A person with a ticket matching all six Powerball numbers in Saturday’s $1.3 billion jackpot came forward Monday to claim the prize, Oregon officials said.
The lottery ticket was purchased at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in the northeast part of the city, Oregon Lottery said in a statement.
Oregon Lottery is working with the person in a process that involves security measures and vetting that will take time before a winner is announced.
“This is an unprecedented jackpot win for Oregon Lottery,” Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in the statement. “We’re taking every precaution to verify the winner before awarding the prize money.”
I think that’s actually a pretty bad sign for the person that won, to show up the first day possible to claim it. It seems like it would be much more prudent to get some legal and financial advice beforehand. Like if I won I have zero idea how to handle that kind of money on even the most basic logistical level. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin their life.
There is a lot of evidence to show that lottery winners have no idea how to handle that kind of money and don’t seek advice about it.
This person hanged themselves after blowing through all of their lottery money- https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/lottery-winner-hangs-self-7-years-after-collecting-win/article4121212/
This person defaulted on a loan because they wanted more than the annual amount but didn’t opt for the lump sum and ended up in massive debt- http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-05-03-lottery-winner_x.htm
This guy ended up working at his old McDonalds job a year later- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1582719/Lottery-millionaire-back-working-at-McDonalds.html
Here’s many more stores- https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/bankruptcy/lottery-winners-who-lost-millions/
The lottery is a tax on the poor, who are sold the hardest on it. Players have virtually no chance of winning, meaning that most of the people who play have a basic lack of understanding of how to manage their money.
The perception is wildly skewed here because you never hear from the ones who use the money responsibly to buy a home, settle debt, etc. and just live an easier life. Sure, winning the lottery should not be your only option to ever achieve anything. I just don’t think that lottery winners in general have a huge problem.
Why would you play the lottery in the first place if you user money responsibly? Playing the lottery is the opposite of using money responsibly.
Because for most people it’s a small vice that let’s you dream of a better life for a week.
That doesn’t make it any less financially irresponsible. “I can afford to be irresponsible at my current income level” suggests that they will have the same way of thinking if they happen to win.
Do you spend every single dollar you get responsibly? Do you have zero vices?
Just because you’re different doesn’t mean you’re better. Get off it with this rhetoric and let people live their lives, especially when it has zero impact on you.
If by ‘vices,’ you mean spend money on something on the chance that I might get something good out of it but probably not, no. I do not have such vices. I spend money on things that benefit me. I don’t really see the benefit of buying a lottery ticket since it will almost always lead to disappointment.
I’d encourage you to look up what a vice is.
It’s glaringly obvious your vices are different but I guarantee you have your own that some or many of us would find to be wildly irresponsible.
Not everyone who plays the lottery plays it consistently. I think I’m reasonably responsible with money, and I’m probably spending something like $20/year playing the lottery. If I won, the very first thing I’d do is get a lawyer. I wouldn’t even tell my friends or family until I got things sorted with a lawyer.
You don’t sound like the typical person I hear about winning the lottery.
That’s because you don’t hear about the majority of people winning the lottery. In some states, you can claim it anonymously (I know in CA you can’t). In those that don’t allow anonymous claims, you can set up an LLC to claim it.
People tell stories about the lottery winners who go bankrupt, but there are million dollar tickets sold literally every week. You don’t hear much about those because the jackpots are in the hundreds of millions now.
I am a fiscally responsible person with the amount of money I make. I spend more money on beer in a week than I do lottery tickets in a year, but I still drop a $20 when the jackpots hit a billion. If I would have won, I wouldn’t have told anyone except a trusted financial planner/adviser until all the stuff is all set up, and then I would only tell a few specific people. To everyone else, I would just say I helped a buddy start a new company that was sold to investors. You wouldn’t ever hear about me.
You know, you don’t have to put every penny you earn into a savings account. You’re allowed to spend it on stuff you find fun.
