The lure of the million dollar payout had so many of them jumping in to buy a winning ticket without truly understanding the payout structure and the mob's cut. If it was a lump sum, they'd at least have some money to potentially payoff their house or buy a few nice things. The $50k per year for 20 years made for a slow trickle after everyone took their piece of the pie.
With the mob Jerry taking half pre-tax and them having to pay taxes on the full amount, they were basically coming out with around $10k a year. After paying in $50k for the opportunity to get in on the scam, it was going to take five years before they broke even. Not exactly the windfall it seemed.
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