Tag Archives: Mega Millions

national news

Mega Millions has a winner, for better or worse

I have two quick comments about the winner of the $1.6 billion Mega Millions lottery. Bear with me.

First, stay anonymous. The winner purchased the ticket at a convenience store in Simpsonville, S.C. South Carolina is one of few states that allows the winners of these games of chance to keep their identity hidden.

I strongly encourage this individual to do precisely that. I don’t need to know who he or she is. Nor does anyone else. Exposing one’s identity also exposes one to scammers, relatives real or imagined, crooks and thieves.

Protect yourself from those who would seek to take advantage of you.

Second, wait for the rush that will occur at KC Mart #7 in Simpsonville. It never fails: the retailer that peddles the winning ticket at these high-dollar games suddenly becomes the most popular such establishment among those seeking to win the next big payoff.

What they don’t realize is that the odds of the same retail outlet selling the next winner are even more astronomically remote than they were for the first one.

A fellow won a $40-something million Texas Lottery drawing some years ago in Amarillo. He bought the ticket at a convenience store. That same store had a gigantic rush for the next drawing.

It’ll happen now with the KC Mart #7. I’ll be giggling from afar.

local news

At $1.6 billion, I should be all over this game … but I’m not

I remain adamantly opposed to games of chance, even those that offer up prizes totaling $1.6 billion, which the Mega Millions lottery is offering at this moment.

In the early 1990s, when Texas was discussing whether to allow a lottery, I wrote editorials from my post at the Beaumont Enterprise opposing it. The state voted — I think it was in 1991 — to approve the lottery in a statewide election; the approval was overwhelming. So much for the “power of the press.”

I have played the Texas Lottery exactly twice. The first time, I purchased a $1 ticket at a Beaumont convenience store and won $3.

Woo hoo! I was $2 to the good.

I played again the next week. I plunked down another buck. I came up empty. That’s when I quit. I was still $1 on the plus side.

The lottery, the Mega Millions, the Power Ball games have no appeal to me. Honest! They don’t.

I know a few friends who’ve squandered a lot of their life savings trying to win “the big one.” Yes, I know a few who’ve done well. The most astonishing story involves a young man with whom I worked at the Amarillo Globe-News. He went to Lubbock one day, purchased a ticket — and walked away with a million bucks.

I was told by another friend that this fellow hardly ever plays the game. He just thought he’d lay down a few bucks. And then? Boom!

That kind of dumb luck is foreign to me.

Thus, I won’t get sucked into this game. Not even for a smooth billion-six.

Good luck to whoever wins. You’ll need it. Bigly.

Uncategorized

Mega Million jackpot is tempting me sorely

I won’t do it.

I will not succumb to the temptation to buy a ticket for a chance to win a half-billion bucks. That’s what the Mega Million lottery jackpot has reached.

I’ve long opposed the lottery. It’s a sucker’s bet. It preys on those who want to spend what little disposable income they have on the chance of winning the Big One.

It won’t happen, folks. CNN talked about a study in which someone calculated the odds of winning the whole prize at 150 million to one. You have a greater chance of being struck by lightning or being eaten by a shark than you have of winning the prize.

Texas voters approved a lottery back in 1991. I opposed it editorially at the paper where I worked at the time. The voters didn’t heed our advice and approved it overwhelmingly. I think the margin was something like 65-35 percent. It was supposed to bring a windfall to state government. It didn’t do it. Texans quit playing the game when they realized their chances of winning the big dough were next to nil. The state has tweaked the lottery a few times over the years to give players a little bitter chance of winning something.

Some folks said then-Gov. Ann Richards promised the money raised by the lottery would go exclusively toward education. Gov. Richards never made that promise, but somehow the accusation stuck.

Now the state has joined the Mega Million stampede. The jackpot is huge. It’s tempting to play.

I won’t go there.

I’ll rely on this bit of history. I played the Texas Lottery when it first came into being back in the early 1990s. I bought a ticket in Beaumont for $1. I won $3. I was $2 to the good. I spent a buck on the next drawing. I lost, didn’t win a nickel.

So, with that I’m a dollar ahead.

Knock yourselves out, everyone.