The prize for the Powerball lottery drawing for today is estimated to have grown to US$1.3 billion. It’s actually the result of a rather clever strategy by the team behind Powerball – they recently increased the jackpot, and made it less likely that any one person would win, in the hopes of generating the types of headlines that have dominated the American media cycle over the past week.

But this bulletin is about lottery winners past, courtesy of Ed White:

• In 1984 a 42-year-old man won a lottery prize that guaranteed $1,000 a month for the rest of his life.
• Now 73, he’s looking to cash out in order to pay off accumulated debts.
• One buyer has offered $40,026 for the ticket that will only pay out as long as the original winner remains alive.
• This indicates the buyer expects the original winner to live for roughly another three years.
• It may not be a bad deal – according to the Social Security Administration (SSA), the average 73-year-old will live another 13 years.
• If the SSA is right, then the ticket should pay out about $156,000 by the time the original winner passes away.

You can read the full article here. Centives has previously covered a similar story about the elderly auctioning off their life insurance – you can read that here.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Via: Marginal Revolution