It has never happened before because, well, it's like they say, you have to play to win. I don't play - as a rule. You see, I have always understood that the only sane way to gamble is to set aside a fixed amount that one can afford and never to go beyond that amount. I've rarely been able to afford gambling as a hobby.
My ex-wife gambles. With her, it's mostly slot machines she plays on gambling boats or at the local Native American Reservations. She used to boast about how much she won, never revealing how much she lost in the process or even bothering to figure out that on balance she, like most other gamblers, was in the red. Gambling can lead to a sort of addiction, especially for those with compulsive tenancies. Maybe that is why I avoided it. I have enough compulsions with writing and such.
That is not to say that I have never gambled. I won a whole whopping $5 in PowerBall a few years ago, which meant that I just about broke even on my investment. Another time I gambled I won $50 playing a quarter slot machine in the NCO Club on Osan AB, Korea. On that occasion, I'd been watching a rebroadcast of a baseball game via the Armed Forced Network on the TV in the bar adjacent to the room filled with slot machines. There a guy played one machine for well over an hour before he walked away. After I'd consumed a few beers while I sat at the bar, I had accumulated a stack of quarters returned as change. So, when the guy walked way from the slot machine without reserving it, I decided to feed my quarters into it. With my last 3 quarters in play, I pulled the level and hit the jackpot. Woo Hoo!
Of course, the guy who had been playing the machine before me returned and claimed it was his money I just won. True enough, but it was my money then.
It's not that I haven't been tempted at other times or in other ways. There have been many opportunities to gamble in the past - like every time I stop at a convenience store and notice the jackpot has grown. One day I even noticed that the Play-4 for the previous night was my son's date of birth - minus the zeroes of course. Had I played that...oh well.
Also, for a while I worked for a Las Vegas based marketing company. I flew out there for training twice-a-year. I know, it was a tough life. But I can tell you how boring a week in Vegas can be for a guy who does not gamble. At every turn, in every nook and cranny, there were opportunities to gamble: at the airport, in the hotel, in restaurants... But I didn't. Not even once!
So, the current Power Ball jackpot is around $700 Million. Someone told me earlier today that the odds of winning that are about the same as being struck by lightning while concurrently being eaten alive by a shark. That might be an exaggeration, but I'll bet 1 in 300 Million is pretty close to those odds. Somebody will win it though, eventually. That's the draw of the whole thing, isn't it? So, today I may actually buy a ticket or two. Who knows?
What would I do with the money if I won? Ah, but that is the idle sort of fanciful flight upon which the lure of the lottery is well established: dream big and dream well!
First, I'd get a lawyer. We'd figure out how to best pay off my kids' student loans with the least amount of tax liability for anyone involved. Maybe I'd set up some kind of trust that pays the loans off in yearly installments that fall under the limit for a personal gift. But that would be a top priority for me: getting my kids out of debt. I'd likely throw in my great niece as well. Other than doing the Dad, Great Uncle thing, I'm pretty open to suggestion from the outside for what to do with the money.
Being practical, I know I'd invest a chunk of it in a way that would become a way of surviving my retirement, actually living very comfortably. I'd also pay back relatives for supporting my dream of being a professional writer. I'd buy an electric car so I could use it for all the trips I might need to take that extend beyond the range of my bicycle.For any trips beyond that I suppose I'll have to use public transit - or perhaps I'd buy a motorcycle so that my gas mileage would be better.
I'm not sure I'd buy a house right away. I would need to invest in some things for certain and real estate is usually a good, long-term thing. I'd be selective in picking out a new home, though. I'd likely relocate to Austin. I always regretted leaving there after my time at college came to an end. I might have a house there and another somewhere near where I grew up in west central Ohio. After all these years and my many travels, I've not been back to South Charleston since 1984. I know from pictures a friend sent to me that my old home town hasn't changed much. Maybe that would be a good place for a summer home apart from the baking heat of central Texas.
I might get a place in Connecticut, around where I used to live for the nine years I spent there during the 1990's. I'd seriously consider somewhere with lots of trees so I could contract with Pete Nelson to build a tree house on my property. I might also look into a larger property somewhere to build a artistic enclave, something my publisher and I have discussed many times. It is a dream we both share and definitely something I'd love to invest in, the creativity of others! Imagine somewhere any artist could go to escape the pressures of life for a few weeks. Maybe we could so something at the enclave with tree houses around a central gathering area, all of it connected with bouncy suspension bridges. What a great place that would be to spend some time while working on a novel, designing the cover, hashing out edits, or just hanging out with other creative people.
I'd likely spend some of the money traveling to places I didn't get a chance to see when I was younger. And I might, just might, decide to live somewhere abroad for a portion of the year. But one constant that would not change at all is my vocation. I'm a writer. I'll continue doing that no matter whether I win or lose. Just, I might be able to afford more elaborate promotional campaigns for my books and, as a result share my fantastic journeys with more people.