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Robert Salo, 18, didn't think twice about following his gut when he plunked down $2 to play New York Lottery's "Win for Life" scratch-off game last week. No one could have guessed he'd beat the 1 in 7,896,000 odds to become the game's youngest winner. After coming forward Tuesday, the high school senior is $1 million richer and all set to receive $1,000 payments each week for the rest of his life.

Gambling figures prominently in this story, but this isn’t a story about gambling. It’s a story about an administration misusing its power to benefit its friends. It’s a story about the corrupt purchase of our government. For half a century, Democratic and Republican administrations have interpreted the Wire Act, passed in 1961, as prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets by phone or wire, and in more recent years over the Internet. That changed on Christmas 2011, when the Obama/Holder Department of Justice reinterpreted the Wire Act. The DOJ ruled that the Wire Act allows lotteries to sell tickets online....

[gullible suckers]-- I know this probably isn't the first time you're hearing about this, but chances like this don't come up very often. And the deadline is approaching. Chip in $3 or whatever you can to be automatically entered to go to L.A. and spend an evening with President Obama and George Clooney. We'll cover airfare and hotel for you and whoever you choose to bring with you. All you have to do to be automatically entered is donate what you can to support this campaign: https://donate.barackobama.com/Obama-and-Clooney Thanks, Julianna Julianna Smoot Deputy Campaign Manager Obama for America

[Name Deleted to Protect the Patriot]-- I have some advice for the two people who will be selected to go to a party for the President at George Clooney's house: Choose your guest wisely. Whoever you pick to join you is going to owe you big time. Think about it -- and chip in $3 or whatever you can today to be automatically entered: [donation link deleted.... :-] - Ann Marie Ann Marie Habershaw Chief Operating Officer Obama for America P.S. -- Regarding your airfare and hotel, we've got it covered. Just get your name in the mix today.

President Obama is said to be weighing whether to pardon Amanda Clayton. Clayton was recently arrested for continuing to accept federal assistance after she won a million dollars in the Michigan state lottery. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette argued that “it should be common sense that if you’ve got a million dollars you aren’t entitled to welfare. Welfare is for people who are poor.” The president is said to consider Schuette’s actions discriminatory. “If Warren Buffett won the lottery he wouldn’t be expected to forfeit his other income,” Obama observed. “Rich as he is, he would be allowed to keep...

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A woman who has claimed to have Maryland's winning Mega Millions ticket now says she has lost it. Mirlande Wilson of Baltimore told WRC-TV (http://bit.ly/Hk55w9 ) in Washington she would claim the jackpot if she finds the ticket.

Corbett wants to hire a private lottery managerBy MARC LEVY | Associated Press – Mon, Apr 2, 2012 HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is making the state lottery the next frontier in his quest to privatize services, saying Monday that hiring a private manager for the nation's sixth-largest lottery would bolster its ability to meet the rising demand for services from the state's growing elderly population. The move, which was immediately opposed by Democrats and the state's largest employee union, also may herald an expansion of lottery gambling, such as the addition of online ticket sales, keno...

The flaky McDonald's worker who claimed she had one of the winning Mega Million Lottery tickets now says she lost the slip. When asked by NBC News if she was going to ever to ask for her share of the dough, Mirlande Wilson replied, "If I find it (the ticket).” The NBC reporter then asked if she had lost the ticket, to which the 37-year-old Baltimore woman replied, "I misplaced it." She insisted she didn’t make up the story though. “I did not make up no story to get no attention,” she told NBC. The strange conversation is just the...

Aside from the bizarre drama unfolding over the ticket to a record-breaking jackpot that may or may not be hidden in a Baltimore McDonald's, lottery officials on Thursday said nothing much has changed in the week since three winners were chosen in a Mega Millions drawing worth a half-billion dollars. “Our status is no different from where we were Saturday morning,” Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino said at a news conference at the agency’s headquarters. “Until someone walks through our doors with the winning ticket in their hands … we will continue to wait for that person to come in.”...

