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'It's not going to happen:' GVSU finance professor warns lottery players

Experts believe the chances of getting struck by lightning is more likely than winning the jackpot.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - With so many people buying tickets, there is a good chance someone will win the jackpot. So what if that person is you? We're looking at the steps you should take in the event you win big.

"It's a huge amount of money," GVSU Seidman College of Business finance professor Gregg Dimkoff said.

It's the largest jackpot in U.S. history coming in at more than one billion dollars, but the odds of someone actually taking home the green:

"They're infinitesimally small, one in 300 and some million," Dimkoff said. "It's just not going to happen to any one individual. That's the attitude we should take: It's not going to happen."

If someone does have the winning ticket, don't expect to walk away with a billion dollars.

"That'd be 900 and some million, there'd be some 200 and some million federal taxes, put you down to 700 million, then there'd be state and local taxes," Dimkoff said.

The winner also faces possible bankruptcy.

"It's not the million of dollars that makes you go bankrupt, it's your lack of knowledge. People with enough money generally don't buy lottery tickets, except for a little entertainment they'll buy one or two or a few," he said. "It's the low income people that see it as a ticket to solving their problems and it won't be.

Most of the people that win big chunks of money have no discipline or they wouldn't be buying lottery tickets to start with, so they just blow right through it."

He said winner should be very careful and cautious.

"Your whole social circle will change; you wouldn't know who to trust anymore," Dimkoff said.

Which is why his number one rule is to keep quiet.

"Number one, don't tell anyone. Number two, put the ticket in a safety deposit box until you have to give it to someone. Number three, hire a security guard or two. Number four, get the best estate planning attorney there is," Dimkoff said.

At the end of the day, it's a gamble.

"It's hard to make money using your brain, let alone leaving it up to random circumstances," Dimkoff said.

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