Winning isn’t everything.
It’s more likely you’ll get struck by lightning than win the Powerball — but if you do win, there is an even better chance that you’ll go broke.
Nearly 70% of lottery winners end up broke within seven years. Even worse, several winners have died tragically or witnessed those close to them suffer.
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Edward Ugel, author of the book “Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions,” told the Daily Beast of the thousands of lottery winners he’s known, few were happy and only a small number lived happily ever after.
“You would be blown away to see how many winners wish they’d never won,” Ugel said.
One of those unlucky winners was Abraham Shakespeare. Just weeks before Shakespeare was killed, he told his mother he wished he never won.
Abraham Shakespeare: Murdered by a newfound friend
Shakespeare hit big for $30 million in 2006, causing friends and family to hound him for money.
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He befriended Dorice (Dee Dee) Moore who tricked Shakespeare into believing she was trying to protect him from the greedy people around him.
Moore convinced the lottery winner to transfer his assets to her before he went missing in 2009. In 2012, she was sentenced to mandatory life without parole for his murder by a judge who called her “cold, calculating and cruel.”
Here are more tragic tales of lottery winners:
David Lee Edwards: Lived in human feces before his death
Edwards — a former drug addict and felon — won a $27 million jackpot in 2001 while unemployed in South Florida.
He quickly blew through the money by purchasing a $1.6 million house in Palm Beach Gardens, three race horses, a fiber optics company, a Lear Jet, a limo business, a $200,000 Lamborghini Diablo and a multitude of other luxuries.
Edwards and his wife returned to drug use and had numerous run-ins with police for posession of crack cocaine, pills and heroin.
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He lost of all his money in just a few years and ended up living in a storage unit surrounded by human feces.
He later died in hospice care at age 58.
Jeffrey Dampier: Shot to death by his in-law
Jeffrey Dampier won $20 million in the Illinois lottery before his own family turned against him. The millionaire showered his family with cash and gifts, but that just wasn’t enough for his sister-in-law, Victoria Jackson.
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Dampier was kidnapped and shot in the back of his head by Jackson and her boyfriend around seven years after winning the jackpot. The couple was charged in his murder and are each serving a life sentence in prison.
Urooj Khan: Poisoned with cyanide
The 46-year-old Chicagoan dropped dead the day after he won $1 million in 2012. An autopsy revealed that Khan died of cyanide poisoning. Both his sister-in-law and her father were suspected to be involved in his death but no one was ever charged.
Khan’s winnings and properties were divided between his daughter and his widow.
Michael Carroll: Blew it all on cocaine and hookers
Carroll, 26, won $15 million U.S. dollars in a British jackpot back in 2002.
He was soon left with nothing after dishing out cash on parties, cocaine, hookers and cars.
He was nicknamed “the lotto lout” and also reportedly spent his former fortune on a villa in Spain, quad bikes, demolition-derby cars and flashy jewelry.
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Carroll was jailed in 2006 following an altercation and was later convicted of drug possession.
William “Bud” Post III: Betrayed by his own brother
Just two weeks after winning $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery, Post had blown through $300,000 on a car lot, restaurant and even an airplane — although he couldn’t fly. He was $1 million in debt one year after winning.
Not only was he broke and forced to declare bankruptcy, but his own brother was arrested for hiring a man to kill him.
“I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare,” he once said of winning the lottery.
Post was later jailed for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector.
He was on food stamps before dying at age 66.
Jack Whittaker: A series of unfortunate events
Jack Whittaker of West Virginia was already worth around $17 million when he won a $315 million multi-state Powerball jackpot back in 2002. Whittaker used most of his winnings for good — like building churches and donating 10% to Christian charities.
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He also launched the Jack Whittaker foundation to provide clothes and food to low-income families before his life began to fall apart.
Whittaker was arrested for drunk driving and threatening a bartender after hitting it big. A woman also sued him for groping her at a racetrack. On two separate occasions, thieves robbed him, once outside of a strip club for $500,000 and another for $200,000.
He and his wife divorced after he became an alcoholic. After supplying his 17-year-old granddaughter with a weekly allowance of $2,100 she died of a drug overdose, as did her boyfriend. And Whittaker’s daughter later died of unknown causes.
Both Whittaker and his wife said they wished he had torn the ticket up.
Evelyn Adams: Won twice and lost it all
A New Jersey woman won the lottery back-to-back in 1985 and 1986.
But Evelyn Adams was too cocky with her luck and headed to Atlantic City where she gambled her winnings away.
After losing it all, Adams started a new life in a trailer park.
Billie (Bob) Harrell Jr.: Shot himself in the head
In less than than two years, Bob Harrell lost all of his $31 million winnings.
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He donated his money to those in need and lended some of his cash to those close to him, but his generosity proved to work against him.
Being broke led to a split from his wife and the Texas man was found dead in his home with a gunshot wound to his head.
Before commiting suicide, he said, “winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
