It seems that every year the lottery gets bigger and bigger as more people buy tickets
hoping for a quick fix to all of their financial problems.
For its players the lottery represents a ticket to paradise- no more having to drive to a
job you hate ever again, you can finally tell your terrible boss exactly what you think
about him and his stupid little mustache.
Bill collectors?
Goodbye harassing phone calls forever!
With tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions at your disposal you're officially
over life's petty problems, and can finally live the carefree life you've always dreamed
of.
Yet the reality is that most lottery winners end up blowing all of their cash, and its
rare the winner who is able to hold on to even just a portion of the money for even
just a few years.
So if you play the lottery stay tuned to this episode of The Infographics Show and maybe
don't tell that boss of yours what you think of his ridiculous little mustache just yet,
as we look at lottery winners who lost it all.
Lara and Roger Griffiths
In 2006 Lara and Roger Griffiths of England won 1.8 million pounds in the British lottery,
and immediately moved to buy their dream 670,000 pound home- or about 871,000 US dollars.
Next came the car, with a brand new 28,000 pound Porsche and a slightly less expensive
Lexus 4x4 luxury SUV, which Lara used to drive their two daughters to their 10,000 pound
a year private school- for each girl.
Lara immediately opened up a beauty spa, thinking that she'd invest her money into a business
that could produce a return- a smart move, except the spa simply never became profitable.
Though it's hardly Lara's fault, as she let Roger do all the financial work and sign all
the financial documents, and surprise surprise- turns out he knew little about business or
successfully running a spa.
The couple also splurged on five star trips to Dubai, New York, Majorca and Monaco, as
well as top-range furniture for their new home and a very expensive wardrobe.
Roger also spent 25,000 pounds on making a record with a band he played at in a local
university- which sold only 600 copies.
It wasn't all foolish spending though that bankrupted the Griffiths, who were forced
to sell their home along with their spa business and all of their luxuries.
Having bought real estate as an investment, the Griffiths were devastated when the global
economy collapsed in 2008-2009, and they lost most of their investments in the resulting
fallout.
Then in 2010 a freak fire gutted their home which had been underinsured, forcing the couple
to spend their remaining money on repairs in an attempt to sell the house.
Today the couple are divorced after Lara discovered a conversation on Roger's computer between
him and a male friend indicating his interest in another woman, and Lara works in the spa
she once owned and had to sell as a beauty technician.
Roger was last heard of admitting that he had 7 pounds in his bank and was relying on
his parents for money.
William 'Bud' Post III
In 1988 William 'Bud' Post III won 16.2 million after buying a lottery ticket with just $2.46
cents in his bank account.
He pawned a ring worth $40 and gave his landlady and occasional girlfriend the money for a
bunch of tickets, amongst which was the winning ticket.
Settling for 26 annual payments of $497,953.47- a smart move for any would be lottery winners
by the way- he had already blown $300,000 of it within two weeks of receiving his first
payment.
He'd acquired a liquor license, purchased a lease on a Florida restaurant for his brother
and sister, and a used-car lot along with its fleet for another brother.
He'd also bought a twin-engine plane even though he did not have a license.
Within just three months he was already $500,000 in debt, mostly from the properties he'd bought
for his siblings.
A year later Post officially cut ties with his siblings and moved into a mansion in Oil
City, Pennsylvania which he bought for $395,000, then set about upgrading it.
That's when his former landlady and occasional girlfriend sued him for a portion of the winnings,
claiming that he had promised her a part of the win- something he vigorously denied.
No matter, three years later a judge ordered him to pay her one third of his winnings,
though by that time most of the money was being spent on his mortgage payments.
In 1992 when he refused to hand over his annual payment to satisfy the judgement against him,
the same judge ordered a freeze to all his payments until the matter was settled.
Post immediately began selling all of his assets- or at least as many as he could.
The mansion he'd bought and planned to fix up was a crumbling mess, with plywood covering
up some of the windows, missing shower stalls, a swimming pool full of random junk and debris,
and an old car on blocks in a yard full of weeds out front.
In 1996 he launched on a final ploy to get out of his crushing debt, selling the mansion
for a measly $65,000 and auctioning off the remaining 17 lottery payments he was due-
something we had no idea you could legally do.
That netted Post a nest egg of $2.65 million- not bad even though he should have been earning
a total of over 8.5 million if he'd managed his money wisely.
Unfortunately just one year later he'd spent almost all of the remaining money on his debts,
two homes, another truck, three cars, two Harley Davidson motorcycles, a luxury camper,
and a $260,000 sailboat docked in Biloxi Mississippi- which he'd planned to use to start a charter
fishing business.
If that wasn't enough, one of his own brothers was arrested for hiring a hitman to try and
kill him, hoping he'd inherit some of the winnings.
Post would go on to live on food stamps and a $450 a month stipend until his death in
2006.
