The Rich Keep Getting Richer—Stop Playing Our Lotteries!

Money Attracts Money

I do not know about you, but one of my biggest pet peeves is greed. I loathe greedy people with a passion. Can you believe that there are rich people who dare to play the lottery? I cannot help but think to myself, “Do you honestly need to win money? Your bank account is probably as large as the jackpot!” One of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, has a skit about people at the gym and it sums up how I feel about rich people playing the lotto.

Richie Rich and Company

A few years ago, there were three already-rich wealth managers (oh the irony) in Greenwich, Connecticut who came forward and claimed the PowerBall jackpot. How much was the jackpot worth, you ask?

$254 million. After taxes, each of these rich lottery winners walked away with $104 million.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

Now, you would like to think that maybe they spent hundreds of dollars trying to win their largest paycheck to date. Well, the fates have a cruel sense of humor because the quick pick ticket (oh yes, they did not even choose their numbers!) only cost ONE. DOLLAR.

Now I know I may sound like a bitter Bessy, but come on!

Wealth Managers Manage… Wealth?

The three men did not immediately claim the multimillion-dollar prize. They kept quiet so long; the state put up billboards urging the winners to come forward to claim their winnings. It was only after the men carefully planned for their impending wealth by doing tax and estate planning, did they come forward.

At the time, there were a lot of angry people. Mind you, this all happened during the Occupy Wall Street movement. At the time, there were demonstrators at the nearby Zuccotti Park who were making a stink about the top 1% getting richer off the backs of the rest of the population.

Matt Schaffer, an Occupy Wall Street protestor, said: “This exemplifies the predicament in this country. The rich are getting richer off the poor. The lottery screws the poor to begin with; the fact that rich men won is an insult.”

The men claim that they would donate a “significant amount” to various charities; however, no records are indicating they made good on that promise.

Move Over, Rich Businessmen!

The three-already rich lottery winners are not the only ones that play the poor man’s game. Even celebrities and wealthy athletes try to get in on the millions—you know because our support (after all, we buy their music, watch their movies, and go to their sporting events) is not enough… Now they have to try to cash in on our attempts to get rich, too.

Back in 2012 when the Mega Millions was up to $640 million, several millionaire celebrities were boasting about trying to get a slice of that massive pile. Nick Jonas, from the boy band, the Jonas Brothers,

was seen in line purchasing a lottery ticket in Manhattan. Matt Kemp had the balls to post a photograph of himself with a bunch of lotto tickets—after he was just signed to a $160 million baseball contract!

He is not the only sports star who spent a lot of money on tickets. Chris Singleton from the Washington Wizards spent $10,000 on lottery tickets! For the ONE drawing! Let’s say his fans weren’t very pleased.

The rapper, Trey Songs, also took to Twitter exclaiming his intentions on playing the lotto.

Side note: I wonder if he won if he would take an English class.

Please tell me I am not the only one that feel that if you are already wealthy, stop trying to get richer by playing the lottery—regardless if they got rich from hard work or if they already won the lottery once before. Do you think the lottery is free game for anyone willing to play? Let us know what you think!