Your odds of winning a lottery are as bad as being struck by lightning, but that doesn’t stop Americans from shelling out billions every year.
Even when people win, they quickly find out that the government is going to take half of your winnings.
But this woman was in for a shock when she found out she won more than she expected.
A New York deli just sold somebody a ticket that could change their life
Imagine, you get off work and all you want to do is crack open a drink and relax.
While stopping at the corner store, you impulsively buy a Powerball ticket, because as they say, you cannot win if you don’t play.
You know the odds are low, but hell, why not? Then the cashier says you win $10,000 . . . oh wait . . . there are two more zeros the clerk says.
Just like that, you are a millionaire.
Well, more like half a millionaire after the government snatches a massive chunk of your winnings away in taxes, but you get the point.
This is what happened to Tara Cooley after stopping at Peoples Place Gourmet Deli on the Upper East Side in Manhattan last Monday.
Peoples Place Gourmet Deli worker, Maeen Ghazi, spoke out to the New York Post about this thrilling experience, saying that Tara Cooley asked if they had ever sold a jackpot, to which he simply replied, “No.”
He then told the Post, “She said, ‘OK, I’ll check my ticket.’ Then she said, ‘Oh, I won big money, can you see how much?’ When I saw the receipt, I thought it was $10,000 or $100,000.”
He added, “I asked her ‘How much is this?’ She said ‘1 million.’ She was shocked. She was so shocked. She asked ‘Is this real or a dream?,’”
The bodega worker recalled, describing the customer as a “tall lady, attractive, quiet, maybe 50.”
As it stands, the most anybody has won from the lottery sits at a whopping 2.04 billion, which adds up to just under 1 billion after taxes.
Having said that, the odds of winning such a massive jackpot remain next to none, with most people, who regularly participate in the lottery, losing in the long run.
Just about any financial expert will tell you that getting rich does not happen overnight, and gambling is one of the worst long-term strategies for building wealth.
Many Americans want the lottery abolished altogether while some rely on it
Go to any convenience store, and without fail, there is a corner of the store with people feverishly scratching their tickets, or picking their numbers.
Sadly, these people will almost certainly lose money in the end.
Moreover, study after study shows that the vast majority of people who regularly play the lottery often fall in the low-income demographic.
For this reason, many Americans have grown tired of the lottery, claiming that the state should play a direct role in bankrupting the people they claim to represent.
Read All About It will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
