Merle Butler and 엔트리 파워볼사이트순위 Pat Butler, two residents of Red Bud, Illinois, appear content in a viral video that has been making the rounds online. No one should be too surprised by this given that the footage shows Merle Butler carrying a counterfeit cheque for about $218 million.
As the third and final winner, he collected the $656 million Mega Millions Powerball jackpot, the highest in U.S. history at the time.
The three lucky winners were likely relieved. Still, it was the Butlers’ happy faces that were recognized all across the globe. Perhaps they enjoyed the spotlight, but I believe they were merely being nice and would have preferred to keep the news to themselves.
Unlike the other lucky winners, the Butlers were not given a say in the matter. Powerball winners in Illinois are required to attend promotional events and news conferences wearing a broad grin unless they have “compelling reasons” not to.
There are only six states where Powerball winners can remain anonymous: Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Wisconsin, Northern Dakota, and Ohio. Two more Mega Millions jackpot winners were located in the states of Kansas and Maryland.
In Kansas, the winner was 메이저 파워볼사이트순위 represented with a poster during the news conference. Three people who worked in public education in Maryland owned the winning ticket. They followed the Butlers’ lead and posed with a novelty check, but instead of showing their faces, they held up the check, which was written to “The Three Amigos.”
How many winners are required to publicize their good fortune varies by state and by the District of Columbia (which runs its lottery). Some states, like Illinois, are adamant about having victors appear on camera, while others simply announce the winners and let the press find them. Any winner in Colorado, Connecticut, or Vermont can keep their identity secret by having their winnings distributed to a trust or limited liability corporation. However, the state of Oregon explicitly forbids such behavior. Furthermore, I don’t think this tactic would fly in jurisdictions where news conferences are mandated. 메이저토토사이트순위 Whether you believe a corporation to be a legal person or not, it’s impossible to take a good picture of a trust or an LLC.
Winners of the 동행복권 파워볼사이트순위 Illinois Powerball are required to participate in a single news conference, although their privacy will be protected, as stated on the Powerball’s website. Despite the restriction, the Powerball would accommodate winners who prefer to remain anonymous, Michael Jones, the president of the Illinois Powerball, told The Associated Press.
The exception was that “an enterprising reporter can figure out who that individual is in the end,” he said. (1) While other states require a press conference to announce their winners, Missouri does not. Winners in that state are also given the option of avoiding their dreaded 15 minutes of fame by being advised, “If you prefer not to conduct a news conference, the media may still try to reach you at home or your place of employment.”
When it comes to “compelling grounds” to maintain anonymity, Illinois appears to be referring to things like restraining orders. However, I believe that most people have excellent reasons not to discuss their finances, particularly if they got a lot of money suddenly. The president of the Kansas Powerball, Dennis Wilson, explained that the state’s Mega Millions winner wanted to remain nameless “for obvious reasons that most of us would think about.” (2)
Winners of the Powerball are said to be cursed with rapid bankruptcy after receiving numerous inquiries from distant relatives and being harassed by salespeople. According to Reuters’ citing two studies (one from the University of Florida looking at bankruptcies and 안전한 파워볼사이트순위 the other from Stanford University looking at Powerball winners), over 90% of lottery winners end up losing their money within five years. While some lottery winners make the wise decision to get competent legal 안전메이저놀이터검증 and financial counsel, others do not and are thus unprepared to handle their newfound wealth.
As reported by the Missouri Powerball, nearly all jackpot winners report a pleasant experience. If you accept that percentage at its value, it still indicates that three percent of winners find the negative aspects of winning, such as having their names in the press, to be more detrimental than the positive aspects of receiving hundreds of millions of dollars. While advertisements encourage people to think large, we can safely conclude that more than 3% of individuals who win the biggest prizes also have poor luck.
Lotteries argue that they must be able to positively identify winners to verify that they are handing out prizes. I doubt many people would avoid playing Powerball out of uncertainty, although there are actual Powerball scams. Like with government-registered nonprofits, independent auditors and state attorneys general could help maintain public confidence.
By putting Powerball 메이저 파워볼사이트순위 winners on display for the cameras, the company hopes to inspire more people to believe that they, too, maybe the next big winner. Naturally, the vast majority cannot and will not prevail. This is what separates a Powerball win from a more practical prize.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot were discussed at length in the days leading up to the big drawing. Lists of those things appeared on several different news websites and blogs. Even so, few individuals alter their behavior in response to such data. When asked to speculate on the likelihood of an event, people are more inclined to believe it is likely if they can readily think of instances in which the event has occurred. The availability heuristic describes this type of thinking. It’s only natural to feel optimistic about our prospects of winning the Powerball jackpot when we hear about another lucky player.
State-run in this approach, Powerball takes advantage of both its winners and its losers. Powerball’s winners get unwanted publicity in exchange for selling more tickets to people who will almost certainly lose.
I, really, really hope the Butlers avoid the dreaded “Powerball curse.” Everything points to them being on the right track thus far. They met with accountants and a lawyer before the mandatory news conference. Equally, they didn’t broadcast their major development publicly.
Together, they’ve held down 파워볼사이트순위 정보 full-time jobs, parented two children, and paid off the home they’ve resided in since 1977. The Butlers appear to be a mature, stable couple who can handle the challenges that coming into public attention and winning such a large reward will entail.
Strangers, including myself, will make unfavorable judgments of a person’s character regardless of how responsible they may be. It also won’t prevent the Butlers’ current coworkers, neighbors, charities, and sudden relatives from making them feel horrible. Besides receiving increased pleas to donate, they will also be inundated with requests for additional funding.
A hundred dollars would have been a nice round number for a fundraiser for a community organization before the Butlers grew affluent. The fundraiser may now look at them and ask, “You have all this money, and you’re only contributing $100?” One common tactic for taking advantage of the newly wealthy is to suggest that they don’t deserve their wealth and should donate it when requested. Many of us struggle to say “no” since we were trained to be polite on the playground and in kindergarten. Saying “no” in a small town can bring on a barrage of snark and contempt from those you see every day, adding to the stress you’re already under.
