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Does Anyone know Anyone who has ever won the Lottery?

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#1

Ok, this has been bugging me all week. I had a potential buyer on another platform recently who wanted me to help him write his book ‘No One Ever Wins’ - or something like that.

In short, this guy says that it is easy for anyone to prove that no one ever actually wins the lottery (and that it is all a huge scam), due to the simple fact that no one knows anyone who knows anyone who has ever won the big jackpot.

The idea is simple, if you are only ever six steps away from Hitler, you should only ever be six (at the most) away from someone who has won the lottery. Likewise, almost everyone has met or knows someone who has met a celebrity (I once served prosecco to Ray Liotta) but no one actually knows a lottery winner even though the number of winners grows each and every week.

Now I turned this down as there was lots of complex maths that I couldn’t get my head around. However, just as a bit of a social experiment, does anyone actually know someone who has ever won the full lottery jackpot. Not a fiver, not $200 and odd thousand, the full, giant cheque jackpot?

Jut asking. It’s very interesting for me you see, as I live on a very small island where a new winner is announced every week and before this, I had already heard lots of talk in passing about how playing is pointless because it is all a big scam.

So, do you know someone or someone in your immediate circle of friends who knows a lottery jackpot winner?

#2

No I don’t know anyone.

#3

Well I make some money writing for an online lottery site on a regular basis, encouraging people to “play the lottery, you never know what might happen” :slight_smile:

#4

Well, if the lottery is taking a dollar of millions of people each week and outsourcing their blog to Fiverr, that already seals the deal for me.

#5

In short, no.

I think he had a silly premise. Unless he has a great conspiracy theory to go with it, in which case I’m all ears! I do not know any lottery millionaires, but thinking about the broader question (people who come into fabulous wealth from a prior “poor/nomal” background), here’s some stories:

  • there’s the entrepreneur who started a business that went well. Bit boring. No stories. Hard work, pride and steady growth.
  • the racist, drunken Glaswegian oilman who had a rather good position in a major oil company. He’d need 2 days detox before he could go to work in his expensive suit, and the difference in personality and dress was remarkable. I liked him, despite his challenging personality, and he liked me because of my challenges. I haven’t heard from him lately, but I understand he’s somewhere in Africa gunrunning (I’m inclined to believe him). He got fired from his oil company for “opinions” if I remember right.
  • tourist millionaires (big hotel owners etc rather than tourists dripping with gold): oh, I know lots of these. Overly concerned penny-pinchers who who sacrifice their own mom for a few extra tourist dollars. Unlike the oilman, there’s no honesty, it’s all about $$$
  • lottery winners: the sensible ones stfu about it don’t they? I mean anyone who has their pic with exploding champagne bottles usually has a divorce and all the rest of it 4 months later because “we couldn’t handle the pressure”. Or that yob bloke who got that massive country pile and turned it into a drink-drug chav den to the horror of the middle class retirees in that small village.
  • I won £250 on the govt bonds when I was 6 and my parents spent it all. Boo.
  • The new Duke of Westminster had a tidy lottery win recently.

En bref: it’s probably a good idea to not display your wealth, as Kim Kardashian and her missing ring are finding out today.

#6

We have big winners shown on television here. People don’t grasp the odds which are much less than being hit by lightening. I knew someone who was planning on winning by spending $100 a week on it.

#7

Aren’t most lotteries in the US state-run? I mean by the local state. Good way to raise revenues without the t-word. Might be in the UK, too (I’ve never seen the point personally)

#8

Yes state run and one or two huge ones that are in many states who participate in them. They add new ones all the time so there are now dozens of “games” to play.

#9

I’m sure we’re all within six steps of a lottery winner, it’s just that we can’t see the links because the lines of connection are through ordinary people and their contacts aren’t public knowledge. That kind of thing only works with celebrities (and dictators).

But, to answer your question, I don’t either.

#10

Well, I’ve been asking people for a week now and with social media and all, you would expect to be able to draw a link to someone somewhere. Interestingly, it does seem like a lot of people know someone who has got wealthy by other means such as a huge compensation payout, marriage or business idea. In this case, I don’t buy the idea that lottery winners suddenly go into hiding. In comparison, after all, a lottery jackpot is small change compared to your average rich person’s holdings. In fact, I’ve spent enough time in hospitality to know that rich people love to rub your face in their wealth rather than hide it. (Unless the tax man is around).

I’m falling over the side of the fence that says its all a big scam and I’m pleased I’ve never bothered buying a ticket. That said, I used to have a thing for picking winning scratch cards. If there was a group of old women loitering around the counter in my old local petrol station scratching their cards and losing, I’d buy the same cards which they just had, as I figured that it upped my odds. I can’t remember if it was a workable system in the long term but I did used to land on the odd fiver quite frequently.

#11

I do know people who have received money from the UK National Lottery fund because they were running a charity or youth group, and that’s one of the things the Lottery does with the money it raises.

Some of the Paralympians thanked the National Lottery for money that allowed them to get equipment for training etc.

So money is definitely flowing out of the Lottery into deserving causes. We can be sure that it’s not a complete scam! :slight_smile:

#12

It is if no one ever wins the jackpot!

#13

No one.

#14

I just meant it wouldn’t be keeping ALL the money. :slight_smile:

#15

Success! After some research I have discovered that someone I know has met someone who has won the lottery.

#16

Yes yes yes. At work we won the UK lottery. There was 26 of us in the syndicate, so by the time we split the pot we ended up with over £80,000 each.

They always have lottery winners in the local papers here unless be winner decide to keep it private.

#17

Nice one! That’s got to be the best way to do it. Everyone’s in it together and you can all celebrate at the same time. And it’s not so much that people begin to hate you or your friends get weird with you. Must have been fantastic.

#18

Yes very true. Although some work colleagues that didn’t participate in the lottery became distant.

#19

I dunno about all this… My conspiracy sense is tingling. If the lottery is already paying writer whatever his name is to write their blog, I’ll bet that they will be paying you newbie sellers to help keep the lie alive.

Of course, I will accept the idea that some people do/might win the lottery. However, neither answers thus far have detailed someone who knows a real jackpot winner. We have one syndicate winner and someone who met someone once. Also Sorry Sarah, £80,000 grand each and you ended up on Fiverr? I could have retired on that and became a beekeeper but that’s just me, I’m not really into money.

Well done though and just out of curiosity, do you still play the lottery even after winning a big wad of cash already?

#20

You could always watch my reviews and see if there’s an angry evil lottery overlord giving me a one-star review for failing to convince you that lotteries are all super-squeaky-clean.