Friday 28 September 2007

Winning the Lottery

I am not a fan of the lottery. My husband will occasionally sneak the purchase of a ticket past my watchful eye but generally I avoid the whole game. This week I am making up for my previous avoidance.

The Euro Lottery is at £88m. A guess at the current exchange rate puts the jackpot at approximately $160m. OK, so I'm willing to make an exception this week. Normally the odds of winning the Euro lottery hover somewhere around 1:75 million. Since the £88m cannot be rolled over and must be awarded this week if no one matches all the numbers the winnings will be distributed amongst the next set of matching numbers. This means the odds of winning have substantially shifted in our favour.

I approved a purchase of a £1 lottery ticket which in my husband's world translates to £30. This is what is known in financial circles as the Marc Conversion rate.

He got home. I examined the tickets. And immediately starting making a list of everything we would do with the money. So far we've only spent about £2.2 million. We could split the winnings with a lot of people and still get £2.2m.

Draw is at 10:25 pm (GMT). Stay tuned.

9 comments:

Janell said...

Good luck!

Myrnagj said...

Good Luck.

I buy a California Lottery ticket every once in a while just to honor our gambling ancestors. Grandpa Gatewood was one. I understand he was a good card player.

stephanie said...

oh what I could do with a few million. I can only dream. Good luck as a I hope I am in your sights when you win. Your loving sister (Wink, Wink),
Stephanie

Shirley said...

Good luck with that.

LaDawn said...

Not only did we NOT win the big jackpot, we only managed to match 1 number for each entry. We are such losers!

Steph is only nice to me when she wants something....

Anonymous said...

I am not insulting anyone here, but my fater used to call the lotter a "Stupid Tax". Voluntary, and excessive.

I think its great for people like us to play, mid to upper income follks. But unfortunately, the lottery is disproportionately played by the poor and therefore becomes a tax.

You make 30K a year and play $5 per week is a lot different if you make 100K an play $5 a week.

On that note, sorry you didn't win. I'd rather play cards, that way I can see who takes / is trying to take my money and I had a fighting chance. Note, the HRC, where Anna Nicole Died, is only a few miles from my house.

Sue said...

I play the powerball lottery. I spend $10.00 every 5 weeks and play the same numbers. I don't care if I win the "big one", I just want enough to pay off my mortgage and buy a car without the payments.
Sue

LaDawn said...

JB-Yep, that's why I don't normally play it. Here, I offset the stupidity with the comfort that the proceeds from the UK lottery benefit worthy causes. A number of english heritage and english trust properties have been lovingly resotred thanks to national lottery money. they have also spent the money to make them diabled accessible. Worthy causes. Not sure what the Euro Lottery money goes for. Perhaps I should find that out....

My husband loves playing poker. After one particularly frightening experience in Vegas it is best I not gamble too often or with much money available at my disposal.

Agree with Sue. I don't need the big one. Just a cool couple mill will do me! If there are any multi millionaires out there looking for a worthy family to adopt, here we are!

Anonymous said...

Interesting LA. I thought taxes were supposed to pay for all that stuff... Hence, my point.

My wife occasionally plays, and I tell her she hits the lottery every two weeks. Its called my pay check.

Your taxes in EU can easily be cut in half and the gov't should be able to pay for everything it must.