THE BIGGEST BET

POWERBALL AND OTHER LOTTERIES OFFER THE BIGGEST PAYOUTS IN GAMBLING, AND SOME PROFESSIONALS HAVE FOUND WAYS TO GAME THE SYSTEM

BY MICHAEL KAPLAN

Since 1964, the lottery has been the biggest and most prominent form of legal gambling in the United States. And it is impossible to miss. Winners of Powerball, Lotto, Mega Millions and other lotteries typically go public as a condition of getting paid. They celebrate with oversized checks, express caviar dreams and become multimillionaires overnight. The payouts can be the very stuff of dreams. On 11 occasions, the grand prize has exceeded $1 billion. On November 7, 2022, Edwin Castro of Altadena, California won the largest lottery jackpot in American history, $2.04 billion. (His lump-sum payout was $997 million.) He treated his friends to a Fiji vacation, and invested in some pricey California real estate, including a $47 million mansion in Bel Air. But the payouts are incredible longshots. Powerball has odds…

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Cigar Aficionado (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2024

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