Ever dream of winning the lottery? The golden ticket holders on this list might convince you otherwise. Most of them either regret winning the jackpot, or admit it made their lives hell. Let them show you what the lottery could make you lose.
10. Callie Rogers
Callie Rogers won £1.9 million (about $3 million at the time) in a UK lottery. The ecstatic 16-year-old spent her winnings on vacations, homes, shopping, friends, and even a couple of breast improvements.
Six years later, Rogers is a 22-year-old single mother of two. She now works as a maid to sustain herself and her family. She is paying off debt induced by her spending. Today, she has this to say about her winnings:
My life is a shambles and hopefully now it has all gone I can find some happiness. It’s brought me nothing but unhappiness. It’s ruined my life.
9. The Roby Brigade
The day before Thanksgiving, 1996, a group of 43 farmers from Roby, TX pooled their money to buy 430 lottery tickets. The next day, they won a $46 million prize. Roby, a town of only 600 inhabitants, was suddenly full of millionaires.
In an ideal world, those winning would have saved Roby, a floundering cotton farming town facing severe drought. But that didn’t happen.
Many winners used their jackpots–$1.085,162 total, or $39,000/year–for practical uses, like starting college funds, paying off loans, or buying new pickup trucks, according to the September 2004 issue of Texas Monthly.
Though “the town’s farmers could finally breathe a sigh of relief,” few prospered from their winnings. Most winners cut deals with lottery buyout brokers, who gave them cash upfront in exchange for future annual payments, writes Pamela Colloff, author of the Texas Monthly article. In the end, she says, that left them with roughly 1/3 of their original winnings. Bad business ventures and a plague of untimely bad luck didn’t help.
Years later, Roby remains a dying town. “For all the trouble the lottery brought on me, I don’t know whether to be happy I won or sorry I didn’t,” said Lance Green, the town’s mayor at the time.
8. Ken Proxmire
Ken Proxmire, a tool grinder from Michigan, won $1 million in the 1977 Michigan Lottery. Proxmire used his winnings to indulge his inner entrepreneur. He moved to California to open a chain of sporting goods stores.
Several years later, his business went under. $100,000 in debt, Proxmire filed for bankruptcy. His wife left him at that time, too, according to this Time Magazine article. Since his business failure, tax payments and bankruptcy settlements have gobbled up most of his annual winnings.
7. William “Bud” Post
When William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in a 1988 lottery, one of the first things he did was try to please his family, according to this Bankrate article.
Unfortunately, his kin was of the unfriendly sort. Post’s brother hired a hit man to kill him, hoping to inherit some money. Other family members persuaded him to invest in two businesses that ultimately failed. Post’s ex-girlfriend sued him for some of the winnings. Post himself was thrown in jail for firing a gun at a bill collector.
Over time, Post accumulated so much debt that he had to declare bankruptcy. He now relies on Social Security for income. “Lotteries don’t mean (anything) to me,” he is quoted as saying—after he lost all his money.
6. Janite Lee
Janite Lee, a St. Louis wig shop owner, won $18 million in 1993. The 52-year-old then went on a philanthropic binge that lost her everything. Besides the usual million-dollar house and cars, Lee reportedly donated more than $1 million to Washington University, where her namesake reading room commemorates the occasion. She reportedly donated $277,000 to Democratic political candidates, earning herself meals with Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and even the President of South Korea.
She didn’t stop there. $30,000 went to the family of a South Korean church pastor who passed away. The St. Louis Korean American Association received a house from her. Another Korean adoption-related association also benefited.
Lee’s philanthropy was expensive. But combined with her gambling habit—she lost $347,000 in a single year—bank loans, and credit card debt, it harkened disaster. She filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001.
5. Luke Pittard
Welshman Luke Pittard won £1.3 million in a 2006 UK lottery play. He spent a portion of his prize money on a Canary Islands holiday, a wedding, and new house.
After only 18 months, however, Pittard felt bored. Early retirement didn’t suit him. So he returned to his previous job—at a Cardiff, Wales McDonald’s restaurant. Back among burgers, he feels much happier, despite the fact that his winnings interest makes him more than his restaurant wage.
Though Pittard didn’t lose all his winnings, his unique choice of post-lottery employment earns him a spot on this list.
4. Willie Hurt
Willie Hurt won $3.1 million in the 1989 Michigan Lottery. Within two years, this former family man found his life in shambles. He divorced his wife, lost custody of his kids, and spent his remaining money on crack cocaine. An attempted murder charge tops off Hurt’s world of lotto-induced pain.
3. Suzanne Mullins
In 1993, Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the lottery. She later borrowed almost $198,000 from a lending company, using her lotto winnings as colateral, according to this Bankrate article. But she never paid the company back. They later sued her for the missing amount.
Mullins claimed that her son-in-law’s long illness produced $1 million in medical bills, aggravating the debt situation. Mullins apparently has no assets left to pay off her debt.
2. Jack Whittaker
55-year-old Jack Whittaker ran a successful contracting company in West Virginia when he won a $315 million Powerball jackpot. At the time, it was the biggest amount ever won by a single ticket.
Whittaker, who already had a net worth of $17 million, received a $114 million check after taxes. He gave money to Christian charities and a personal foundation supporting low-income families.
Whittaker did some good, but his bad deeds make his story. He was arrested twice, once for drunk driving and once for threatening a bar manager followed. A woman sued him after he groped her at a dog racetrack. Thieves took $545,000 in cash from Whittaker’s car while he was visiting a strip club. About a year later, thieves again stole $200,000 from his car. Caesars Atlantic City sued him for bouncing $1.5 million in checks. His wife divorced him.
Then, there were the dead bodies. In 2003, Whittaker’s granddaughter’s boyfriend was found dead of an overdose inside Whittaker’s home. His 17-year-old granddaughter, whom he had been giving a $2,100 weekly allowance, fatally overdosed months later, at a different location. His daughter—mother of the dead granddaughter—died this year of as-yet-undetermined causes.
In this messiest of lotto stories, nobody seems to have won.
1. Billy Bob Harrell
In 1997, Home Depot stocker Billie Bob Harrell, Jr. won a $31 million Texas jackpot. To the former Pentecostal preacher, $1.24 million per year was a gift from heaven.
He bought a ranch, six homes for himself and family, and a bunch of new cars. After the initial glory subsided, however, Harrell found himself losing and loaning money at an alarming rate. Like many winners, he had trouble saying no to those who ask for his funds.
As a result, Harrell’s life became too stressful to handle. He divorced his wife. Less than two years after hitting paydirt, he committed suicide. “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me,” he is quoted as saying shortly before his suicide.
