Top unluckiest lottery winner

People usually think winning the lottery means never having to worry about money ever again and that their problems will be more easily solved – if not gone at all. Here are 5 cases that will prove that wrong.


1. Millions to Misery
Michael Carroll won £9.7 million, only to end up spending it all on drugs, gambling and prostitutes… a lot of prostitutes. His reckless spending drove his wife and daughter away, he was alone and after eight years of alcohol, drugs and prostitutes, Carroll was left with nothing. Still, according to the Daily Mail, Carroll stated that “The party has ended and it’s back to reality. I haven’t got two pennies to rub together and that’s the way I like it. I find it easier to live off £42 dole than a million.”

2. Gambling Wins, Gambling Losses
Another lotto winner that lost it all was Evelyn Adams, who now lives in a trailer park. Not only did she win the New Jersey lottery once, but twice, in 1985 and 1986. She had $5.4 million. Instead of saving it, she gambled most of it away while the rest was used to pay off her debts. According to Adams herself, “I was a big time gambler. I didn’t drop a million dollars, but it was a lot of money. I made mistakes, some I regret, some I don’t. I’m human. I can’t go back now so I just go forward, one step at a time.”




3. Even Being Sensible Doesn’t Work
Steve Granger did a very sensible thing with his $900,000 West Virginia Lottery prize. After paying the taxes, he decided to put most of the money away for his and his wife’s retirement. However, going public with your lottery wins might not be a good thing. Since everyone knew he’d won that money, people also started asking for investments and grabbing him randomly because he was “lucky”. He even overheard someone saying “There go those lottery people,” in a disdainful tone as he and his wife passed by. He went from being a regular man to the one everyone hated just because he’d won the lottery and had put the money away for himself and his wife.

4. Family Money
Worst than being bankrupt is, well, ending up dead. That’s what happened to Jeffery Dampier, who won the lottery in 1996. He moved his family and his parents to Florida and even set up a successful gourmet popcorn company in Tampa. His marriage, too, was working just fine and, from houses to cars to vacations, he used his money to buy whatever his friends and family wanted. He was rich and very nice about it. He even gave his wife’s sister Victoria a new apartment. But things would soon take a turn for the worst, for Victoria and her boyfriend conspired to kidnap Dampier. They tied his hands with shoelaces and forced him to their van with a gun, culminating with Victoria shooting her sister’s husband in the head. Victoria and her boyfriend were sentenced to life in prison.

5. Lottery Cursed
Another story that ended in sadness was Jack Whittaker, an already wealthy businessman. He won an astronomical sum of $314.9 million on December 25 2002, but what was probably seen as a Christmas miracle turned into a nightmare. After winning, his car was broken into twice, the first $545,000 in cash was stolen and the second with $200,000 (which was later recovered). Two club employees had planned to drug him and rob him; his granddaughter’s boyfriend turned up dead from an overdose in Whittaker’s house, a fate his own granddaughter would suffer at a friend’s place; he was sued by a casino for bouncing checks of around $1.5 million and by a woman who lent him money only to never be paid back. His daughter, too, was found dead. In the end, he ended up wishing he had torn that check up.








 culled from shuver.com