@rosborne979,
rosborne979 wrote:
At what point does the amount of money get so large that we would have to worry about the qualifications of the person receiving it?
Numbers above a billion start to have economic consequences depending on how they are used (and where they are stored) don't they?
That's an interesting point, but thankfully there are no required qualifications for winning this money (unless it's possibly age).
Also, while a billion is a huge amount of money that can have hugely dramatic effects on individuals it won't have much of an economic impact on any decent sized city, and it's unlikely that anyone living in Podunk, population 535, is going to stay there and spend their millions.
If someone wins it, taxes and gifts will make sure they don't remain a billionaire and people with "only" $500 million don't even make the richest persons in America list.
Of course someone who wins that much money could, conceivably, parlay it into billions, but the public had no say in whether or not Warren Buffet or Bill Gates were qualified to be billionaires, and they don't deserve any as respects lottery winners.
I would imagine that if a truly insane person won a billion his family could petition a court to keep it out of his hands, but they would have to show cause which would, I think, need to be related to evidence that he would harm himself or others or was just incapable of making rational decisions.
It would make for quite a story though. Whoever wins this, he or she is going to have to deal with the desire of the public to know about them. Another good reason to hire personal security and make plans to escape to a secluded location before you claim your winnings. There's probably some requirement that you allow your name to be used or even make a public statement at a press conference. If the latter is the case, once you know you've won, take the time to change your appearance before you claim the ticket.
If you normally wear a beard, shave it. If you don't start growing one.
Let your hair grow or cut it short
Change the color of your hair
Wear contacts instead of glasses or glasses instead of contacts. Better yet, wear sunglasses at the appearance.
When you make a public statement, place a band-aid across the bridge of your nose.
There's probably even a website that can give you tips on how to alter your appearance. When I win, I will search for it.
Also during this waiting period between winning and claiming the prize, immediately get a safety deposit box at your local bank and put the ticket there. I can imagine the temptation of keeping the ticket on your person at all time, and I can also imagine the horror of finding I sent the shirt, in the pocket of which I kept the ticket, to the dry-cleaners, or that I left my wallet at a restaurant after getting totally ripped to celebrate the win. It might be tough to resist going to the bank everyday to make sure the ticket is still there, but I guess that will depend on the level of your OCD.
When you win this much money in this way, I don't think much can be rightfully called paranoia.
Some may even considering winning this thing a curse rather than a blessing and to all of them I say, I have broad shoulders and a steady gait, for the benefit of the rest of the country I will take on this burden. Please pray that I do.
