Who Wants to Be a Mega Millionaire?

I don't play the lottery.  Never have.  Just don't feel like it.  I have played Keno once or twice, bet on a couple horse races here and there, and I love playing cards.  However, games like Mega Millions and Powerball just don't deserve my attention.  Being the math and science guy, I always look at the odds, and when my odds of winning are 1 in 175 million, I just don't see the point in wasting my hard earned dollars on the fate of some ping pong balls.  I don't care what my lucky numbers are, and I don't care what the stated "cause" is, I just don't do it, not worth it.  If I am going to gamble, I'd rather do it in a way where I have at least a smaller say on the outcome, like in poker.  I would much rather spend my money wisely and give it to people who I know will do good things with it.

Speaking of good causes, if any of you are really looking for a good cause, please consider donating to our Relay for Life team.  Trust me, there is no luck or odds here.  Every contribution goes straight to the American Cancer Society, and you know that is a good place for money to go.  You can donate to our team page right here:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=41116&team_id=1040835

Anyway, back to the point of this post.  Yesterday, the largest lottery jackpot drawing in history took place.  The multi-state Mega Millions game offered an annuitized jackpot of $640 million dollars!  The cash lump sum (which most people take) was around $460 million.  Take taxes away and you're looking at more like $300 million.  Still, that is pretty outrageous, and the news stories of people catching lottery fever were unavoidable.  The drawing last night yielded winning numbers of 2-4-23-38-46 and a mega ball of 23 (in this game, the mega ball can repeat one of the 5 other balls).  Across the country there were 3 winning tickets sold, including one right here in Maryland.  So this person, whoever it is, is about $100 million richer, not to mention the dozens of $250,000 winners who matched all 5 white balls, but missed the mega ball.  These people are about to get a lot of financial advice from people they have never met and a lot more anxiety than they could have ever wanted. 

Winning the lottery is not all that it is meant to be.  You hear all of these stories of people who become instant millionaires, only to see them broke in a couple years.  Everybody wants their cut, and the winners want to buy everything in sight.  Proper money management can take a lottery winning and make it last a lifetime, not a couple years. 

Then again, if they really want to blow the money quickly, I'm sure Relay for Life could do wonders with $100 million.