A GoFundMe page for Cinnamon Nicole, who claims she spent...

A GoFundMe page for Cinnamon Nicole, who claims she spent all her family's money on Powerball tickets, has been shut down. In this photo, a customer picks up her California Powerball lottery tickets at the famous Bluebird Liquor store which is considered to be a lucky retailer of tickets. Credit: AFP / Getty Images / Mark Ralston

The absurdity of the average person suddenly finding that $1 billion has fallen into his or her lap is mind-boggling [“3 win $1.6B jackpot, but 1 on LI wins $1M,” News, Jan 15]. That the creators and administrators of the Multi-State Lottery Association would design and encourage such a payout puts a fine point on lunacy.

Granted that a large prize attracts players, but ways must be found to spread the wealth more widely and reasonably.

Perhaps the Powerball purse might be more sensibly distributed with a maximum of $10 million parceled for the first-prize winner(s), and the balance to a second-place tier. The result could be hundreds of additional $1 million winners. Nobody I know wouldn’t be tickled with such a comparatively meager sum. And nobody I know “needs” more than $10 million.

Such a system would mean many more happy people and more dollars funneled back into the economy.

The odds of winning are astronomical — 292.2 million to 1. Adding more chances to share the wealth of a mega-prize is necessary and long overdue.

Frank Cavallaro, East Meadow

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