Couple Wins $1.5 Million in Britain's Lottery Twice in Two Years

             
          

Read >>

Quebec man 7 seconds too late for share of $27M lotto jackpot: Supreme Court

torontosun

OTTAWA — A Quebec man who bought a Lotto Super 7 ticket seven seconds after the deadline won't be able to collect half the $27-million jackpot and will also have to cover the court costs after the Supreme Court dismissed his case Thursday.

Joel Ifergan sued Loto-Quebec for $13.5 million, but Canada's top court wouldn't hear his arguments.

Ifergan went to the convenience store to buy two lottery tickets on May 23, 2008. The clerk told him he had to act quickly because the 9 p.m. deadline was quickly approaching.

The first quick pick was printed in time, but the second was printed seven seconds after the deadline and indicated it was for next week's draw.

Unfortunately for Ifergan, the winning numbers for the $27-milion jackpot appeared on the second ticket.

Another person had the winning numbers for the May 23 draw, which is why Ifergan sued for half the winnings.

Ifergan claims that once his order for the two tickets was placed in the terminal for the May 23 draw, the lottery provider was obligated to provide them for that date.

In May 2014, a Quebec Court of Appeal also rejected his case.

The ‘Golf Shot of the Year’

nailcotehall

Jump or die: Exclusive images show chaos as skydiving planes collide midair

usnews

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The cameras strapped to the skydivers' helmets were supposed to memorialize their perfectly timed jumps and exhilarating descent from two small planes to the earth 12,000 feet below.

John Rodrigo via TODAY

Instead, the footage filmed by five daredevils shows the terrifying moment when the aircraft collided above Wisconsin, flinging parachuters into the air like plastic action figures and sending one plane into a fiery dive across a sunset-lit sky.

Nightly News will have the first look at the video at 6:30 p.m. Monday, followed by full exclusive coverage on TODAY on Tuesday morning.

Amy Olson via TODAY

The images are heart-stopping: One Cessna suddenly sandwiched atop another; the legs of a jumper dangling over the tail of a plane; a skydiver hanging onto a step like an acrobat before he lets go; a fireball roaring out of one plane as it plunges downward.

The thrill-seekers' helmets also filmed the miraculous aftermath of the crash: one by one, the jumpers landing on the ground, shaken but largely uninjured, and hopping into a truck to gather up the others.

All nine skydivers survived. The only person injured was the pilot of the Cessna that lost its wing. He had on an emergency parachute and escaped through an emergency chute and suffered cuts.

The pilot of the other plane was able to pull out of a dive and land at Richard I. Bong Airport in Douglas County.

Chad Ebling via TODAY

“The outcome for us was as good as it could be,” Mike Robinson, one of the passengers, told NBC News over the weekend.

Robinson, 64, said then that the two single-engine planes were in position for a maneuver called a tracking dive, with one closely following the other.

“The sun was just getting ready to set, it was our last load of the day,” he said Saturday. “It was just a perfect time to be up in the sky.”

There were several passengers in position to jump from an exterior step on each plane when the collision happened. Others were inside but quickly leaped out.

Patricia Roy via TODAY

The video shot by Amy Olson, apparently taken while she was still inside the plane, shows three fellow divers out on the step when the plane below them is suddenly right underneath. They leap as a fireball flashes.

Down below, John Rodrigo looks up to capture the planes pancaked on each other and then the tiny figures of his fellow passengers floating down.

Footage from Chad Ebling's helmet shows two people on the step when the planes hit each other, and then his own legs draped over the tail.

Robinson's camera filmed the crippled plane he left behind as it plunged to the ground — missing a wing.

The cause of the accident is unknown, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The planes were owned by Skydive Superior.

John Rodrigo via TODAY

Robinson told NBC News after the crash that he was the oldest member of the group.

“This was my fourth jump of the day – I have over 900 skydives,” Robinson said.

"I'll remember this one more than most.”

NBC News' Elisha Fieldstadt contributed to this report.

Powerball odds: 175 million to 1

courantblogs.com

agameofskill

By Anthony Kelzenberg for agameofskill.com

Playing the Odds?

This past week Powerball, the leading national lottery, made two changes to its program intended to produce larger, and more frequent, carryovers for its twice-weekly drawings.  First off, it DOUBLED the price of the wager from one dollar per combination to two dollars per combination.  To mitigate some of this increase in cost, the number of possible “Powerballs” in the sequence was cut from 39 to 35, meaning the odds of hitting the Powerball lottery on a single ticket went from 195 million to 1 to “only” 175 million to 1.  Here are the odds quoted for other activities seen in everyday life (source, Funny2.com).

