Was hoping after reading this book, I would have a reply to when someone says, "If only I can win the lottery..." The phrase makes me cringe. The book didn't do a whole lot for me. It did serve a quick diversion from my historical fiction phase and provide a few laughs.

Could the author's perspective be biased because his job is to find the struggling financially lottery winner and thus he concludes that most lottery winners are struggling?

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This memoir about the lottery-winner-milking industry conveys a fair amount of fascinating sociological/financial info along with Ugel's energetic personal history. The book suffers a little from Ugel's fear of being sued for breaching his non-disclosure agreements with the Firm--many more factual details about actual lottery winner cases and amounts and Firm paychecks would have been welcome.

This is an odd type of whistleblower's story wherein the whistleblower has already been paid millions not to tell his story and hopes to make more millions telling a sanitized version without getting sued by his ex-colleagues. But Ugel does a good job of lifting the veneer of respectability off lotteries and showing the ugliness linking video poker, casino gambling, lotteries, and "high finance." ( )

I gave this book two stars because I was torn on whether to reward the story or to punish the author. The story itself is interesting, how often does one hear about what happens to lottery winners after they win? Even more sad was the stories of states supplementing their budgets with lottery proceeds and leaving the winners out to dry. Unfortunately, Ugel's writing style neither interesting nor enjoyable to read. He used cliched statements after each other to the point I could almost predict the cliche he would use as each part of the story developed. Its easy to write about yourself and clearly Ugel is able to do this but not in a way that makes others excited to read more of his writing. ( )

A depressing book about a salesman who took advantage of lottery winners' desperation and misguided trust in him. ( )

Money for Nothing: One Man's Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions--an intriguing title for an intriguing book just out by Edward Ugel. So you like to gamble? Maybe just buy lottery tickets? Reading this non-fiction, astonishing book may be the best thing you've ever done for yourself. Ugel tells all in his story about his years as both a gambler, and a salesman, and then as an employee of a company that offered upfront cash to lottery winners in exchange for their prize money.

You've all seen the commercial for some company that offers cash that is due to you. All of the people cry out from wherever they are that it's their money and they want it now. If that company, called The Firm, in this book, is one that caters only to lottery winners, however, there are oftentimes millions of dollars involved--and even though the winner may have won big, they may be as poor as ever!

One of the key issues is whether the particular lottery allows a lump sum as opposed to long-term payments. Selection of a lump sum has not always been available. Additionally, when you see the picture of the winner getting a large check with a large sum identified on it, the amount is always the amount before taxes!

Horror story after horror story for lottery winners are shared in this book--all names changed, of course.

Ugel has tried hard to write in an upbeat fashion in telling his story. His chapter titles are catchy. He ridicules some of his own actions and invites the reader to smile and commiserate with his choices. But he's not really telling about a fun-filled life. The book, in my opinion, is very much an expose' of this type of financial company, albeit though they are acting legally. Additionally, Ugel's epilogue, written in a time schedule/diary fashion reveals exactly what the addicted gambler goes through each time he gives in to this vice.

Ugel has been a gambler since the age of 19, working at jobs to earn enough money so he could go gamble. When he was called to a bar by a friend, where a potential supervisor was drinking and smoking, Ugel thought he had finally found the place where he belonged. Indeed, while his boss was there at the The Firm with him, he quickly moved into big money and promotions, each time his boss moved up. But no matter how far up he went, he at last began to hate working with the man and quit, even though he was offered almost twice his present salary to stay. Ugel struggled through the following time, until he was called and asked to return. His former boss had quit and he was being offered his job. This had been what he had always wanted. He believed he could do the job and was soon back at The Firm.

Ugel did all right until his former boss opened his own business as a major competitor and quickly started winning potential customers away from The Firm. Ugel was finally relieved to be fired, for even though he was a super salesman, he realized that he had treated his job, and allowed his subordinates to also treat their jobs, as if each "lead" was merely a "gamble" and since there was always the potential for high commissions without working too hard, he realized that though being a better "gambler" than his former boss, he was not even close to being the kind of manager that his boss had been. As he said, "a gambler is a gambler is a gambler" (p. 212). He and his staff were quite willing to gamble both with their own money...and with the lottery winners' money!

Many of us have our own addictions. If gambling is yours...read this book! If gambling is not your particular vice, read it...and insert your own predilection. For underneath the humor, Ugel has written a story that just may help you rethink what you are doing, to yourself, to your family, and on your job! Thank you, Edward Ugel, for sharing your life in such an open way and making us realize that Money for Nothing may be more trouble than anyone could imagine! ( )