Sunday, August 2, 2009

Winners, Prizes And Losers - About the Lottery and a Lot More

By Steve Conniery

A Lottery is basically a form a gambling where a player picks a series of numbers and if these same numbers are drawn by the lottery company and match, then the ticket holders win a prize. In some countries their governments forbid this form of entertainment but in others it has been endorsed and a national lottery has been formed and regulated.

The lotteries have been devised in such a way to be effective yet at the same time fair. The organizers have achieved this by making sure that the prizes were either large cash prizes or expensive goods. They also had to sell a large number of tickets to ensure that there was no risk to the organizers as the rewards are a fixed percentage of the profits. Each ticket sold is sold with a unique number to demonstrate the guaranteed uniqueness. And to guarantee fairness each of these tickets also allows players to select their own numbers and so sometimes resulting in multiple winners.

The great news is that the winnings of the national lottery are completely tax free and are paid out immediately in one lump cash sum; this is especially true in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom where the prizes are actually distributed immediately after the winner has been declared.

Compared to other countries, the lottery in the US works very differently. The US require taxes to be withheld from the lump sum jackpot before it is paid out and there is also another variation on the way the prize money is paid too, the winners are given a choice between having an annuity payment or a one time payment which is a lot smaller. The annuity option means that regular payments will be distributed over a term of approx to forty years.

Research has shown that just from the United States alone there are three lotteries that are among the largest in the world and these are from New York, Massachusetts and Texas. These state lotteries are becoming so big that they almost rival the world leading lotteries of Spain, Japan, France, Italy and the UK. The lottery game has also become so widespread that nearly every country in the world now has their own national lottery with payouts ranging from a few hundred to a few billion.

Statistics show that collectively the five largest lotteries in the world offer possible winnings of up to $10.4 billion with the Loterias y Aquestas del Estado in Spain offering the largest payout. Then its the Mizuho Bank Ltd in Japan as the second largest with $0.2 billion less than Spain, then third in line with $9.8 billion dished out, is the Bettors at Frances in Francaise des Jeux of France. Italy boasts the fourth with $8.9 billion and the National Lottery of the UK is the fifth. Then finally the Kookmin Bank Lottery in Korea and the Sisal Sports Italia S.p.A. lottery of Italy are in eighth and ninth positions

To join a lottery, simply purchase a ticket from one of the syndicate organizers.

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