Need a little proof that money doesn’t buy happiness? For these 10 lottery winners, cashing in turned out to have been the worst decision of their lives.
Michael Carroll
Winnings: £9.7 million (about $15.5 million)
Time until bust: 8 years
Dubbed the “Lotto Lout” in his native England, Michael Carroll did exactly what those who come into sudden cash are advised not to do: he blew it all on drugs and hookers. According to the Daily Mail, the 19-year-old collected his £9.7 million (more than $15.5 million) in 2002 while wearing an “electronic offender’s tag,” distributed some to family and friends, and then unapologetically frittered away the rest on drugs, gambling and thousands of prostitutes. The British tabloid reported that by 2003, Carroll was allegedly smoking more than $3,000 worth of crack cocaine daily and regularly throwing indulgent parties at his $500,000 home.
Back to his old job as a janitor…
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Carroll’s behavior drove away his wife and young daughter. Just eight years later Carroll had already spent all his winnings. He went back to living off his £42 ($67) per week unemployment benefits but claimed the return to a more humble lifestyle suited him just fine.
“The party has ended and it’s back to reality,” Carroll told the Daily Mail in 2010. “I haven’t got two pennies to rub together and that’s the way I like it. I find it easier to live off £42 dole than a million.”
The next year, however, Carroll admitted to having attempted suicide twice after he’d frittered his millions away.
Janite Lee
Winnings: $18 million
Time until bust: 8 years
Janite Lee was the rare lottery winner who chose to spend her brand-new wealth on someone other than herself. Lee, an immigrant from South Korea, was working at a wig shop when she hit the Illinois Lottery in 1993. After moving her family into a million-dollar gated community in St. Louis, she spent much of her $620,000 a year on philanthropic efforts. Her political contributions found her dining with Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and her educational donations put her name on a reading room at the Washington University School of Law. But she sold the rights to her annual payment for a lump sum, and in less than a decade Lee was in bankruptcy court to put her debts to rest. When the 60-year-old Lee filed for Chapter 7 in 2001, she had less than $700 to her name and $2.5 million in debts.
Callie Rogers
Winnings: £1.9 million ($3 million)
Time until bust: 6 years
When British teenager Callie Rogers won £1.9 million ($3 million) in July 2003, she showered her friends and family with gifts. The then-16-year-old from Cumbria, England treated her loved ones to presents such as cars, homes and lavish vacations. She also spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on partying, breast implants and designer clothing. But in 2009, the Daily Mail reported that Rogers was facing bankruptcy. “I’ve just wanted to make people happy by spending money on them,” she told the tabloid. “But it hasn’t made me happy. It just made me anxious that people are only after me for my money.” She reportedly attempted suicide twice after winning it big and told the Daily Mail she was now ready to embrace her poverty. To make ends meet, she started working three cleaning jobs and moved in with her mother. “My life is a shambles and hopefully now [the money] has all gone I can find some happiness,” she said. “It’s brought me nothing but unhappiness. It’s ruined my life.”
Jeffrey Dampier
Winnings: $20 million
Time until bust: 9 years
Jeffrey Dampier used the $20 million he won from the Illinois Lottery in 1996 to start a popcorn business and to purchase presents for family members — including his sister-in-law Victoria Jackson, with whom he was having an affair. But Jackson turned on him in 2005, when she and her boyfriend Nathaniel Jackson (no relation) plotted to rob Dampier. After the couple bound his hands and feet, Nathaniel forced Victoria to make a choice: “Shoot him or I’ll shoot you,” he reportedly said. Victoria chose to live, and the owner of Kassie’s Gourmet Popcorn in Tampa’s Channelside entertainment district perished from a bullet to the back of his head.
Evelyn Basehore
Winnings: $5.4 million (in two separate jackpots)
Time until bust: 15 years
You’d think someone lucky enough to win the lottery twice would respect its sanctity. Evelyn Basehore hit a $3.9 million Pick Six jackpot in 1985 and then won $1.4 million in the same game just five months later, beating odds set at 1 in 15 trillion. But she couldn’t rein in her spending habits. She gave away much of it to friends; much of the rest went to support her hefty gambling habit at the slot machines in Atlantic City. “Winning the lottery isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Everybody wanted my money. Everybody had their hand out,” she told Bankrate after she went bust around 2000 and moved into a trailer park in Brick, N.J. She recently admitted to the New York Post that she still plays the lottery from time to time. Can lightning strike thrice?
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