There is catch... if I will let my friend wins, will s/he know I let her/him win? If so, then no problem, I will let her/him win. If there is no connection and s/he will never know...
I don't care about money and especially about wins as I am not betting or anything to be able to win something like that, but I would say it depends who needs that money more at the moment.

At current state I would let my friend win as I know I am fine with my money and he needs them more, even if there is risk he will be snob afterwards.

i don't have any people i would consider friends or best friends but if i could split the $500,000 between my mother and brothers or just give it all to one of them then i would do it.
if that answers your question.

Much as I could use 50k, I'll go with letting a friend have 500k instead. Like kobra5, it's definitely an easier decision if they know you've let them win, but even so... I don't think I'd mind hoping for just some good karma if not.

Thanks!

I would happily let a friend have 500k instead of myself getting 50k especially since, if they know I did it, they would give me a reasonable amount of money as thanks

Quite easy for me. I'd give the 500k to my friend. I know my best friend still wants to continue studying after this and can use the 500k for that!