There was only one winner of the $425 million Powerball drawing this week, and the ticket was sold at a gas station in California’s Bay Area. As you spend that money in your head, as we inevitably all do, you might wonder how you could win the lottery. You don’t need luck. Here’s a guaranteed winning strategy. [More]
lottery
All It Takes To Win $1M Powerball Prize? Playing The Same Numbers For Decades
By 2.19.14
The odds of you or me winning the Powerball are pretty darn slim. But who knew that if you could only have the patience to dedicate yourself entirely to just one set of numbers, and play them constantly over two decades, that you could reap say, a $1 million Powerball prize? Here’s where we point to a guy who did just that. [More]
Landscaper Finally Collects $1M From Lottery Ticket He Found Raking Leaves A Year Ago
By 12.30.13
As the saying goes, good things come to those who rake. Well, maybe it’s “wait” but in this case either one works for a guy who found a lottery ticket worth $1 million while cleaning up leaves in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy a year ago. [More]
Cops Play Santa, Hand Out Lotto Tickets Along With Speeding Tickets
By 12.26.13
A speeding ticket can be awfully expensive, but police in Melbourne, FL, were giving some lead-footed motorists a chance to win enough money to pay off their citations by handing out scratch-and-win lotto tickets and speeding tickets on Christmas day. [More]
Tomorrow Someone In Florida Will Lose The Chance To Collect $16M In Lottery Winnings
By 11.20.13
If you live in Florida you might want to start checking under the car seats, between the couch cushions and in the pocket of those pants you haven’t worn in awhile — there’s a $16 million Powerball jackpot sitting around just waiting for someone to claim it. But time is running out. [More]
If You Can’t Find Your Winning $6.3M Lotto Ticket, Check The Lost & Found
By 9.18.13
You’ve checked your front pockets, back pockets, the nightstand, the kitchen junk drawer, even the freezer, but that pesky $6.27 million lottery ticket you know you purchased is nowhere to be found. If you happen to be the lucky Spaniard who won the lottery but then lost the ticket, you might want to head to the lost and found at your local police station. [More]
Lottery Winner From 2006 Awarded Stolen $5 Million Prize
By 8.29.13
The lottery winner duped out of his prize by the sons of a convenience store owner will finally receive his $5 million. Back in 2006, a man in Syracuse, N.Y. won the huge prize in a scratchoff game, but the cashiers on duty, the store owner’s sons, told him that he had only won $5,000. They bought the ticket from him for even less than that, then did nothing. For six years. [More]
Winning The Powerball Is Easy — Just Buy Your Ticket From A Lucky Store
By 8.7.13
Before you get all up in arms and say there’s no such thing as an easy Powerball win [insert grumbling here] — I know. But there are stores that have come to be known as lucky, simply because they happened to sell the winning ticket and thereby get to claim a bit of the winner’s shine when all is said and done. Now perhaps if you consistently only visited those establishments… one can only hope. [More]
Man Sentenced To 8.3 To 25 Years For Scamming Customer Out Of $5 Million Lottery Ticket
By 7.23.13
At the time he won a $5 million lottery jackpot on a scratchoff ticket, a Syracuse, N.Y. man says that he was buying a lot of lottery tickets and also using crack. He claims that the store owner’s sons took the ticket and held on to it for six years. Now one of the sons has been convicted and sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison for criminal possession of stolen property. [More]
Woman Accidentally Buys Two Lottery Tickets And Wins… Twice
By 7.23.13
For all the times to be forgetful, an Australian woman lucked out in that the thing she forgot was that she’d already bout a ticket to the lottery, and bought another one. That absent-mindedness paid off — she won twice, for a total of $835,149.68. This is much better than forgetting to buy any tickets and just sitting at home knowing you’d have won if you’d only remembered to play. [More]
Man Stuffed $4 Million Lottery Ticket In Cookie Jar, Forgot About It For 3 Months
By 5.16.13
I have a secret fear that I will win a huge lottery prize, but never know it because I had stuffed the ticket in a coat pocket or a drawer. I deal with this fear by not buying lottery tickets. But this actually happened to a man who lives near Chicago. He says that he had stuffed old lottery tickets in a cookie jar, then took them to the store to see whether they had maybe won a couple of bucks for hitting a few numbers. They had: one ticket won $3. Yay, he could almost buy a gallon of gas! Then another ticket in the pile won more than $4 million. [More]
Share The Wealth, Eh?: Virginia Man Wins $500K Lotto Jackpot For Third Time
By 5.16.13
You know what they say: You can’t win if you don’t play. Although we’re not sure who “they” are, the saying might want to be changed to: If you’re a certain guy in Virginia, when you play the lotto, you’re probably going to win. He’s just cashed in a $500,000 jackpot, his third of at least that amount, if not more. [More]
Man Wins $338M Powerball Jackpot, Promises To Pay Everyone’s Rent In His Neighborhood
By 4.1.13
When you list the things you’ll buy and the places you’ll go when you finally strike it rich with a ginormous lottery win, is “paying all my neighbors’ rent” on there? It was for a New Jersey man who just won the $338 million Powerball jackpot last week. At least, he’s promised to cover housing costs for his neighbors for a little while. [More]
Ask Tax Dad: Should I Hire A Tax Preparer? What If I Win The Lottery?
By 2.28.13 — Updated: 3.6.13
Usually, our staff Certified Tax Cat handles questions about taxes, but he got into some really bad ‘nip and is taking the year off. Filling in for him is Laura’s dad, a retired accountant and real live independent tax preparer. Exclusively on Consumerist, Tax Dad answers your questions. [More]
Even If You Don’t Win The Powerball Jackpot, Check Your Ticket For Second Place
By 11.28.12
Let’s face it: You’re probably not going to win tonight’s $550 million Powerball jackpot (and if you do, check out these tips and email me your phone number). But you could be one of the lottery’s lesser winners. You’ll never know it if you throw your ticket on the ground and stomp on it like a sore loser, never to check out those numbers again. [More]
Cashier Allegedly Scammed Lottery Winner Out Of $5 Million Ticket, Waited 6 Years To Cash It In
By 11.16.12 — Updated: 7.23.13
A maintenance worker in Syracuse, N.Y. claims that he won $5 million on an instant lottery ticket. He took it back to the store where he had purchased it, and the store owner’s son told him that he had only won $5,000. The man offered him for $4,000 in cash for the ticket. The store owner’s two sons sat on the ticket for six years, then turned it in to the state lottery. The lottery sensed that something was not right here. [More]
Lying To Customer About A Winning £1M Lottery Ticket To Claim Winnings Himself Earns Man Deportation In UK
By 8.20.12
What is this world coming to if you can’t trust a shop worker to tell you the truth about your lottery ticket? A 78-year-old British woman brought her EuroMillions ticket to the shop where she had purchased it, and asked the employee to scan it for her to find out if she’d won big. She had, but instead of giving her the good news, cops say he straight up lied and said it was a dud. [More]
Probation For Lottery Winner Who Continued To Collect Food Stamps
By 7.24.12
Remember the Michigan woman who was charged with fraud because she continued to collect welfare and food stamps even after she won the lottery? Well, a decision has been reached in the case and she has been sentenced to six months’ probation. [More]
