For those of you who still believe that state lottery prizes are the one great equalizer in American society, please move on to the next story. On Monday, the world learned that 3 hedge fund managers in Greenwich, CT, members of the 'elite 1%' of the population held the single winning ticket in last week's Powerball game.  The $254 million jackpot was a record for the state. The Winners. Timothy Davidson, Brandon Lacoff, and Gregory Skidmore, all executives at Belpointe Asset Management, an investment firm based in affluent Greenwich, CT, were the winners.   The $1 Pick 6 ticket was purchased at a gas station in nearby Stamford, using numbers selected by the computer random number program - which were ....

12, 14, 34, 39, 46;  the Powerball number was 36. The winning lottery ticket was purchased on 11/1, one day before the results were announced.

For a while, the trio were not sure they had won - a local news station mistakenly ran the winning numbers with a changed digit.  But the station shortly thereafter corrected the error.  At that point, the trio began planning to collect their millions. First, they formed the Putnam Avenue Family Trust, a vehicle to handle the winnings;  then, they opted for a lump  payment of $151.7 million rather than to receive the $254 million prize in installments.  Despite having to pay a $48 million tax bill, the men are expected to take home more than $100 million, a large sum even for one successful day of trading. "They’re obviously very excited," Jason Kurland, a lawyer who represented the trust at a news conference on Monday, said in a phone interview. Mr. Kurland said that the men planned to give a "significant amount" of the money to Connecticut charities, and planned to give a reward payment of $100K to the gas station that sold the winning ticket. Average Hedge Fund 'Joes'. The 3 fund executives are everyday people, at least by Greenwich standards, where the typical home is worth more than $1 million.  Their firm oversees $82 million in assets, according to a filing with the SEC.  Belpointe’s real estate group developed Beacon Hill of Greenwich, a luxury gated community where the   properties run around $2.5 million.   [Dealbook, 11/28/11]