Think of how millions of dollars could change your life. You’d never have to work again but could still put your children through college. You could design that dream house you’ve always wanted. But is it still possible to screw it all up as a new member of the nouveau riche? Yes!
With the last Powerball jackpot skyrocketing towards $450 million earlier this year, we all dreamed of how our lives could change. But dreaming is where most of us left it. We passed on buying a ticket because we knew the chances of winning were ridiculously slim. As a matter of fact, your odds of winning the lottery are 1 to 292 million, according to Wired.
But don’t be too quick to envy those lucky insta-millionaires. Some of them may wind up not feeling so lucky after all.
Observe these former lottery winners who lived the high life, and see how they lost it all.
1. Partying comes with a hefty price tag.
Canadian lottery winner Gerald Muswagon went from a high to the ultimate low when he spent all his millions through excessive partying involving alcohol and drug abuse. In addition, he started an unsuccessful logging business and had several run-ins with the law, including sexual assault and driving under the influence. He committed suicide seven years after winning the lottery.
2. High roller
Luck was on Evelyn Adam’s side when the New Jersey native won the lottery twice, the first time in 1985, and again the following year. But her winning streak ended at the casino when she gambled most of her winnings in Atlantic City. “I won the American dream, but I lost it too,” she said. “It was a very hard fall. It’s called rock bottom.” She now resides in a trailer park.
3. The harder they fall
Bud Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, but wound up being $1 million in debt within the year. His problems as a millionaire included a brother who hired a hitman to kill Post, in the hopes of inheriting Post’s wealth; a landlady who forced him to give her a third of his winnings; and charges for assault when he shot a debt collector with a handgun. He said “I was much happier when I was broke.” He lived off of $450 a month on disability checks until his death in January 2006.
4. When wealth ruined a marriage.
When Lara and Roger Griffiths won the $2.76 million jackpot in 2005, they thought nothing could possibly go wrong. With a new multi-million dollar dream home, Roger’s new Porsche convertible and Lara’s Lexus 4×4, life could get no better. That is, until Roger drove that Porsche away for an extramarital affair, and their marriage of 14 years came to an end. But their worst problems included failed business ventures, poor investments, debt and a freak fire which gutted their dream home. They lost every penny of their winnings, and each other.
5. A little bit of redemption
35-year-old Sharon Tirabassi of Hamilton, Ontario, blew through $10 million in 10 years. She’s now back in the working class after spending her money on a “big house, fancy cars, designer clothes, lavish parties exotic trips, handouts to family, loans to friends.” Fortunately, she allocated funds in a trust for her six children which will be available when they turn 26.
6. You can’t take the working class out of the boy.
When Luke Pittard from Wales won the £1.3 million jackpot (the equivalent to US $1.9 million), he didn’t realize how much he’d miss his job flipping burgers after the novelty of the easy life wore off. So what did he do? He went back to McDonald’s to reunite with his work buddies, and he couldn’t be happier. Pittard didn’t mishandle his millions, but he didn’t rise to the challenge, either.
7. Keeping secrets
Thomas Rossi thought he had the perfect marriage. But out of the blue, after 25 years of marriage, his wife Denise asked for a divorce, and he had no idea why. Turns out Denise had fallen in love… with the $1.3 million she won from the California lottery. She tried to kept the money a secret because she didn’t want her husband “getting his hands” on it. But a Los Angeles family court judge ruled that she had violated state asset disclosure laws and she was forced to pay her ex-husband back every single penny.
8. Living on a prayer
In 1997, Billie Bob Harrell thought his prayers had been answered when he held the only winning ticket to the Lotto Texas jackpot, pocketing him $31 million. He went from stocking electrical shelves at Home Depot to purchasing multiple homes and a ranch. But the money disappeared as quickly as it came. Deeply religious, he made huge contributions to his church and was always there with cash in hand if the congregation needed it. Eventually someone took advantage of his generosity, the financial stress led to a terrible divorce and he committed suicide in 1999.
9. What happens when a criminal wins.
In 2002, 19-year old Michael Caroll won £9.7 million (US $14.4 million). Dubbed the “Lotto Lout” by tabloids in Britain because of his history of petty theft, he was still wearing a police-ordered electronic monitoring anklet when he came into his millions. But that only perpetuated his bad habits as he spent the money on prostitutes and drugs. His justification to BBC News was: “When you give nine million pounds to a 19-year-old what do you think is going to happen?” He was recently seen working in a cookie factory in Scotland.
10. A tragic end
When gynecologist Joseph Roncailoli learned that his wife had spent half of her $5 million winnings from an Ontario lottery in 1991, he killed her. Joseph’s wife Ibi had given $800,000 each to their son and to her other son (from a different father). But she privately gave away $2 million of her fortune to a yet another child she secretly had with a third man. That was enough for the doctor to poison his wife by injecting her with painkillers twice in the same day.
