LogFAQs > #944252255

Personally I wish they made the jackpots significantly lower but drastically increased the odds of winning, so more people would win. You don't need 600 million (Even after taxes eating alot of that and only getting 75% if you do lump some).

A better way (in my opinion) would be to make a more fair lottery, where 10% of the money collected goes to whatever, but 90% is returned, and split to a point where people generally get about 5 mill in winnings each.

Lump sum option would be 4mill and then 50% (depending on the state you live in) would leave you with a bit over 2mill. More than enough to totally change a persons life and ensure they could live easily (even now you could still get at least 5% of that in interest per year, so 100k for life).

Instead of having...maaaaaybe, 1 person win 100mill (or having that hold over and build up over time), you could have 20 people win 5 mill. The odds would be better/fairer as well since you only take out about 10% and the rest all gets returned.

THEN it would make sense to play the lottery. You still wouldn't have a great chance of winning, but......it could happen and it would for some people and you would be paying towards making their lives much better. I would feel good about putting money into that system.

I also think lottery winnings should be exempt from taxes tbh, or taxed at a much lower/fixed rate (perhaps just state taxes but no federal).

Basically something like this as the entire setup.

Lottery tickets can be purchased for $1, total possible combinations (Chance of winning) is around 1/100 million.
Total jackpot (total you can win) is 80% of the # of tickets purchased (200 mill tickets purchased = 160mil jackpot)
Jackpot is paid immediately, in full (no reduction for lump sum), split among the winners.
10% of the # of tickets is paid out amoung those who were 1 number away from winning (split between them, immediatly, no taxes)
10% of the total sum goes towards education or whatever (possibly some towards running the lottery etc., maybe 1% towards that and 9% towards other stuff).

Net result would create a way for average people to get rich, even if your chance wasn't great. Say you factor in only adults eligable, and not too old (in care facilities etc), so less than 200 mill total americans. If everyone played, you would create a few millionares a pop, without hurting most people (Everyone tosses in $5 for instance, so 1 billion total purchases).

If you aim for a 5 mill jackpot (create the odds around having that be the average winning), and you have a 800 million jackpot, that means about 40 winners (or new millionares) each time. Tax free, no lump sum reduction. You would also have a bunch of people (400 I think it is), get the secondary prize which would split 80 million (200k each)...also no taxes or lump sum reduction).

I could totally get behind that.

---

Tacobot 3000 "Saving the world from not having tacos."
Glowing Elephant "Stonehedge was a sex thing."