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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

$540 million jackpot could buy some serious swag

If you bought a Mega Millions lottery ticket, you’ve probably thought about a few things you could do with that jackpot. Here are a few more to ponder.

Because ticket sales are going crazy – 1.3 million in Washington alone on Wednesday or about 15 per second – the jackpot was an estimated $540 million by Thursday. But if you hold the only winning ticket this evening, you won’t get all that at once. You could opt for a lump sum of about $390 million or 26 annual payments of about $20.8 million. Either way, Uncle Sam takes 25 percent off the top for taxes. With the lump sum, you’d still have about $300 million.

It’s not enough to end world hunger, cure AIDS or cancer, or pay off the federal debt. You could give it to the state to solve the current budget stalemate, because they’re reportedly hung up on that amount. But bailing out the Legislature doesn’t teach them a lesson about living within their means, so forget that. You could:

Spend it all on an NBA team that’s not doing so well in its current location. You’d have to convince the Public Facilities District to do a really big expansion of Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, so they’d have a place to play. But local residents would love you for a real Nyah-nyah moment with Seattle.

Buy a new 787 Dreamliner from Boeing for about $193.5 million. That would leave you enough for fuel, and a crew that could fly you anywhere you want without waiting in the security line.

If you want something faster and cooler, you could get an F-22, the current top Air Force fighter. Actually, at about $150 million per, you could get a his and hers, or just buy one and spend the rest on flying lessons and a secure place to park it.

Don’t like to fly but still want to travel? You can pick up a 223-foot Lurssen yacht, the Kismet, with six cabins, teak decks, Jacuzzi, sauna, gym and other amenities, for $113 million. It’s a bit big for the lake, but you could live on it somewhere sunny. It has a crew of 22, but you’d have enough left to pay them, for a while.

You could give WSU-Spokane the $35 million it needs to finish off the medical facility at Riverpoint. In exchange, they’d likely name at least part of the building after you. Hold out for a library or auditorium; don’t let them stick your name on some dinky conference room or the downstairs restroom.

If you want to spread your winnings over 26 years, you couldn’t afford those big-ticket items. But you’d probably want to splurge – after setting up college accounts for all the kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews and shirttail relatives so they don’t speak ill of you.

First order of business, a new house. You could spend anything you want to find a nice piece of property and build something from scratch, but as far as move-in ready, the MLS listings have a $6.2 million house on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Harborview Estates, a gated community with spectacular views of the water, and lots of amenities, like five bathrooms.

To get back and forth to work, you’d want a new car. Luxury sedan or sports car? Why choose? You could get a 2012 Rolls-Royce Phantom stretch, with a liquor cabinet, whiskey decanter, champagne cooler and massage seats in the back, all leather and wood interiors, for $500,000. To fill the cooler, consider some Pernod-Ricard Perrier-Jouet, which goes for about $50,000 for a 12-pack.

You could also get a Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4, 700 hp engine, does 0 to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, tops out at 214 mph, for $550,000. You can’t drive the Lamborghini off the showroom floor, there’s a two-year wait. But the sales manager at a Bellevue dealership that handles both auto makes said that for an extra $100,000, you could probably convince someone who’s at the top of the list to wait while you take the car that was coming to them.

Rich people don’t like to wait, you know.