She Used ChatGPT To Win the Virginia Lottery, Then Donated Every Dollar
- Reference: 0180077786
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/15/0025246/she-used-chatgpt-to-win-the-virginia-lottery-then-donated-every-dollar
- Source link:
> Winning the lottery isn't what brought Carrie Edwards her 15 minutes of fame. It was giving it all away. Standing alone in her kitchen one day in September, the Virginia woman was thunderstruck to discover she had won $150,000 in a Powerball drawing. As she was absorbing her windfall, she said, "I just heard as loud as you can hear God or whoever you believe in the universe just say, this is -- it's not your money." Then came a decision: [1]She would donate it all to her three most cherished charities (source paywalled; [2]alternative source ). [...] Her journey to the lucky prize started when she walked into a 7-Eleven with a friend who wanted to buy two Powerball tickets. The jackpot for the Sept. 6 drawing was topping $1.7 billion, the second-largest amount ever. Edwards, 68, hardly ever played the lottery, but her friend was an active player who gave her two pieces of advice: Always buy a paper ticket, rather than getting them online. And the Powerball multiplier is a scam, don't do it. She ignored him on both accounts.
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> She created a Virginia Lottery account on her phone. Then, instead of the typical strategies of using family birthdays and lucky numbers, she went to ChatGPT -- which she had only recently started using for research -- and asked, "Do you have any winning numbers for me?" "Luck is luck," replied the chatbot. Then it gave numbers that she plugged in -- paying the extra dollar for the Power Play to multiply anything she might win. She initially thought luck wasn't on her side when she didn't win the massive jackpot. But what she didn't realize is that she'd picked the "draw two" option, meaning her numbers were reentered for the next drawing. When she got a notification on her phone that she had won, she said, she thought it was a scam, or maybe she'd won something small, like $10. Just to satisfy her curiosity, she logged into her account and saw that she had matched four of the five numbers plus the Powerball in that second drawing. It would have been a $50,000 payout, but the multiplier tripled her winnings.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/11/14/virginia-lottery-donate-winnings-chatgpt/
[2] https://archive.ph/20251114215543/https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/11/14/virginia-lottery-donate-winnings-chatgpt/
Bad Move (Score:2)
She won $150K and donated it all.
She still has to pay income tax on $150K, given that the tax deduction on donations isn't 100%.
I'm guessing she does not have the free cash available to pay those taxes either.
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm guessing she does not have the free cash available to pay those taxes either.
if she donated 150k which she won legitimately on the lottery, i guess she has.
if the whole story isn't a publicity stunt, that is ...
Re: (Score:2)
> She won $150K and donated it all.
> She still has to pay income tax on $150K, given that the tax deduction on donations isn't 100%.
> I'm guessing she does not have the free cash available to pay those taxes either.
She could've "donated it all" which also means "minus taxes". So she donated all her winnings net taxes owed. I think most of these lotteries already withhold 40% of the money and remit as taxes anyways so she probably just gave to charity what she got left.
The IRS takes their cut immediately, even if
Re: (Score:2)
I think you're right, that's probably how it really went down, regardless of what the story here says.
Re: (Score:2)
A reasonable person would assume she donated the net winnings, not the gross.
Re: (Score:2)
A reasonable person would have written that into their headline and summary, if that is the case.
Random Number Machine (Score:2)
generates random numbers. News at 11.
/dev/random (Score:2)
At this point of society, humanity needs a giant asteroid to wipe it out. It's a damned shame '99942 Apothis' will miss us in a few years so instead let's hope the gods have a few hidden backups in their game of galactic 8-ball.
Soul crushing money... (Score:3)
I've pondered what I'd do if I won a monster jackpot. I concluded it was just soul crushing money, and I'd leave the winning ticket in a church offering plate.
Still waiting for God to test me...
T
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like you're trying to help your soul rather than help others. (I apologize if I'm wrong.)
Give it to charities that help communities directly (e.g., the homeless, scholarships for disadvantaged youths, animal shelters, environmental causes, etc.) Many churches have outreach programs, but not all, and you can't be sure the money won't just make the church bigger.