Most likely, if you win
BIG, you will be more broke than before you won at some point and maybe dead...Maybe better just to be a broke happy CardsChat member?
What happens when individuals in financial trouble are given large lump sums?
More than 1,900 winners went bankrupt within five years.
Did you know that up to 75% of lottery winners end up broke in just 5 years?
http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/stocks/why-lottery-winners-go-bankrupt-1301002181742/
Callie Rogers blew a 2003 U.K. lottery jackpot of
$3 million on shopping, cocaine, friends and breast augmentation and told reporters two years ago she was working as a maid.
Jack Whittaker, a West Virginia man who won a
$315 million Powerball jackpot back in 2002. At first he gave millions to charity, including $14 million to start his own foundation. But later, a briefcase with $545,000 in cash and cashier’s checks was taken from his car while it was parked outside a strip club. His office and home were broken into and he was arrested twice for drunk driving. His granddaughter died under suspicious circumstances and by 2007, he had spent most of his money. He told reporters, “I wish I’d torn that ticket up.”
Alex Toth, a Florida man who won
$13 million in 1990. By the time he died in 2008, he had split with his wife and he faced fraudulent tax return charges.
In the mid-'80s, Adams won the lottery twice; once in 1985 and again in 1986 to defy all odds against her, taking away a total of
$5 million. She was a heavy gambler. And with Atlantic City being located in New Jersey, it wasn't long before Adams had lost all her money. Today, she now lives in a trailer park and is flat broke.
Jeffrey Dampier and his wife won the
$20 million prize back in 1996 and used the winnings to help his family out by buying them houses and the like. Dampier went to visit his sister-in-law and her boyfriend when she claimed she had car troubles. Her boyfriend pulled a pistol on Dampier and the two kidnapped him and killed him.
In 1988, William "Bud" Post won a
$16.2 million jackpot in the Pennsylvania state lottery after pawning a ring for $40 and buying 40 tickets. That was the start of his problems. An ex-girlfriend sued him for a share of winnings and won, his brother hired a hit man to try to kill him hoping to inherit some winnings, and other relatives bugged him constantly for money. Within one year, Post was $1 million in debt and filed for bankruptcy, and served time for firing a shotgun at a bill collector. He lived on food stamps and a $450 month stipend until his death in 2006. He bitterly called it the "lottery of death" after his life turned sour.
