LOTTERY WINNER...what if ?

I'd work my way through the sexy curvy lady thread. And doughnuts. Lots of doughnuts.

Like a boss?

Ridas_sl said:

In the spirit of George Best:

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."

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Sounds like a quote from the turn of the century (1900's) comedian W.C. Fields

"I spent half my money on liquor, gambling, and wild women. The rest I wasted". Guy has some decent one liners.

I would repay this community for the entertainment it has provided me for a countless amount of hours.

Quit my day job, keep my night job.

And buy one of these.

Dabamf_sl said:

Even with super high jackpots, I think your expected value is still negative.

Powerball jackpot odds are 1 in 175,223,510. At $2 a ticket, you need a $350 million jackpot to break even, assuming you don't have to split it with anyone who chose the same numbers. Factor in taxes, even the $470 million or whatever it was makes it either a negative EV or very close to negative. Maybe my math is wrong here. Of course I'm considering only the odds of winning the jackpot while ignoring smaller prizes.

Even if the EV was positive, your realistic expectation for a lottery ticket is strongly negative. So much of the positive expectation of a ticket comes from the jackpot, which is so rare as to be essentially irrelevant. If you lived forever, you want to look at strict EV. But since you'll almost certainly die before winning the jackpot even buying one ticket a day, the jackpot event should be weighted less than what the strict mathematical EV says. It's related to a common situation in tournament poker where you'll decline to call a large bet when your odds are low, even if it has a positive expectation, because survival is a big part of it. Yet in that same situation in a cash game you would happily take that risk.

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If you do run the numbers you'll find that the lower payouts do not add a trivial amount to the EV. The break even point is something like $290 million IF you don't account for taxes and you don't take the lump sum. I'm not sure of the exact number, but I think it's somewhere north of $400 mil if you are taking the lump sum, which everybody does. An argument can be made either for or against including taxes in the EV. I personally wouldn't consider it. You're still getting the huge payout, but a lot of that is just going straight to the government. If you do include taxes then the EV will, I believe, always be negative since there is a practical limit to how high the jackpot can get due to all available numbers being bought. If taxes aren't included then the EV does exceed the cost of the ticket from time to time.

But even still you are correct that buying a ticket with a positive EV is still probably a losing proposition. The EV is a statistical reason for buying a ticket at certain times, but when we're talking about the huge sums of money involved in the jackpots then another heuristic enters the equation - risk vs. reward. You can buy a lottery ticket and very, very likely throw away $2 for the minuscule chance to never have to be concerned with money ever again. It's a small opportunity cost for an extraordinarily unlikely reward, but a reward that is absolutely massive. There is no right or wrong answer.

Boring stuff. I'd fix up the house, get a better used car, and embark on a quest to find out how much money it takes, exactly, to turn a "decent woman" into a "straight up whore". Indecent proposal style.

I'd be getting a whole buncha rimjobs, I tell you what. I'm thinking realistically you could get a regular soccer mom to spend 15 minutes licking your asshole for about 4-5k.

Salshun_sl said:

Anyone, including me, that knows how math and probability works just creamed their shorts deciding how to destroy your reply.

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Do tell! I'm very interested to hear how your math and probability knowledge led you to consider the lottery a sound investment! How much of your portfolio do you currently have invested in lottery tickets?

Tea_sl said:

but each subsequent ticket adds practically nothing to your odds of winning.

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Which is, of course, exactly how much the first one adds...

pay off my debts, drop out of college, travel for a year or two and then open up a bike shop. because I'm rich I wouldn't have to cater to anything other than what I wanted to. it'd be a niche type of place and I'd fire any egotistical prick who sighed when someone had a dumb question. I'd buy a moderately priced house in Houston or Austin that has a yard, a decent car. I'd buy my mom a house in the neighborhood she can't quite afford and give my brother her house.

I would be comfortable but nothing more. I don't think I'd suddenly have the urge to wear expensive jewelry or drive $100,000 cars. I'd dress nice but not absurd. I'd put the rest of my money into some long term bonds or something and just try to live happily and as stress free as possible for the rest of my life

I'd also consider trying to self publish some stuff and help some other people do the same

I'd hire some of you nerds and together, we would form a new start up and create a MMO worth playing.

Lvl_32_Bard_LFG_sl said:

I'd hire some of you nerds and together, we would form a new start up and create a MMO worth playing.

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Curt, you tried that once and blew all your money.

Famm_sl said:

Curt, you tried that once and blew all your money.

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Wheres that Ice Burn IMG at, I wonder?

Iannis_sl said:

embark on a quest to find out how much money it takes, exactly, to turn a "decent woman" into a "straight up whore". Indecent proposal style. I'm thinking realistically you could get a regular soccer mom to spend 15 minutes licking your asshole for about 4-5k.

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Theyre all devils - Shouldnt be that hard.

Trollface_sl said:

buy gold coins. swim in it.

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Way to be orig.

I'd buy goliath a new penis

Pretty boring here as well. Mostly I'd just never work again. I'd probably buy a place somewhere in the mountains that's a reasonably close drive to multiple ski resorts, and then another one somewhere warm to get away from the cold. Might pick up a car/bike or two. Mostly I'd just spend the rest of my life doing fun shit, whether that be skiing, biking, hiking, traveling, partying, and so on. Nothing too imaginative here.

Aside from paying a bunch of taxes, I guess it would depend how much we're talking about here. Pay off my student loans, either purchase outright (if I won a lot) or put a big down payment on a modest house I could afford the property taxes on. If there was still a bunch left I'd get an accountant and figure out how to invest wisely, then just work part-time as long as I could afford to do so. I'm boring as fuck and I don't like to travel.

Grumpus_sl said:

I would repay this community for the entertainment it has provided me for a countless amount of hours.

Quit my day job, keep my night job.

And buy one of these.

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Those look so fun

I would buy about 10M worth of stupid awesome cars, 500 acres in a very gun friendly state and set up a large range and a 5k square ft house designed with my wife. Set the kids and immediate family up for life. Then I would build a bad ass machine shop and build custom 1911's for a living. Would also buy a nice lakefront house on Grand Lake and have some very ridiculous boats.

I would just spend time doing what I have to work for to enjoy now.