What would you do with one billion dollars? That’s the question one lucky lottery player might get to answer ... if there even is a winner.
For the second time in its 30-year history, the Powerball lottery reached $1 billion after no ticket matched the winning lottery numbers Sunday. With the next drawing coming up Monday night, USC students weighed in on what they would do if they won.
“I’d probably pay off my parents’ mortgage,” said Meera Popli, a junior majoring in political science. “Once I paid everything off I’d go crazy, like buy a mansion in Malibu.”
“I would buy a house for my mom ... and a Baja Blast Freeze from Taco Bell,” said Dominic Jocas, a freshman majoring in arts, tech and innovation.
Other students said they would use the money to pay off their college tuition, donate it to nonprofit organizations, buy a house or invest in stocks and real estate.
Aurora Cody, a senior studying international relations and Italian, detailed her plan to use the money to pay off her cousin’s college tuition then to change her name.
“I think if my name got out that I was associated with a billion dollars someone would try and rob me,” Cody said.
Some students, however, are less enthusiastic about the lottery due to the slim chance of winning.
“I feel like at this point I have even less of a chance of winning because other people are more inclined to buy lottery tickets now,” Sangeeta Kishore, a senior studying international relations, global business and French, said.
While some students believe lotteries are fair play and based on luck, other students voiced their concerns.
“The whole thing kind of seems like a scam,” Jocas said. “I feel bad for the people who put their whole life savings into that and plunge themselves into poverty.”
Americans spend more on lottery tickets than music, books, sports teams, movies and video games combined. In 2021 alone, Americans spent more than $105 billion on lottery tickets, with a majority of ticket purchasers falling between the ages of 18 and 40, according to a study by the Journal of Gambling Studies.
Teya Hisel, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, thinks Americans’ obsession with the lottery reveals a deeper issue: how we view money.
“I think [lottery tickets] continue to perpetuate the American idea that you’re one paycheck away from having the big bucks,” she said. “Most of us are one or two paychecks away from being housing insecure, from being low income, from having our basic needs met.”
Lauren Schulson, a junior double majoring in health and human sciences and psychology, thinks otherwise. Her great-grandfather had won $4 million in a lottery and used it to buy a house for his family and pay for the treatment of Schulson’s grandmother when she was sick.
“I really do think that the lottery is a great opportunity to change ordinary people’s lives,” Schulson said.