Odds of…

Fatally slipping in bath or shower: 2,232 to 1

Injury from mowing the lawn: 3,623 to 1

Injury from using a chain saw: 4,464 to 1

Getting a hole in one: 5,000 to 1

Bowling a “300” game: 11,500 to 1

Being murdered: 18,000 to 1

Injury from fireworks: 19,556 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Being struck by lightning: 576,000 to 1

Winning an Olympic medal: 662,000 to 1

Drowning in a bathtub: 685,000 to 1

Being killed by lightning: 2,320,000 to 1

Being an astronaut: 13,200,000 to 1

Getting canonized (made a saint in the Catholic Church): 20,000,000 to 1

Killed on a 5-mile bus trip: 500,000,000 to 1

Looking at the above statistics, the ONLY activity more rare than hitting the Powerball lottery is dying while taking a very, very, short bus trip.  In fact, it is roughly 300 times more likely to be struck by lightning than it is to win the Powerball lottery.  I think it can be asserted that winning a large-payoff lottery is very difficult.  But what can we say about value of betting the lottery?  If it a “fair” wager?

Takeout and Cost of Entry

The “takeout” is the percentage of a wager pool that is removed before the remaining pool is distributed to the successful winners.  Ideally, a horseplayer should focus on pools having LOWER takeout, because more money is returned to successful bettors.  There are some wagers (Pick 5 or Pick 6 wagers, Super Hi5) where money is “carried over” because no one held a winning combination the previous day.  Sometimes these carryovers can make a pool with ZERO or NEGATIVE takeout if the carryover is large enough to compensate for the mandated takeout of the wager.

In the lottery (not just Powerball but all lotteries), the takeout is an abhorrent 50%.  In other words, 50 cents of every dollar spent on lotteries is taken from the players.  In pari-mutuel horse racing, where the bettors AS A GROUP set the payoffs, takeout varies, but typically it is 15% for win/place/show (“the straight pools”), 20% for exactas and daily doubles, and 25% for trifecta, superfecta, Pick 4s, Pick 5s, and Pick 6s (the “superexotics”).  The horseplayer, in addition to considering takeout and possible returns (the superexotics are generally the most difficult wagers to win, but have the best payoffs), should consider his or her EXPERIENCE and APTITUDES.  A losing wager is essentially a 100% takeout to the player.  When possible, horseplayers should stick with race tracks, types of races and track surfaces that produce success.  For example, if one isn’t good at evaluating unraced two year old maidens, pass those types of races until you feel you have a strong angle.

One more point to make on the superexotics – it is very common today for a superexotic combination to be purchased for 50 cents or less.  This gives the player the ability to “swing for the fences” by including more long shots on a budget, and I think this should be embraced by all players, even those not prone to stray from the straight pools or new players.  The reason is LEVERAGE.  Every added horse in a superexotic combination roughly ups they payoff by 5 to 10 times.  In past years even a $1 per combination cost could be prohibitive, but at 50 cents pretty much every fan has the potential to play a viable, yet modest trifecta or superfecta ticket for a total cost of $3 to $12, depending on ticket construction.  Also, this lower “cost of entry” is a possible alternative to lottery players that are seeing their costs to play not decrease, but indeed DOUBLE or TRIPLE (many daily lottery and scratchoff games are also increasing in cost).

As an experienced player, it’s amazing to me how little people in the “real world” understand how superexotic wagering functions at the race track and how it is possible to win a lot (maybe $1,000 to $2,000) without betting a lot (less than $20).  I would challenge the “powers that be” at the NTRA and the tracks to do a better job of educating not just regular, or semi-regular players, but the general public, that (1) As an industry we are making our games less expensive and easier to play, (2) Our games offer value not only to the professional player but to the novice as a game of chance and skill, and (3) We would dedicate a small percentage of national superexotic wagering to support equine health research, equine retirements and/or breakdown prevention.  There is a proven model for this approach – the pari-mutuel horse racing hub for Hong Kong, which handles more money than any other tote system in the world.  Most of the takeout in Hong Kong is used for local government-sanctioned projects and charities.

Conclusion

I have presented a case that the lottery is a terrible wager.  The odds of winning a super lottery like Powerball are incredibly against the player, and the takeout is outrageously high, even in the daily wagers. Consequently, the lottery is one of the worst bets in the marketplace.  Pari-mutuel horse racing, with its much lower takeouts, lower wagering costs and multiple wagering opportunities, is a much better system, not only for experienced players, but semi-regulars and novices to get involved at some level.

I challenge the NTRA and other industry leaders to recognize the positive aspects of modern-day pari-mutuel wagering and its potential not only to support our game, but support charities that as an industry we should get behind.

Girl, 15, shot in Oregon mall cheats death twice

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read >>

'It's not a lot,' winner of $377,000,000 jackpot says

Illinois couple in their 60s, claim share of $656 million Mega Millions prize

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read >>

Rhode Island woman, 81, wins $336 million Powerball

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More >>

The Luckiest People Compilation

The Luckiest People On Earth

Woman wins $25,000,000 lotto after mistake

Matrimonio gay gano $50 millones en loteria canadiense

Couple wins one of our biggest jackpots

In tougher times, Vancouver pair Kurt and Claude Blanchette-Ebert lost both a home and business.