Here’s the official list of the biggest US lottery winners ever! Who are the ones that went broke?
12 - Andrew “Jack” Whittaker $314.9 million Back in 2002, Whittaker’s $314.9million win was
the biggest lottery win. Even though it’s not the biggest now, it’s still one of the biggest wins
ever. Whittaker has been covered extensively, so we’ll keep this short. Whittaker won after
having already been a millionaire, so you would think that he knew how to take care of money.
He took his winnings as a one-time payout of roughly $113 million dollars after taxes.
Whittaker famously got robbed a couple times simply because
he had large amounts of cash on him. Then there were the strange things that happened
to him and his family throughout the years. Even in 2020 he couldn’t escape the problems.
His house burnt down in a strange accident! Sadly, Whittaker passed in 2020 at the age 72.
He wasn’t broke, but he left a legacy of being one of the unluckiest lottery winners ever. Do us a
quick favor and click that like button! 11 -
Holly Lahti & Jim McCullar $380 million In 2011, Holly Lahti took home her share of a
giant $380 million dollar jackpot! Before hitting the jackpot, Holly was living in a basement in
Idaho with her husband and 2 daughters. So where is Holly and what’s she doing now?
Basically, she got a divorce and moved to California. She seems to be living a
relatively normal life without much publicity. Her troubled past with her ex-husband seems like
it was something recent. But it was actually dug up in the news once she won the lottery.
Currently, Holly Lahti has been out of the spotlight and seems to be having a fairly
normal life with her daughters in California. Is she broke? So far it doesn’t look like it!
How about Jim McCullar? After winning the lottery he said to the press that
he and his wife had no intention of blowing the money. Yep, something all lottery winners say.
Jim has 6 kids and a whopping 23 grandchildren! He said he wanted to use his winnings to take
care of his family for generations. He’s been off the radar so far, just like Holly.
10 - Anonymous couple - $536 Million Back in 2016, one couple smartly refused
to reveal their identity after they won the Mega Millions jackpot of $536 million dollars! They
opted to take a lump sum of roughly $271 million dollars. What we do know about them is that
they were born and raised in Indiana. They told reporters that they would continue to live
and raise their children. Well, the representative they hired to talk to the press that is.
The couple bought the winning ticket at a gas station while they were on a road trip to a
sports event for their kids. On a whim, they decided to buy five quick pick Mega Millions
tickets. And here’s the crazy part. It was their first time buying lottery tickets ever!
We’re willing to bet this anonymous couple still has their money.
9 - WF Office Pool - $543 million Back in 2018, one lucky office pool of 11 people
won a 543 million dollar jackpot! These Wells Fargo employees decided to do a lottery pool
on a spur of the moment decision. They did it just because of how big the jackpot grew.
They put in 2 dollars each into the pool and that’s easily the biggest return from
two dollars any of them have ever seen! So how easy is it to split a big jackpot like
this among a large group? Jason Kurland of Long Island, New York, markets himself as
“The Lottery Lawyer”. He says preventing conflicts in these cases is fairly straightforward.
His instructions are this. Whoever buys the ticket for the group should email everyone with these
details. A photocopy of the ticket specifying the drawing date and who are the members of the pool.
Also, the email should include how the winnings are to be
divided so there’s no confusion whatsoever! Apparently, legal disputes over lottery winnings
can be extra-costly. Why? Because the eventual winners lose out on interest they could have
earned by getting the money as soon as they can! Has anyone from this group gone broke?
So far, no one just yet. 8 - Gloria and Scott Mackenzie - $590 million
Gloria Mackenzie was 84 when she won a huge Powerball jackpot worth $590 million dollars.
So what’d she do afterwards? She sued her son. Why?! Gloria opted to take home a lump sum of
around $371 million dollars after taxes back in 2013. But she had to split the earnings with
her son, Scott. The reason was because he had helped her buy the winning ticket. Her
son getting the money ISN’T why she sued. It’s because of how her money was managed!
She gave her son Scott control of her money. He then turned to Harry Madden, a financial
advisor who’s also co-host of a radio show called "Smart Money" in Jacksonville Florida. However,
Madden didn’t seem like he was great at managing money. He generated a return of less than ONE
percent on her money in 3 and a half years! And he charged her more than 2 million dollars in fees!
What do you think? Should she have sued?! Obviously Madden asked for
the case to be dismissed. Since winning the lottery though,
the Mackenzies have been relatively quiet, only generating attention as a result of this lawsuit.
7 - Ira Curry and Steve Tran - $648 Million Back in 2013, Ira Curry and Steve Tran both
won the $648 million dollar Mega Million jackpot. For Ira Curry from Georgia,
it was pretty simple. She took her winnings in cash, roughly about $120 million after taxes.
Then poof, she simply disappeared. Nothing about her in the news since her big win.
When Steve Tran first won he actually didn’t know he even had a chance of having the winning
ticket. That’s because as a delivery driver, he had bought tickets in so many different towns.
He didn’t think he had stopped in San Jose, the location where the ticket was bought.
