Winner of $1.3B Powerball jackpot is a immigrant from Laos who has cancer | Hacker News Reader

Winner of $1.3B Powerball jackpot is a immigrant from Laos who has cancer

apnews.com

47 pointssilahyd45 comments

Isn't rule number 1 of lottery winning like ... keep a low profile, and don't speak to any reporters? Or are these names always publicly announced anyway?

They're announced publicly. It's very difficult depending on the state you're in to be completely anonymous as a winner of the lottery.

It depends on the state. Some states allow winners to stay anonymous, others consider it a matter of public record.

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4531772-can-...

As the article mentions, Oregon requires the names of lottery winners to be made public. Most states have laws like this so that it's harder to quietly rig the lottery to go to friends of yours every time.

Ah, fair enough.

Hope he finds some expensive experimental genetic therapy that cures him. At least that's what I would do.

Just have to be careful of the thousands of charlatans who will now be laser focused on him and his family, no doubt.

kind of an interesting thought along the lines of karma in the pooling of public payments into a fund that comes out the other end funding experimental medical procedures for a very willing volunteer. A wild route to for ethical research but works for us all I suppose.

$1.3B reduced to $420M.

I thought the tax were already paid and the money was clean. Far out!

They are getting the lump sum payment which automatically reduces the payoff by half. So it's really 650M to 420M.

It's amazing how big these jackpots have become over the past decade, and especially post-Covid. Trillion-dollars of debt and billion-dollar jackpots go in hand, yet the dollar remains strong contrary to endless prediction of its collapse. Rather than the sucking sound warned by Perot, it's more like the inflating sound.

There's a reason why the jackpots seem bigger...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/02/03/powerba...

the payouts have increased way more than odds have fallen

It's so funny that Forbes seem to mistaken Portland Oregon for Portland Maine? They quote their own article that says "Maine Winner Nabs $1.35 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot.."

I was doubting myself but the apnews article shows a video with Oregon Lottery and mentions of Salem and Oregon laws... I'm pretty sure this isn't in Maine haha

The rules in both were purposefully changed to make them harder to win so that the jackpots grow bigger

I wonder what lottery popularity says (or maybe doesn’t say) about the health of a society.

and the prevalence of gambling. i visited the dominican republic in 2014 and was apalled to see gambling stations in every rural town. now i see fanduel on every billboard in america

You should drive through Montana sometime. Slot machines everywhere

That we're so lacking in real hope and dreams, so people buy them a few dollars at a time from gas stations.

I thought the “giant sucking sound” of Perot was referring to good manufacturing jobs which would leave under NAFTA. And didn’t that come true to some extent?

It was, and he was right, in the end, yes.

Yes, he was, and they did, just not so much to Mexico as China.

What would be a realistic plan for spending the $400m to give yourself the best chance of saving your own life?

From what I read, the best cancer treatments money can buy even without insurance are on the order of single digit millions of dollars.

Probably some dieticians and personal therapists thrown into the mix would help. Let's call that another million dollars.

But - realistically - even the ultra wealthy die of cancer. All the money in the world might not be enough. At least if all the money ends up being blown, it will at least have given him a fighting chance.

$1.3 billion

Lump sum after DCF adjustment and income taxes: $422 million

After estate tax: $200 million

After US healthcare cancer treatments, -$3mil.

Lotto is made to generate taxes right?

Dude got a 200 million check for doing absolutely nothing (in the grand scheme of things) and the state got a bunch of money from state sanctioned gambling.

he definitely did something, otherwise lotto wouldnt exist

What value did he produce?

I don’t really object to taxation of winnings like this in principle. It’s knowing that said money is essentially being thrown into the financial black hole that is the United States government that bothers me. The unending waste of it all, and yet people want to give even more money to them.

Ah yes, I'm sure you'd do far better as king libertarian dictator, right before you got ate by a bear.

You’re incredibly far off base. I’m not a libertarian in the least. I’m all for well run government that uses its money to help its citizens. Unfortunately we don’t have that kind of government. But if you want give even more of your paycheck to help fuel the war machine and fund bloated useless department of redundancy departments be my guest.

He haven't even learned.

Why does estate tax apply?

Depends on how long he has to live and set things up to work around it, but Oregon has an up to 16% estate tax + federal estate tax of up to 40%. Kicks in after 16 million or so.

I think this was meant to be a dark comment. They only apply upon death when wealth is being passed to heirs. However, he's married, so in the unfortunate event of his death, AFAIK his wife would -not- have to pay any estate taxes.

I assume that’s because he has cancer. I hope it doesn’t apply to him for many years though.

Imagine winning the lottery then dying six months later. Your heirs pay $200M for the privilege of you having that money for a few months.

I’d be ecstatic that I set my family up for life and die with a smile on my face.

And die like king tut.. spend the half on the passing haha

The money doesn't belong to the heirs. Winner can donate all of it if he wants.

I don't know. I thought people set up trusts to get around that

There are plenty of ways the wealthy can avoid or reduce estate taxes -- giving most of it to charity is one unselfish way. The problem with lottery winners, as someone else has mentioned, is that they're often easy prey for grifters, so they're going to have to try to be as anonymous as possible when finding help.

> $1.3 billion > ... > After estate tax: $200 million

What's the most amazing is that with such a confiscatory scheme in place, the monkeys at the helm still managed to create 130% public debt and are concerned that they cannot sustain the debt payments anymore.

And others shall push to make more of what didn't work: more taxes, we'll solve everything with more taxes, for the gubernment knows best!

The public debt is and never will be practically serviceable with income tax as it's designed to be an exponentially growing nominal value.

The amazing thing is that with all that confiscation we can't fix basic social problems or even build a freaking high speed rail.

Man wins lottery, buys the whole country he immigrated from.

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