Some People Have Too Much Luck!

For those of us who struggle with day to day expenses and must budget down to the last penny the lottery offers us the chance to dream of wealth and leisure. We plunk down our dollars every week in hopes we will be the ones to win a life free of financial woes. Recently there was a story about a lottery winner that is sure to raise the ire of the average Joe who plays the lottery.

The New York State Lottery recently added a scratch off game offering the largest jackpot in the history of the New York State Lottery. Lottery tickets are pricey ($30) but the jackpot is a cool million dollars a year for life. After taxes a winner's earnings add up to about $674,000 a year for life.

Of course we all hope an average Joe will win the lottery but the most recent winner is sure to raise the ire of all those average Joes out there. The first person to win the Million Dollar for Life lottery is already a multi millionaire! As if that isn't bad enough the winner is not a US citizen and thanks to an agreement between the UK and the US, Keenan Atunis will not have to pay the taxes that a US citizen would have to pay. Keenan Atunis was born in Turkey but raised in the U.S and is currently working in England for Unicredit.

Atunis who was in the US for a family gathering gave his mother $100 to buy some of the $30 a ticket game cards. He stated that the recent turmoil in the stock market put him in the frame of mind to take a chance on increasing his fortunes. In what can only be called understatement he said he does not expect winning the lottery to change his life very much. Some people have too much luck!

Like it or not Mr. Atunis won the jackpot fair and square. The chief objection to his big win is probably the fact that he will pay no taxes while US winners are taxed at almost 50%. If Atunis had played the UK national lottery he could have bought online lottery tickets instead of relying on a third party to purchase the lotto tickets. UK lottery players have been able to make an online lottery purchase for years and the move has been wildly popular among British lotto players. UK players can also play several other European lotteries and best of all-US players are accepted.