But it wasn’t until he came back from a vacation that he realized that he WAS in San Jose. Tran
had no idea he had the winning ticket for a giant lottery win sitting for weeks on his
nightstand! Tran immediately called his boss and quit his job. After his big win, just like Ira,
Steve vanished from the public eye. 6 - Mega Millions
Group - $656 million In March 2012,
three different tickets from three different states won the 656 million dollar Mega Millions
jackpot! Merle and Patricia Butler were already retired when they won. They claimed they were
going to safely invest the money and financially assist their two children and grandchildren.
They did hire a team of financial experts to help manage their new fortune.
Except for the one time in 2014 that they told TMZ about scammers who were using their name on
Instagram, they’ve stayed out of the spotlight. Another ticket was won by a group of friends who
called themselves the “Three Amigos,”. They showed up to collect the check in disguise!
All three of them worked in public education in Maryland. And of course, since they showed up
covered in head to toe, they haven’t exactly done any follow ups on what they’ve up to.
The same goes for the third winner of this giant jackpot. He or she was smart enough to
stay anonymous! 5 -
Lerynne West and Robert Bailey - $687.8 million Lerynne West and Robert Bailey won their share
of this Powerball jackpot worth a little under 700 million dollars.
As soon as West won, she quit her job and hired a wealth manager.
She went on as a guest on Ellen to talk about her win, as well as setting up a charity. The
crazy thing is, she almost lost her ticket! She was moving to a new place when she bought
the ticket and she thought she put it in her purse. But instead it ended up on the floor
of her sister’s car, where the ticket could have easily been lost! Other than the usual
scams people pull for lottery winners, West hasn’t been in the news yet and most likely isn’t broke.
Like West, Robert Bailey hired a financial advisor and also a lawyer to help guide him
with everything. He had played the same lotto number for 25 years, and finally hit in 2018!
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot, according to the lottery,
were 1 in 292,201,338. But what are the odds when a person plays the same number in a lottery
thousands of times for over 25 years? Aaron Tenenbein, a statistics professor at New
York University’s Business School, estimated Mr. Bailey’s odds would have been 1 out of 115,385.
You may think it’s because he played the same number. No, it’s just the simple fact of playing
for 25 years. Playing the same numbers has nothing to do with it. It’s still pure chance any set of
numbers hit! So far it looks like everything is good for Bailey. No news yet of him going broke.
4 - Mavis Wanczyk - $758.7 Million The first thing Mavis Wanczyk did
after winning the Powerball lottery back in August of 2017 was quit her job. She
chose to take a lump-sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million dollars after taxes.
The weirdest thing that’s happened to her was people going door to door,
asking where she lived ever since she went public with her winnings. This prompted her
local police department to send some officers to her house to make sure she was safe.
This is a big reason why to stay anonymous if you can!
But, other than the usual Instagram scams we covered earlier, Wanczyk hasn’t
been in the news for anything else. 3 - Manuel Franco - $768.4 million
Manuel Franco hit the huge $768.4 million Powerball jackpot just recently in March of 2019!
Franco took the lump sum of roughly 326 million after taxes.
He planned to live his life as normal as possible, and of course promised to not go bankrupt.
Here’s a Fun Fact: Wisconsin is one of the states where lottery winners have to reveal their
identity. So Manuel didn’t have a choice to hide! As of 2020, it looks like things are going
according to plan as there isn’t anything about Manuel in the news.
2 - Anonymous - $1.537 Billion One person. 1.537 BILLION DOLLARS.
This is the largest payout to a single lottery winner in US history! And this person had smartly
chosen to stay anonymous. The chance to win that particular lottery was roughly 1 in 302 million!
The only thing we know is that this person was from South Carolina, and he or she hired Jason
Kurland, the same lottery lawyer we mentioned earlier. What does the lottery lawyer think is
the biggest challenge for lottery winners? He says it’s to not let the money strain relationships.
Apparently, a lot of times friends and family feel that they “deserve” something,
just because they’re close to that person. 1 - The PowerBall Group - $1.586 Billion
The biggest lottery prize ever is $1.586 Billion dollars, which just slightly beat out the second
biggest prize ever. This giant jackpot was won by 3 different tickets back in January of 2016. Let’s
start with Marvin and Mae Acosta. They actually didn’t come out to claim their prize until SIX
months after winning! They were taking the time to mull their options and assemble their team. Even
if they wanted to stay anonymous, they couldn’t. California is another state where winners have
to reveal their identity. However, the Acostas have stayed out of the news since their win.
Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt planned to live in the same home, go to the same grocery
stores, and keep the same lifestyle as before they won the lottery. Well, other than going
to their jobs. And they were going to buy a few nice things, such as a new Tesla and a new truck!
John and Lisa Robinson won their share of this giant jackpot and the Robinsons bought a $6.2
million dollar home, 2 years after their win. The house came with a private lake,
10 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, and a home theatre. Lisa tried to go back to work, but couldn’t do it after
everyone treated her differently. Here’s what’s next!