I could totally imagine someone with an already fairly stable income buying a set amount of lottery tickets within their budget as a hobby. It’s not my thing, but a fair number of people are into it.
I can’t speak from those who gamble without being financially stable, but I join a lottery pool by contributing $5 whenever the jackpot is over $1B. My wife and I also have a decent salaries and save 65% of what we make. I guess that makes the $5 irresponsible while still being responsible financially overall?
Yeah exactly, I don’t think that’s irresponsible at all. You could have also spent $5 on a cookie you ended up hating.
Nah there’s statistics on it. A huge fraction end up broke. I’m too lazy to dig them up, but you can find numbers on it. In any case, it’s not a actually limited to people who but lotto tickets. Humans are generally bad at handling massive windfalls.
The McDonald’s job guy seems to be doing just fine, if he’s actually working there by choice as a social thing.
Yeah this guy seems to have made out pretty well. Can’t blame them at all for wanting to keep what they enjoyed about their life even with the new money. Not that I disagree that the lotto is a tax on the poor but this guy is the opposite of what that comment was trying to prove.
The fundamental issue with winning the lottery is that nobody who understands personal finance enough to handle winning would ever waste money playing the lottery. The most likely winners are people who buy lots of lottery tickets, and those people are the least prepared to handle winning.
It’s hard to imagine burning through $1.3B, but after taxes it’ll only be about $400M. All it takes is a huge mansion, a mega yacht, and a high end private plane to put yourself into a significant financial tailspin from the costs of maintenance, taxes, staffing, and energy.
By the time you realize what poor decisions you’ve made, getting out of it can be impossible. The yes-men who sold you all your luxuries have probably convinced you to dump your money on plenty of other endeavors designed specifically to separate you from your winnings.
The one percenters only get away with their extravagant lifestyles because they understand how to exploit the system to their advantage, and they can keep up the expenses by amassing more wealth.
Not to mention, if you already have a gambling problem, as many lottery players do, the thrill of winning and access to that kind of cash is likely to motivate you to gamble millions more looking for the next dopamine dump.
That this person claimed the prize so quickly absolutely is a bad sign for their future. If they try to do it their way, they will get conned out of everything within a decade, and their return to poverty will be crushing.
I don’t think you understand personal finance. No one in America pays a 70% effective tax rate. How did you end up at $400M??
The lump sum payout for the $1.3 billion was $621 million. Lottery winnings are taxed as income putting the winner in the 37% federal tax bracket leaving $391.2 million. After taking out Oregon state taxes, the winner would be left with $329.8 million.
https://www.usamega.com/powerball/jackpot/2024/4/6
Taking the lump sum, which is roughly half the grand prize, is practically always the better deal. Almost everyone takes the lump sum. If you want the full amount you get it in yearly installments over 40 years. Anyway, so you pay income taxes on the lump sum.
Imagine getting that kind of life-changing sum of money and immediately blowing it on what is probably literally the top 3 highest maintenance luxury items in the world instead of keeping a good portion of it in some index fund and live comfortably for the rest of your life.
I know some people actually do this but seeing it broken down like that makes it even more baffling
What?
The after tax amount for an Oregon winner selecting the cash payout would be $329.8 million.
https://www.usamega.com/powerball/jackpot/2024/4/6
As usual, 'murica is the land of the scam. Over here, the amount they announce as the winnings has already had taxes deducted.
Why would waiting be more financially prudent? You can get financial advice before or after you show them the ticket, might as well get that process started.
Because before you receive your money they give you a bunch of paperwork to sign as well as how you want to break appart the money you receive and you want to be 100% sure what to say and what to agree too in order not to be legally scamed out of your winnings. Then once you receive the money you will already have the necessary accounts setup in order to not only store said cash but to basically live off the interests for the rest of your life as well as pay the irs their dues.
Sure, but you can claim your ticket before you sign any paperwork.
I was hoping they use the money for good. But looks like they are stupid and going come out and blow the money stupidly. Goddamm I just feel it all rigged.