You Can’t Buy Wisdom: 7 Lotto Winners Who Weren’t Money Savvy

What would you do if you won the lottery? Would you buy a house, put 30% in investments, and have fun with the rest of the money, not forgetting your tax obligations? If you did all these, you’d probably be better off than this list of unlucky Lotto winners. 

Now don’t get us wrong, we’re not trying to discourage you from trying your luck and possibly winning big bucks. But it’s good to be cautious, whether you choose to purchase a ticket from the nearest lotto booth in town or from a top-rated online provider. If it’s the latter, you should definitely check out Oppa888 Casino – aside from a selection of over 3,600 games (which of course, include lotto!), local payment methods are available and customer support is available 24/7.

But if you’re going to win, keep your wits about you! Or you’ll end up like this sorry bunch.

1. Robberies, deaths, and fire: Jack Whittaker

Jack Whittaker is perhaps the saddest and strangest lottery winner story you’ll come across. Following his $314.9 million lottery win, his life started to unravel, with his wife leaving him, repeated thefts from his car of his winnings outside of a strip club, and his granddaughter, who was to be the heir to his fortune, winding up addicted to drugs and succuming to an overdose at just 17. Jack himself kept getting into trouble at casinos, and with DUIs, and even had his home burned down.

2. Murdered for his money: Abraham Shakespeare

Imagine being so rich that people would be willing to kill you for your money. Unfortunately, this was the case for 2006 $17 million lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare, a casual laborer who hit the big time in Florida. By November 2009, Shakespeare was reported missing, and a story unfolded about his new “friend” Dee Dee Moore, who wound up being found to target the man for his winnings and bury him under a piece of concrete in her backyard.

3. From Lotto Lout to modest mouse: Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll was a bit of a megastar in the British press for a time. The lad who won £10M on the National Lottery when he was 19 went on to live life like a rockstar for ten years, splashing his cash on houses, partying, women, and toys, while causing a scene for his neighbours with his antics. Now? The money’s all gone and Michael works at a slaughterhouse in a very modest existence.

4. A football foul: John McGuinness

John McGuinness was doing relatively well with his millions of dollars in lottery winnings when he made a terrible investment mistake. Now, many people are nuts about football, but John took it to the next degree, offering four million pounds in sureties to his favorite football club, Livingston Football club. Unfortunately the club went into receivership and he was left penniless after the fact.

5. Investing in meth: Ronnie Music Jr.

You would think that investing would be the first thing that you’d do with a lotto win, and Ronnie Music Jr. was no different. The only difference between him and us, though, is that he thought his $3M lottery winnings were best invested in crystal meth. Instead of making the money back and then some, Ronnie learned the hard way to choose your investments wisely and ended up with decades in jail.

6. Armed robber to high life to dying broke and alone: David Lee Edwards

When 46 year old David Lee Edwards hit the $27million jackpot, he was a humble man from humble beginnings, promising not to squander his cash, and even engaging the services of a financial advisor to do wisely with $16million of it. However, within a month he’d spent a cool mil, with a Las Vegas party and splashing out on homes, and another two months the bill was up to $3M. Edwards spent plenty of his cash on drugs, too, and in just five years, he was down to zero funds, pulling them out of the investments made by his financial advisor, and after 12 years died broke and alone.

7. Manslaughter at the hands of her husband: Ibi Roncaioli

When winning $5 million in 1991, Ibi Roncaioli and her husband were already very comfortably well off. A generous woman, Ibi gave much of her money to two of her sons, as well as a third son, whose existence was kept hidden from the other men. However, in 2003, Ibi died after she was injected with painkillers at the hands of her husband. At the manslaughter trial, it was heard Ibi was a secret alcoholic, forging her husband’s name on financial documents, and spending more time playing casino games than with her husband.