As the MegaMillions jackpot heads over $1 billion this week, we saw this article about some of the bad luck winning big brought to some:
After Evelyn Adams improbably won the New Jersey Lottery in both 1985 and 1986, winning more than $5.4 million total, her winnings were completely spent by 2012 because of gambling in Atlantic City and investment mistakes, according to Forbes. South Carolina native Jonathan Vargas, who was just 19 when he won a $35.3 million Powerball prize in 2008, put his winnings toward Wrestlicious, a women’s professional wrestling promotion that he founded. The show, which featured scantily clad performers who also did sketch comedy, lasted just one season and cost Vargas almost $500,000, according to CBS News. [snip]
Not long after William “Bud” Post won a Pennsylvania Lottery jackpot of $16.2 million in 1988, his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him for the inheritance. Post was later successfully sued by an ex-girlfriend for a share of the winnings, and was $1 million in debt by the time he died in 2006.
“Everybody dreams of winning money, but nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork, or the problems,” he said in 1993.
In the case of Ronnie Music Jr., the $3 million that he won from a Georgia Lottery scratch-off game in 2015 was put toward purchasing and distributing crystal meth. He pleaded guilty in 2016 to investing in a drug ring and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
It's not always a bad thing, of course. Many have been careful and have done good things with their winnings. But if you're looking for the ultimate, squalid tale of how being a winner can utterly ruin more than one life, look no further than this gut- wrenching story of 2002 Powerball winner Jack Whittaker.
Good luck! (?)
