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CNN Live Today

Interview With Rick Dandes

Aired April 18, 2002 - 11:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Erika Green is that 20-year-old woman from Georgia who had one of the big winning tickets from the Big Game jackpot. Her chances of winning were one in 76 million. What are your chances that you could win something so big? Maybe we will find out with Rick Dandes' book, "Jackpot: An Insider's Guide to Lottery Success." Rick is in our Miami bureau this morning. Rick, a lucky good morning to you.

RICK DANDES, AUTHOR, "JACKPOT": And a lucky good morning to you as well.

KAGAN: Thank you. Just about anything you'd want to know about lotteries is in your book here. Right now, I'm most interested in the winners. Look at this young woman -- 20 years old. When it's all said and done, she will have 50 million plus in her pocket.

DANDES: Yeah, that's before taxes, though. But she will still walk away with about 38.9 million.

KAGAN: She'll be doing just fine.

DANDES: Yes.

KAGAN: Well, how typical of a winner is she? Is there a profile of people who usually win, who are lucky in stuff like this?

DANDES: You know something? There really isn't. The demographic of people who play is basically the demographic that you find in any particular state. It is true that younger people, like Erika, tend to play scratch cards, because they like that instant gratification, and older people play the, you know, the field games as we call them. But, no. There is no figuring how fate is going to touch her.

KAGAN: But is there figuring what happens once you have all that money in your pocket? We hear time after time these stories of these people who seem to have a dream come true by winning all this money, and they end up blowing it all and just being miserable at the end of the day?

DANDES: I think that's rare. I think -- you do hear about that, but my magazine, "Lotto People" magazine, we talk with a lot of lottery winners. And for the most part, people who win a lot of money get financial advice, you know, first. And that's really the thing to do. Pay your bills, you know, do some basic things. Put some money away. And then have your fun.

KAGAN: Then go have some fun.

DANDES: Then go buy your house.

KAGAN: There is a lot of people out there who are still dreaming the dream. And this could turn into an even bigger jackpot as it turns into the mega-millions game. You give advice in your book about how to do certain things, like something we did right at CNN, setting up an office pool. There is a way to do it? We just kind of scribbled a bunch of names on a piece of paper, and then everyone kicked in $1.

DANDES: Really, we advise you to possibly put it on paper, some kind of agreement -- a verbal agreement is fine, but it's also good to be on paper. And also when a person is elected kind of the captain of the lottery pool, that that person buy their tickets early, print out a copy of all the numbers, hand them to everybody in the pool so that everybody understands what, you know, what the numbers are and what their share will be when, you know, when the jackpot comes through.

KAGAN: Another important question is, when do you cut yourself off? That the odds are so huge, so maybe one more ticket, but the main thing is you have to play responsibly.

DANDES: Absolutely. And we urge people -- there are people with gambling problems, and they probably need help. They shouldn't be spending every dime they have on the lottery. But we have found that people do tend to play responsibly.

KAGAN: Let's hope. And here is wishing you luck. You still play?

DANDES: Oh, absolutely. And I do invite people to check out our magazine, "Lotto People" magazine, and our Web site, where you can get the latest winning numbers and find out the latest lottery news, and also read about winners all over the country.

KAGAN: We can live vicariously. Rick Dandes, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.

DANDES: And thank you.

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