.usamega.com/powerball/jackpot

[edisdead]

52. Right. I believe they both have lump sum options.

It doesn’t have to be over time.

Sorry just an aside.

[Darwins_Retriever]

24. In most states, such as Florida

The revenue that is received from the lottery goes to education. BUT the exact same amount is taken from the education funds and redirected to a general fund for the Governor and legislature to spend as they please.

[Effete Snob]

26. Precisely

Yes, that is exactly what is done with these sorts of "free money" government revenue schemes.

It's not as if anyone's taxes are lowered dollar-for-dollar by the incoming gambling revenue. It simply frees up money for patronage and other boondoggles.

[bottomofthehill]

16. Only about half the money that comes in goes out as prize money

Depending on what state you live in, lottery money is used for education. Roads, bridges, the General fund of your state, economic development, health and human services, first responders. The list is massive depending on the state you live in. Also, the state that the winning ticket is bought in also gets a large bump in tax revenue

[Voltaire2]

38. How would you pick the 1,580 winners?

Note that multiple winners is absolutely allowed, they just all have to pick the winning number. Unfortunately probability applies and it is just even more unlikely that 1580 people will pick the same winning number than it is that one person will pick the winning number.

If you make the lottery easier to win, as it was originally, you don't get huge jackpots.

[dpibel]

40. Obtuseness in defense of wealth

is no vice!

It's a catchy slogan.

You're welcome.

[True Dough]

4. Yes! Yes! Yes!

I've said the same thing many times.

I guess the only difference is that the jackpot is unlikely to reach such a high number if they restructured the prizes. It gets as high as $1.58 billion because those massive payouts attract massive ticket-buying.

But still, it would be better to make a whole lot more people wealthy versus turning over a stupid amount of money to one individual.

[brooklynite]

9. Define wealthy...

$ 1 Million after taxes? $500,000? $250,000.

[Effete Snob]

11. I won a billion dollar bet once

I decided to take the payout over time, so I'm collecting a cool billion at the rate of one dollar a year for a billion years.

Thinking I might sell it to J.G. Wentworth.

[True Dough]

22. You seems awfully hung up on semantics

You've asked me this question before. I've seen you ask at least one other DUer that question.

$1.58 billion is an obscene level of wealth for an individual and it doesn't even approach what Musk, Bezos, Gates and others are worth. Nobody needs to be that wealthy. It's not in the best interest of society.


Dividing lottery winnings so that many people win $1 million means they would be relatively wealthy to the general population but it doesn't mean they have waaaaay more than they could ever spend in a lifetime.

[brooklynite]

23. But people don't want that kind of lottery...

Your state probably also has a "Numbers" game which has much smaller jackpots. People buy Mega and PowerBall tickets BECAUSE of the jackpot size.

One thing I don't do is moralize about how people shouldn't be allowed to do something that I don't like personally.

[LakeArenal]

30. Oh yeah.....

[brush]

33. I don't know about that. I'd buy more tickets if the chance to win something...

was higher. Who wouldn't welcome 500K or 250k, or even just 100k?

If more people won regularly it would become even more popular...something one just does routinely like buying a newspaper because there would be good chances to win something.

[True Dough]

35. "One thing I don't do is moralize about how people shouldn't be allowed to do something that I don't

like personally."


I'm sure that is not true in all facets of life, or you wouldn't have joined the DU, where we all do that regularly in regards to ugly right-wing behaviors.

Regardless, if you can show me where I did that in this thread, I'd be interested to hear it.

[brooklynite]

36. "but it doesn't mean they have waaaaay more than they could ever spend in a lifetime."

I don't complain about acquired wealth; whether lottery winnings or income.

[True Dough]

48. Well, bully for you!

I'm going to differ with you there philosophically, for sure. Obscene levels of wealth, no matter how it was acquired, is, well, just obscene. The government should go back to taxing the hell out of it after certain thresholds, as existed in the 1970s.

[dpibel]

41. Other than moralizing about wealth.

It does rather appear that you think everyone should STFU about extreme aggregations of wealth.

And no. Demanding a hard cutoff number on what is reasonable wealth does not, in fact, negate the fact that the wealth held by such people as Zuckerberg and Musk is obscene.

[brooklynite]

42. Where have I said anyone shouldn't say what they want?

I'm merely providing my own critique.

[dpibel]

45. LOL

You're in singularly droll form.

[edisdead]

47. I mean you could post some evidence

Instead of making accusations.

[Croney]

5. They'll only get about half that in cash...and in Florida...

I just hope it's some humble Disney employee and not a maggot.

[NowsTheTime]

7. If the winner got 40% they could buy 632 million dollar homes...

[Croney]

13. So true.

[mucifer]

6. It usually REALLLY messes up the winners

Not uncommon for people to end up broke.

I agree it’s wrong and i think it’s pretty destructive.

[Johnny2X2X]

20. This is true

Probably not the super mega jackpots though. But people can go broke no matter how much they win. You still have to have a budget, no matter who you are.

