Dreaming of winning the lottery and blowing up off of Powerball??? You might lose that lotto dream after reading these stories.
According to AOL News, Jack Whittaker, the dude who won a big $300+ million in the Powerball lotta in 2002, has been miserable ever since. After winning, this guy had his grand-daughter pass away, his wife divorced him (and probably took half), and recently his daughter died of unknown causes. Aside from his family falling apart, he was also sued when some kid overdosed on drugs and died at his house.
Whittaker was actually quoted as saying that he wishes he would have ripped the ticket up. Said that people are greedy and stuff. I’d be willing to take his problems (money) from him if he asked me (Jack, email me, ryan@ryanmayberry.com) – thanks.
Lotto Winning Does Not Create Cure for Cancer
Anyway, some other lucky winner got screwed even worse by the apparant bad-luck of winning the lotto. A guy named Wayne Schenk, from Syracuse NY, scratched off a set of numbers that landed him $1,000,000. Less than a month later, he was diagnosed with Cancer and told he had one year to live (sounds like a good idea for a country song). Sounds like a neat concept – a guy has a year to live it up with a million dollars. Didn’t work out that way however….
The lotto game he played did not offer a lump sum option, and therefore he was only awarded one $50,000 payment before he died of cancer a few months later after not being able to pay his medical bills.
Almost Killed Over the Lotto
William “Bud” Post, who won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery in 1988, had a brother who tried to have him killed for the inheritance. Post lost and spent all his winnings. He was living off Social Security when he died in January.
Lotto Winners Can’t Handle the Booze
Victoria Zell, who won $11 million Powerball jackpot with her husband in 2001, is serving hard time in a Minnesota prison, her money gone. She was convicted in March 2005 in a drug- and alcohol-induced collision that killed one person and paralyzed another.
Is there like a lotto curse?
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