Here are 13 weird facts about the lottery and #7 is my favorite
What interesting job does this man have involving lottery winners? Find out in Fact #5. PHOTO: Daily Star/Chris Neill-Maverick Photography
Here's some weird and downright strange facts about lottery games and prizes. We've given you 13 of them to ponder over:
1 - This revealing YouTube video exposes some ‘hidden illuminati’ symbolism in the National Lottery with a strange theory. Watch and decide for yourself whether it's true or not.
2 - The first thing UK's National Lottery staff tells a winner: Sign the back of your ticket. The head of player services says when a winner gets in touch from the phone number on the back of every ticket, they ask them to write their name and address on the back.
3 - Some lottery organizations will require you to give your name and hometown when you win a large prize. So it's a good idea to change your phone number immediately you recover from the winning shock!
4 - If you owe back taxes or child support, payment may be requested before you can collect your prize money. Source: Woodbridge Inv.
5 - If you win a 6-figure prize in UK’s National lottery, they will arrange a time - often on the same day - to visit your house to confirm the winnings. The man in the photo who advises and pays out the prize money for UK National Lottery is Andy Carter (pictured above).
6 - A popular place to hide winning lottery tickets is often in a dictionary under L for lotto or lucky, or W for winner. Don't - everyone now knows!
Welsh lotto millionaires got together to celebrate the UK's National Lottery's 20th birthday in 2014. PHOTO: Wales Online
7 - Some UK lottery winners are put in touch with others so they can share their experiences. Some in this exclusive club have become firm friends, and go to lunch, family weddings or take holidays together.
8 - Lottery staff are not allowed to accept money or valuable gifts from winners, but if they insist, the offering goes to charity.
9 - In the USA, lottery wins greater than $600.01 are subject to federal withholding tax. If you win, say, $12 million, the government regards this as income, and taxes you accordingly. It can be at the highest tax bracket, and as much as 28%, which takes quite a chunk from your cash in hand.
10 - Wonder why quickpick winners win more often than a system? In actual fact they don't. It's because the majority of players use quickpick for convenience. It is not any better. The large number of games the majority of these players take part shows up more in the statistics.
11 - One of the greatest boxers in the world, Philippino flyweight Manny Pacquiao (photo), owned a lottery outlet. It was supported and run by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, which is part of the government's funding department.
12 - Winner Clarence Jackson didn't realize he had won $5.8 million in the Connecticut Lottery in 1995. He missed out with 15 minutes to go in the well advertised year-long deadline. Despite his protests, the prize was never presented to him even though he is still fighting it in court as late as 2015.
13 - If you chose an annuity (yearly payments instead of the full sum) payout when you won the lottery, there are finance firms that buy it from you and give you a lump sum.