--- video at link --- Lotto officials wait as alleged winner claims ticket hidden Msnbc's Tamron Hall talks with Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino about Mirlande Wilson, a McDonald's employee who claims she has the winning ticket and she as hidden it somewhere inside the fast food restaurant where she works. >>> a maryland woman claiming to have the winning mega millions ticket held a news conference a short time ago. mer mirlande wilson did not bring it to the press conference or say a single word. on correspondeding to the post she said she stashed the ticket somewhere in...

The intrigue surrounding a Maryland woman who claims to have won last week’s record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot intensified Wednesday as her attorney held a press conference in Baltimore that yielded few answers. Attorney Edward Smith, who represents alleged winner Marlinde Wilson, told reporters he had not seen the winning ticket, nor did he want to during the 20-minute long session with the media. “I cannot say with any certainty that this ticket exists,” said Smith. Previously, the 37-year-old Wilson told the New York Post she stashed the ticket in a location that only she knew about inside the McDonald’s restaurant...

One of the three Mega Millions jackpot winners says her winning ticket remains stashed away inside the Baltimore McDonald's where she works. But some of Marlinde Wilson's co-workers think she is telling a Big Lie. "I left my ticket there, and it's somewhere safe that only I know about," Wilson told the New York Post. "I'm waiting for things to calm down so I can go back to McDonald's and get it. The people [at McDonald's] are too excited. I want their heads to cool down before I go back." Wilson claims to have purchased one of the three winning...

Jack Whittaker Home: West Virginia Won: $315M in 2002 One of the saddest tales is that of Jack Whittaker, the cowboy-hat-wearing West Virginia contractor who scored a $315 million Powerball win in December 2002. Already a millionaire, Whittaker pledged to give 10 percent of his fortune to charity. But legal and personal problems took a heavy toll, and he started hitting the sauce and hanging out at sleazy jiggle joints. Just eight months after his big score, he was robbed of $545,000 in a strip club. A month later, his granddaughter died of an overdose from drugs bought with an...

Employees at a McDonald’s in Maryland are outraged at a co-worker who claims she won $105million in Mega Millions which she is not planning on sharing - despite the fact they had pooled their money for tickets. Workers at the fast food outlet bought a number of tickets together for the biggest lottery in world history but Wilson claims she separately bought one of the three tickets nationwide that will split a record $656 million payout. 'We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The ‘winning’ ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,' Wilson told The New...

This wasn't the one-in-a-million strike a Kansas lotto player was hoping for. A Wichita man was hit by lightning on Thursday night just hours after buying three tickets in the record-setting $656 Mega Millions lottery, drawn on Friday. Bill Isles, a volunteer storm spotter for the National Weather Service, even made an eerie quip to a pal about his long odds moments after buying the tickets at a local grocery store. "I've got a better chance of getting struck by lightning" than winning the jackpot, Isles said, according to Reuters. The wannabe mega-millionaire had toted his ham radio into his...

March 31, 2012: Last night ONE PERSON won the $650 MILLION Mega Millions Lottery . . . and one woman took to Twitter to BRAG about winning. The woman, a model named Melissa claims that SHE WON - and she posted pics of her lottery ticket.

CNN Breaking News Alert - First winning ticket declared in Baltimore, Maryland. $640 Million Dollar Jackpot Developing....

Winning Ticket Sold in Baltimore County one of several nationwide Maryland sold one of the winning tickets for last night’s record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot. The lucky ticket was purchased at a retailer in Baltimore County. Lottery officials are waiting for information on jackpot winners from other Mega Millions states. The multi-state Mega Millions game is played in 44 states and jurisdictions – including Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Last night’s winning numbers were 2-4-23-38-46 and Mega Ball 23. “This is truly remarkable and historic,” said Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino. “We can’t wait to greet...

I'm tired of waiting 10 minutes in line at the gas station just to buy cigarettes.

Powerball was enormous, but now it's more so. Spurred by heavy sales - at $2 a ticket - the jackpot was raised this afternoon to $325 million. And the drawing's not till Saturday night. The advertised prize, payable in 30 annual installments, is the third biggest in the history of the game. The cash payout, already a Powerball record, is now $202.9 million. If this jackpot doesn't get hit, expect to see history: the first annuity to reach $400 million