11. Left behind to serve the time
Alex and Rhoda Toth hit the Florida jackpot in 1991 to the tune of $13 million. Fourteen years later, they had spent it all on gambling and on a life of luxury. After facing tax fraud charges and filing fake tax returns, Alex died and left his wife to go to trial where she pled guilty and served two years in prison. Just goes to show, if you can’t do the time, don’t play the lottery.
12. A generous loss
Janite Lee from St. Louis was living the good life after her $18 million jackpot win in 1993. The wig maker moved into a gated Town and Country community, dined with the likes of Bill Clinton, Al Gore and the President of South Korea and even had a room named after her at the Washington University Law School. But, her good intentions did her in as she donated $277,000 to Democratic political campaigns and continued writing checks to community services, educational programs and other charities. In addition, she acquired substantial gambling debts and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
13. Valuable lessons for a teenager.
Don’t blow it all on partying, vacations and fake boobs. 16-year-old Callie Rogers won the £1.9 million lottery (roughly US $3 million) and lost it all. While living in the lap of luxury, she became romantically involved with a man who had a criminal history. They had a son and daughter together whom she is now raising on her own. Rogers is trying to pay off her debts and getting her life back in order after two failed suicide attempts.
Her words of wisdom regarding her downfall: “Until you win such a large amount of money at such a young age, you don’t realize the pressures that come with it. I did it because winning the lottery has ruined my life.”
14. Crack is whack.
In 1989, Willie Hurt won the $3.1 million Michigan jackpot. By the time he received his second annual installment of $156,000, he was going through a divorce, had lost custody of his children, and had blown all his money on crack cocaine. It gets worse. He was also charged with murder when his girlfriend was found shot in the head. Neighbors alleged that the couple had gotten into a tiff over the failure of finding more cocaine. If convicted, he would be sentenced to life in prison… but the lottery checks would still keep coming.
15. Even the mighty can fall.
West Virginia construction company president Andrew “Jack” Whittaker Jr. was already worth $15 million when he won the $315 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002. It took him only four years to lose it all. He was plagued by a string of unfortunate incidents after drinking and attending strip clubs. Someone broke into his car and stole his stash of $545,000. His granddaughter and her boyfriend died from drug overdoses in the Whittaker’s home just three months apart, and his own daughter died 5 years later. Caesar’s Atlantic casino sued him for $15 million in bounced checks that he’d paid to cover gambling debts. Of his lucky ticket, he said “I wish I’d torn that ticket up” during an interview at the time of his daughter’s death.
16. “Spend, spend, spend!”
Vivian Nicholson won £152,000 (the equivalent of US $5 million today) in the football pools in 1961 with her husband Keith. Her philosophy was to spend frivolously. And that she did. Their winnings were spent on haute couture, jewelry, furs and elegant champagne parties. It took just three years to drain their bank account. After Keith was killed in a car crash four years later, she was left with a huge tax bill, rendering her bankrupt. She died last year at 79, but her legacy is preserved in the annals of musical history with her Barclays Theatre Award-winning best musical “Spend Spend Spend.”
17. When his newfound riches blew his cover
Barry Shell won $4 million as the winner of the Ontario lottery in 2009. That was the good news. The bad news was that he had a six-year warrant for failing to appear at court, theft under $5,000, and possession of stolen property. The publicity photo of him with the winning check tipped off the police. Say cheese!
18. The lost ticket
What’s the next worst thing to losing all your winnings? Losing your winning ticket. That’s what happened to Martyn and Kay Tott from the UK after recognizing the numbers on an unclaimed ticket for $5 million on TV as their own. Even though they were able to convince officials that they had had the winning ticket, it was too late. There was a 30-day time limit for reporting lost tickets. After fruitlessly tearing apart their loft for the missing ticket, the 24-year-old receptionist from Watford said ‘Thinking you’re going to have all that money is really liberating. Having it taken away has the opposite effect.”
19. Don’t piss off your co-workers.
Tonda Lynn Dickerson received the biggest tip of her life from a regular customer while working at a Waffle House in Alabama in 1999 — a lottery ticket worth $10 million. But according to her incensed coworkers who also received tickets from the same customer, they had all made a verbal pact to split the winnings if any of them held the winning numbers. Tonda denied the pact ever happened. The winnings eventually disappeared when she put her money into a corporation and split the remaining half with her family, forcing her to pay $1 million in gift taxes to the U.S. government. Dickerson’s ex-colleagues would say that’s a plate of waffles served with a side of karma.
20. Constructing lies
A group of New Jersey construction workers have been pooling their money on lottery tickets for years and relied on one of its members, Americo Lopes, to purchase the tickets. In November 2009, Lopes bought the winning Mega Millions ticket, providing the crew with $38.5 million to split between them. But the crew never saw any of the money because Lopes kept the winning ticket a secret. He quit his job by feigning a foot injury. But when he fessed up to an ex-colleague, word spread and the crew came after him and demanded their rightful share. The court eventually ordered Lopes to split the money. Sometimes the biggest losses in life are friendships.
H/T – bankrate, businessinsider, oddee, myfirstclasslife
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