This Wednesday's Powerball jackpot was $500 million. As everyone ran around buying tickets and imagining what they'd do with the money, I couldn't help but wonder what happens to the people who win big. I've always heard that the lucky winners don't end up being all that lucky, but no one's ever given me any details. Lucky for me, I visited the TIME website and came across an article titled $500 Million Powerball Jackpot: The Tragic Stories of the Lottery's Unluckiest Winners.
Andrew "Jack" Whittaker was already worth $17 million when he won a $315 million Powerball in 2002. He donated $14 million to his Jack Whittaker Foundation and gave the woman who sold him the winning ticket $50,000 in cash, a $123,000 house, and a new Dodge Ram Truck. Whittaker shortly began a downhill spiral, though. He began drinking heavily, was a regular at strip clubs, had $545,000 stolen from his car while he was inside a strip club in 2003, reported that thieves had emptied his bank accounts in 2007, and had $200,000 stolen from his car in 2004. Also in 2004, his granddaughter's boyfriend was found dead from a drug overdose in his home. Three months later, his granddaughter died of a drug overdose as well. Her mother, Whittaker's daughter, died five years later in 2009. Whittaker is now reportedly broke.
Billie Bob Harrell Jr. was virtually broke and bouncing back and forth between several low-paying jobs when he won the $31 million Texas Lotto jackpot in 1997. He opted for $1.24 million annual payouts and thought his problems were over, but they had just begun. At first things were great. He took his wife and three kids to Hawaii, quit his crappy job, donated tens of thousands of dollars to his church, donated 480 turkeys to the poor, and bought cars and houses for his family and friends. Harrell made a bad deal with a company that gives lottery winners lump-sum payments in exchange for their annual checks, though, and he ended up with a lot less than what he had won, and he and his wife divorced less than a year later. Harrell committed suicide in 1999.
After William Post III won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1998, he was quickly overcome by crime, tragedy, and simply stupid spending habits. Two weeks after he received his first annual $500,000 payment, he had already purchased a restaurant, used-car lot, and airplane. Three months later, he was $500,000 in debt. His brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him and his sixth wife, his landlord convinced him to give her a third of his cash, and his family tricked him into investing in worthless business ventures. William Post shortly thereafter filed for bankruptcy and did time in jail for shooting at a bill collector. He died in 2006.
Michael Carroll won about $15.5 million in 2002, blew all of it on drugs and hookers, drove way his wife and daughter, and ended up attempting suicide twice. Charles Riddle won $1 million in 1975 and ended up in federal prison. Jeffrey Dampier won $20 million in 1996, had his hands and feet bound by his brother and sister-in-law while they robbed him, and was then shot and killed by his sister-in-law.
After reading so many stories about unlucky winners, I feel pretty confident in saying that I won't be partaking in the lottery any time soon.
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