Curse Of The Lottery Winners – Is It Real?

Everyone has dreamed about winning billions of dollars in the lottery. We have all spent it in our minds on expensive cars, luxury houses, and trips around the world and lived happily ever after with the remaining money. However, the reality is not so great. A lot of research has been done about lottery winners, and for quite a few of them, nothing was solved by the sudden amount of money. In fact, many curses the day when they won the jackpot! Let’s see whether the curse of the lottery winners is real or not!

Blessing or Curse?

With the lottery jackpot, in theory, the winner will get the opportunity to create and maintain a better, more luxurious way of living. Therefore, it’s not surprising that many people dream about it, but not many winners live happily ever after. It seems that there is a curse on the big jackpot winners because, with the billions, many unforeseen challenges come. The lives of many lottery winners ended in tragedy, and below, you can read about some cases.  So the lottery curse means that someone wins only to have bad things happen to them. This bad can range on a fairly wide scale: Depression, suicide, financial bankruptcy, divorce, etc. However, we are talking about general data. Of course, not every winner throws money away by handfuls, but the majority is not prepared to make responsible decisions. In the United States, one-third of winners file for bankruptcy within five years of winning. 

According to another Canadian survey, 70% of people who suddenly receive a large amount of money lose their wealth within seven years. Though, it doesn’t have to end that way! Plenty of winners at TheLotter can manage their winnings well. While it’s great to be in the present, most winners forget to think about their long-term finances. So, for those who can’t manage their spending well, the curse of the lottery winners is real!

Reasons for Going Bankrupt 

The average lottery player is not a highly educated person. Usually, low-payed workers play, who have worked hard all their life, yet it never got them anywhere. People with careers play less because their finances and options provide the lifestyle they need. However, regular players usually do not have financial plans, so if they win, they get caught up in making up for the opportunities they missed out on before. Therefore, they start spending huge sums after receiving the prize. Most people overestimate their winnings and spend far beyond the limits of the winnings. They tend to think of themselves as permanent millionaires, who want to continue living the wealthy lifestyle, but it’s easy to spend this kind of money fast these days. It’s also easy to forget that this amount will never replace itself without investing. Many of them quit their jobs, which often turns out to be a big mistake. Contrary to popular belief, money does not solve every problem but often makes things worse. That’s because most problems in our lives are not material. 

The jackpot can’t heal the previously depressed person, maybe until the initial euphoria wears off. Just like a married couple who had problems before will not fix them overnight thanks to the prize, more likely, their relationship would end up in an ugly divorce. Plenty of lottery millionaires lost a big chunk of their money at gambling tables or went to jail for drug possession. All in all, poverty is not the problem in most cases, but the result of a lifestyle, mental or spiritual attitude. That’s the main reason why money does not help.

Curse of the Lottery Winners

Another big part of why lottery winning ruins lives is when family members, friends, very distant relatives, and even fraudsters appear to ask for money. