Reports in the media are rife with stories about lottery curses—people winning fortunes, making questionable investments, going broke—and it’s said that 70 percent of lottery winners wind up busted or at least something close. Such has been the fate for mad splurgers who bought such things as thoroughbred racehorses, dozens of luxury cars and even a full-on water park.
But, for the smart 30 percent, life is sweet after winning Powerball, Mega Millions or another major lottery prize. Of course, the happy people are the ones who keep clear heads, don’t get carried away with themselves, play it cool, and align with good lawyers and investment advisers. Time on the veranda with glasses of Macallan 25 and boxes of Montecristo No. 2 cigars in the humidor don’t hurt either.
Here are three winners who made the best of it.
After Ken Covert snagged $2.8 million in the 2007 Idaho lottery, the first smart thing he did was wait 37 days to come forward and claim his prize. Doing justice to his name, Covert managed to ignore speculation in the local news as to who the big winner might be. Instead of basking in the limelight, he took care of a few things on his job, got matters in place with a financial planner and, maybe smartest of all, continued to work and did what he could to maintain normalcy.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July/August 2024-Ausgabe von Cigar Aficionado.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
A High Steaks Game - Gallaghers restaurant, New York's oasis for carnivores, has thrived for 96 years, playing host to a colorful crowd of sports heroes, show people and classic characters
Dean Poll, the owner of Gallaghers Steakhouse on Manhattan's West 52nd Street, has to think both like a restaurateur and the curator of a museum with an entire wing of art. Only, instead of tending to European oil paintings, Poll oversees images of Old New York. I work here every day. I am thinking about the food and staff, Poll says, sitting in a corner that could be called baseball cove. Over his right shoulder are stills of Lou Gehrig and the Yankees' Murderers' Row manager Miller Huggins. Jack Dempsey is clowning, grappling with a bat also held by Babe Ruth. "To Helen Gallagher, sincerely Babe Ruth," the inscription reads. Poll gestures toward signed caricatures of Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. "So I lose, to a certain extent, the importance of what's on the walls. But the photos are the decor. They lend some hominess to the place. It's the heart and soul of this restaurant. It's not cheap decoration. The only thing missing is the cigar smoke", adds Poll, who fancies a Partagás 8-9-8 It's what this restaurant is for 96 years.
The Enforcer - Cole Hauser, who plays the tough-as-nails cowboy Rip on the hit show "Yellowstone," has been around horses since he was a little boy
Cole Hauser looks like he can kick your ass. And kicking ass is the specialty of his most famous character, Rip Wheeler from the hit series "Yellowstone." He's the show's man in black, his dark cowboy hat often coated in trail dust, shades hiding his intense eyes, black beard covering a mouth that seldom smiles. The absolute opposite of a pretty boy, he's never chatty-and when he does talk it's often with a bit of menace in his voice. He's not the kind of guy to take a back seat to anything.
Pinball Machines - "Two kind of people in this world," Ray Liotta's character says in the 1997 movie Cop Land.
"Two kind of people in this world," Ray Liotta's character says in the 1997 movie Cop Land. Pinball people and video game people." If you're 50 or older, you might fall into the former group of gamers who are enthralled by the ringing bells, snapping flippers and the captivating combination of mechanics and electronics that make pinball irresistible. While it's the ultimate Sisyphean game-the eternal (and doomed) effort to keep an 80-gram, carbon-steel ball from going down the drainfor those who love it, it couldn't be more fun.
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