Marty and Kay Tott
Not all lottery winnings are lost due to incompetence or greed- and what has to be the fastest loss
of all lottery winnings in history came down to nothing more than bad luck.
Marty and Kay Tott were a newlywed couple watching their TV one night when they saw
a news story about the lottery's unclaimed jackpot, with the winning numbers listed on
screen.
Realizing those had been the numbers that they played, the couple immediately tore up
their apartment looking for the winning ticket.
Unfortunately the couple were unable to locate the ticket, and so the couple launched an
appeal with officials investigating their claim for seven weeks before being satisfied
that it was genuine.
Because the couple had waited so long to report the lost ticket however, due to their not
even having been aware that they had won, a court ruled that the company running the
lottery had no obligation to actually pay up.
The couple was devastated and the new marriage was badly affected, their dreams of moving
into their own home and starting a family indefinitely delayed as they were forced to
continue to make ends meet with a joint income of 34,000 pounds.
Evelyn Adams
Winning the lottery is a one in a lifetime event with astronomical odds- at least it's
supposed to be.
Yet in 1985 Evelyn Adams of New Jersey won the state's 3.9 million jackpot in October,
then won the 1.4 million jackpot just four months later.
The convenience store clerk became an instant celebrity and was bombarded with requests
for financial aid from both the public and her own family, and for her part she gave
a lot of money away to people asking for help.
Most of her family members whom she helped financially did not seem to think that they
had any obligation to repay her, and while some of her family was good-natured about
her win, others were angry because she had so much money.
At first Adams spent the money wisely, buying the convenience store she worked at (imagine
that revenge against your boss) and returning to school to study music, with the goal of
one day opening a music store.
Unfortunately for her prudent planning though, Adams would go on to gamble most of that money
away in Atlantic City a few year later.
Gerald Muswagon
In 1998 Gerald Muswagon won a $10 million jackpot on a $2 Super 7 ticket.
Immediately Muswagon launched on an incredible spending spree, buying new vehicles for himself
and his friends, as well as a home that was turned into a nightly party pad fueled by
large amounts of drugs and alcohol.
After two years of hard partying and splurging on luxuries for himself and his very bad-influence
friends, Muswagon started trying to get a grip on his life and started a logging business,
which quickly flopped due to low sales.
In 2000 he led police on a high speed chase and was sentenced to three months in jail,
followed by a conviction in November of 2002 for fondling a 19 year old woman he'd hired
to clean up his house, and given another three months in jail.
After losing all of his money, seven years later Muswagon was forced to take a job doing
heavy lifting on a friend's farm just to make ends meet and support his girlfriend and six
young children, though shortly after his body was discovered in his parent's garage, where
he'd hung himself.
Suzanne Mullins
Sometimes the stresses of life are greater than the windfall that a lottery win can provide,
and in 1993 when Suzanne Mullins hit a $4.2 million jackpot she decided to split the winnings
three ways with her husband and daughter, netting her after taxes 20 annual payments
of $47,778.84.
Yet Mullins did not splurge her money wastefully as most lottery winners on our list, and instead
used most of the money on her uninsured son-in-law who was very ill, running up $1 million in
medical bills before finally dying in 2000.
To help cover the medical expenses Mullins took out a loan in 1998 with the People's
Lottery Foundation, a company that serves lottery winners who need their money faster
than their annual payments arrive.
They lent her $197,746.15, which she agreed to pay back with her yearly checks through
2006- but in 2000 when the lottery rules changed and allowed the winners to collect their money
in one lump sum, Mullins cashed in on the remaining amount, albeit at the same penalty
that other winners who take the lump sum over the annual payment all receive.
In her bid to try to pay the mounting medical costs of her son-in-law, Mullins was unable
to pay back the PLF, which sued her for the remaining amount.
Sadly Mullins still has to repay the money to the PLF, and with most of her winnings
spent on medical costs, she's forced to pay out of her normal job.
Mrs. Mullin's story just goes to show that in America the healthcare system is so broken,
that even if you win the lottery you have no guarantee of still being able to afford
medical care- though we guess hoping to win the lottery is a better plan than just dying,
as our politicians today seem to expect us to do.
Winning the lottery can seem like a dream come true, and upon hearing the good news
it can be easy to be overcome with all matter of wants and desires.
Most people spend their lives working jobs they dislike and living paycheck to paycheck,
so the news that the world is suddenly at your fingertips and everything you've ever
seen on TV and wished you could have or do is now available to you can make people prone
to some very unwise decisions.
Some psychologists have theorized that some people simply aren't meant to handle vast
amounts of wealth, and of the lottery winners that go on to live happy lives, it's the ones
with motivations and aspirations that they were pursuing even before their big win that
end up being the best adjusted.
So if you ever win the lottery don't forget to still pursue your dreams, but make sure
it's a dream actually worth pursuing and not just a whim you want to splurge on, because
one day the money will run out.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Also, make sure you check our other video, why you dont want to win the lottery!