I believe the finance knowledge and education in this country is lacking terribly and some of that is by design. You've got most people now in credit card debt by the time they're 20 that they'll still be paying when they retire. Really wish sunshine laws were passed to make sure credit card holders understood the ture cost of items when you use a card to puirchase them. People buy $100 outfit on sale and think they did great, not realizing that if they uysed a credit card they just paid $400 for that outfit.

And there is nothing wrong with buying a few tickets wehen the pot gets big, but there are millions of people who spend $50 a week on lotto tickets with no hope for any return on that investment. The same people generally have $0 in retirement savings.

[LakeArenal]

29. You know this how?

By now there’s thousands of lottery winners. Big and small.

In bold you state it messes up the winners….


You know thousands of lottery results?

I only know one semi large lottery winner. He seems fine. Same house. Same car. Same job. Same family.

[newdayneeded]

37. I know here in WI you have to go through

a series of finance classes before you receive the huge payout. the classes teach finance management and fraud avoidance.

[Marthe48]

10. I'd rather see more frequesnt wins, smaller jackpots

I have played pretty constantly since about 1973. My Dad bought me a couple tickets to an Ohio Lottery. In 0 years, the most we ever hit was $32 on one of the first big jackpots. We got 3 numbers and the power ball. Even so, I play. Checking the numbers is something I look forward to. If Mega Millions changes to 3 drawings a week, like Power Ball did, I'll quit playing

[brooklynite]

14. Almost every State lottery has "smaller jackpots and more frequent wins"

There are KENO games every 10 minutes and "daily numbers" draws They don't appeal to that many players.

[Marthe48]

19. I'm not into it that much

I think we tried playing Keno, but it was time-consuming. It wasn't an in and out kind of thing. I could go over to WV. There are coffee many shops/betting parlors (?) If I'm going to fritter away my money for a chance to win, I want to put as little effort into as I can

[lastlib]

12. very UN-democratic. That's another reason I don't participate in them.

(plus the fact that the probabilities of winning one are ridiculously bad ("tax on shitty math skills"...), and the fact that I've already been struck by lightning once....)

[brooklynite]

15. How are they "undemocratic"? Every one has a chance to play and an equal chance to win.

[lastlib]

21. No, only the holders of one (unknown) set of numbers has a chance to win.

Everyone else just has an "equal" chance to select that set of numbers--a very miniscule number (generally one, sometimes two or three) out of millions do. Generally, it's the less wealthy portion of the population that plays in hopes of winning the big one--and they lose almost everything they pay to play, leaving them even less wealthy. Wealthier people, who have the financial comfort of not needing the money, tend not to play. To me, this is tantamount to exploitation of the poor, a very undemocratic practice. I'll leave it at that.

[onethatcares]

18. so ya win a billion dollars MOL

then you gotta be leery of every snake oil hustler in the world trying to get it out of your hands, like investing in annuities or the market.

Your entire friendship web will change and you'll have Elon and the GOAT knocking on your door asking if you want to play but you don't know the rules and they aren't going to tell you either.

Look at the amount of numbers type games on the florida lottery homepage you'll see the racket keeps growing and the "state" always wins more than it pays out. Kinda like the mob.

[LakeArenal]

31. You need new friends.

[onethatcares]

32. yes, I suppose I do

n/t

[Recycle_Guru]

25. more people play when jackpots are highet

therefor, more money for states selling tickets

[Gore1FL]

27. Last time I played The Lottery I got a black dot.

My (late) wife was not happy about it at all.

[TheProle]

49. +1 for the Shirley Jackson reference

"Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon."

[GreenWave]

34. The thieves of your money are the very own lottery and the government.

When you lose, they do not knock at your door.

When you cash in your $4 which I will do on Friday, they will not charge 1/3 for the lotto and 1/3 for the government. Imagine if they took 2/3 of my meager $4. Why would I EVER want to play again?

But if'n you win the big one, they will come a'knocking. Never mind they did not even come up with so much as one number hint for you. (Psst play 5 and you will be quite alive). But they want their "share" for doing nothing. It is highway robbery in plain daylight.

[brooklynite]

43. So you object to people paying progressive income taxes?

The gambling winnings should be free?

[inthewind21]

54. Actually

I don't think they should be free, but I think they should be the same as people who invest in the stock market, 15% on capital gains. Gambling is gambling no matter if it's in a casino, the lottery or a bet in the stock market! Just my 2 cents.

[brooklynite]

55. Stock market investing is not (and shouldn't be) "gambling"

If you think your profits from investments are a matter of random chance, you're doing it wrong.

[edisdead]

50. Anti-government posts here on DU?

Interesting.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

53. What is this now?

Tag teaming?

Can someone post an opinion without having it be twisted and challenged with obtuse questions?

[BannonsLiver]

39. A lot of people bought tickets

And as that happens the jackpot grows. If fewer people buy tickets the jackpot is smaller.

[WarGamer]

44. Bottom line?

Because the endorphin level between a 1M prize... (~700k after taxes in CA) and a 1B prize (630M after taxes in CA) is way different.


650k will secure many people for their future and that's great...

630M buys $50M homes in Newport Beach, 200' yachts and you buy 1 of 25 ever produced 1965 Ferraris...

[edbermac]

56. Makes no sense to me either.

But I could live with it.