Powerball's Biggest Winner: Government

Heh.

My wife buys tickets.

Not me. I don't like the odds, lol.

From Michelle Malkin:

Ka-ching!

Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot soared to $1.5 billion as get-rich-quick mania seized America this week. But you don’t need to wait for the drawing to know who’ll score the royal payoff.

The biggest winner of the multistate numbers game is — drumroll, please — Uncle Sam.

Powerball is a government-sponsored gambling racket in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The feds automatically skim 25 percent off the top of a lump-sum cash award. Additional state withholding taxes vary depending on residency status. Mega-winners are taxed at the highest federal income tax bracket (nearly 40 percent); those who live in states with personal income taxes could pay up to an additional 9 percent. Local municipal taxes can add another 3-5 percent to the tax burden.

Government lotteries of all kinds raked in a whopping $70 billon in revenue last year, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. Cash-strapped states pitch the rackets as civic enterprises by purporting to earmark a portion of proceeds for public education, economic development and mass transit, senior citizens’ programs, professional sports stadiums and environmental protection.

As I’ve noted during previous, high-stakes lotto crazes, the state bureaucrats who run these schemes for numeracy-challenged consumers are free to ban outside competition — including private slot machines, phone betting, instant pull tabs and card rooms. The feds help out by limiting sweepstakes and Internet gambling, as well as exempting state lottery marketing materials from Federal Trade Commission regulations that guarantee truth in advertising.

That’s right. While cracking down on ads on everything from cereal to toothpaste to cars, Washington protects states that spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year falsely promising “a dollar and a dream,” “everyone is a winner” and “somebody’s gotta win — might as well be you.”

Numeracy challenged!

And ripped off by the permanent political bureaucracy!

Keep reading.

$1.58 Billion Powerball Winning Ticket Sold in Chino Hills, California

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Winning Powerball jackpot ticket sold in Chino Hills."

And at London's Daily Mail, "We have a winner! Celebrations outside California 7-Eleven store that sold $1.58BILLION Powerball jackpot... as jokers trick the internet with Photoshopped tickets claiming they scooped prize."

My wife bought about 10 tickets. I don't think we hit anything or obviously I would've heard about it by now, lol.

There may be winners in a few other states, so the Chino Hills guy, who is said to have spent $100 thousand on tickets, won't get the jackpot for himself.

No Powerball Winner, So Jackpot Expected to Hit $1.3 Billion

That's pretty staggering.

At the Los Angeles Times, "No winning Powerball tickets sold; jackpot hits $1.3 billion."

'This has never happened before' — Powerball Jackpot Swells to $700 Million (VIDEO)

My wife bought tickets, heh.

Watch, at AP, "Powerball Jackpot Climbs to Estimated $700M."

And at the Los Angeles Times:

Describing the odds of winning Saturday's Powerball drawing as "slim" would be an understatement — but it would also be an understatement to call the jackpot "big."

For the 18th consecutive time, no one matched all six numbers to the Powerball lottery jackpot Wednesday night. As a result, the estimated prize for Saturday’s drawing has ballooned to an unprecedented $700 million.

Just to put that jackpot in global perspective, it’s larger than the gross domestic product for nine of the world’s island nations, according to the World Bank: Comoros, Dominica, Tonga, São Tomé and Príncipe, Micronesia, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Wednesday’s jackpot was already more than a half-billion dollars. With the prize climbing to a level never reached, lottery officials expect the public’s excitement to reach a fever pitch by Saturday.

“I don’t even know how to describe it. This has never happened before,” said California State Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso. “All I can imagine now is seeing how the next three days unfold. Our sales just started today.

Powerball is played in 44 states and three U.S. territories. The jackpot minimum is $40 million because there are so many participants. On an average week in California, there’s maybe $6 million in sales divided between the Wednesday and Saturday drawings, Traverso said...

Mega Millions Jackpot Soars to Estimated $636 Million

I don't go in for it, although my wife does.

Here's the Associated Press:

AP VIDEO: As the Mega Millions jackpot soars to an estimated $636 million, some players share their plans: http://t.co/J0xojJQyQ4
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 18, 2013

But see Michelle Malkin:

Powerball. Megamillions. Whatever the name, it's all the same government-protected, regressive tax-subsidized scam.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) December 18, 2013

Well, maybe some lucky schlep will win the big one, at the Boston Herald, "Mega Millions jackpot near record payout: Visions of 600M $ugarplums."