Opinion: Can you spare a Billion?

cashBy Zev Kotel. The story begins on Nov 7th 2015 when a measly $40 million dollars didn’t have a winner. And since then, the Powerball continued to have no jackpot winner. With 44 states, the district of Colombia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico participating, it quickly spiraled out of control. And, as of this writing, it’s estimated at a cool $1.5 bill.

Let’s drop the billion for a second. Suppose the lotto was at $500 million. That’s newsworthy right there. And winning $500 million certainly qualifies as ‘life altering’. Now, let’s tack on a quick billion. What word would you use to describe the moment of realization? How about ‘heart attack’?

But is it really that good? The facts are that a large percentage of people who win big, wreck their lives. And many wish they never won. But of course you, me and everyone else on planet earth thinks that we are different. Nothing shocking – it’s human nature. It’s easy to see the big picture, but it takes a very wise man to internalize all the details. And few people are very wise.

Suppose you decide to ignore the facts. You buy a ticket and hope to beat the 1 in 292.2 million odds. Or put another way, (And I have no idea if this is scientifically sound) you are 25 times more likely to become the next president of the United States compared to winning the jackpot.

But someone needs to win. Let’s say it’s you. You will lose mightily to taxes, so it won’t even be close to a billion. And perhaps someone picked your numbers, requiring you to split the pot.

Regardless, it’s a lot of money. You’re determined to be smart about it. Perhaps you choose the annuity which pays out now and over the next 29 years. That’s actually smart because 1) you save millions more vs losing it to taxes and 2) you avoid the risk of blowing it all away. But few people are smart. In fact, in the last 7 years only one person demonstrated seichel.

Working with the odds you probably won’t take the annuity. And now your life is awesome. But is it? Every relative, friend, neighbor and acquaintance will be out for a slice of the pie. If you ignore them, you will make a lot of enemies. You won’t have any peace of mind for the rest of your life. And, assuming you’re a frum yid, every Yeshiva, Shul and Tzedaka organization that ever existed, that does exist or that will exist, will: call you, knock on your door, fax you, email you, WhatsApp you, text you, skype you and probably invent new ways of communicating with you.

Not that that is a bad thing. If you have what it takes, the opportunity for schar is mind boggling. But do you really think you can handle it? From the moment you win until you draw in your last breath, you will be eyeballed wherever you go. Period. People will talk and motion behind your back. Talk about paparazzi! It’s nuts! It brings to mind the Gemorah in Sandhedrin about when the Anshei Kenesses Hagedolah cried out, “not they and not their reward!”. By then, the risk factor of succumbing to Avodah Zara outweighed the reward for abstaining from it. Is this any different?

One noteworthy mention. If you are lucky enough to call Maryland, Ohio, Delaware, Kansas, North Dakota or South Carolina home, you have the opportunity to remain silent. That’s a big deal. But, my feelings are that the cat wont remain in the hat. Your mother will make a shevuah that she won’t tell anyone. Then she will require her cousin to make a neder that she won’t tell anyone that she told her, and it spirals from there. Somehow someone will post something up about how a frum guy in Baltimore won a billion bucks and then when the guy who sat next to you in shul for 40 years fails to show up for 3 consecutive weeks, we have a chazakah.

All kidding aside. I don’t know the Torah’s hashkafah about playing the lottery. But, assuming you’re going to drop 2 bucks on a ticket, I have one piece of humble advice. Just buy one. The odds of beating 292.2 mill to one is infinitely larger than zero. But spending even 4 bucks for 2 is a waste of money. The odds increase so little that there is no justification. And if you’re coming from an emuna standpoint, then definitely there are no grounds for purchasing more than one ticket.

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Comparing the odds of winning the Powerball to becoming the next president is a stretch for one thing even if someone has the chance of becoming president of the United States it’s a year away at best- probably longer if Donald Trump has his way, whereas the chance of winning the Powerball, slim as it might be -is in fact TONIGHT!

  2. Forget about after you win, how about all the calls I’m getting NOW from every relative out of the country to buy them a powerball ticket!
    As if they will mail me the $2!! I’m sure if they win they will remember to give me the two bucks!!

  3. Nice article. A guy said that he drove down to Delaware to buy a ticket. A little insane in my opinion – perhaps he was on his way to Baltimore.

    Just wondering – if you buy a ticket in a state that does not require you to go public, but you live in a state that does, what is the halacha?

  4. You can set up a LLC or non profit and stay Anonymous And have an attorney represent you.
    Good luck keeping it a secret.
    I’m playing hope I don’t win the Jackpot.
    But maybe a million or 50,000.

  5. Hi Larry,

    Thanks for explaining. I did not know that an LLC can be a winner. Although I would imagine that owner of an LLC. No?

    Even if they could, its certainly less overwhelming than going public personally.

    If you win the jackpot, I am offering to take the access leaving you with a million. No need to thank me. 🙂

  6. Please refrain from offering financial information without the appropriate knowledge.

    The annuity that is offered by Powerball assumes a discount rate that is much lower than what can actually be realized through prudent investing. It is therefore in a lottery winner’s interest to take the lump sum and invest it on his own (with his own financial advisors). I am not aware of any significant tax break in terms of taking the annuity.

    Most people are not disciplined enough to actually manage the money properly and that would be an advantage of the annuity (harder to blow all of the money at once)

Comments are closed.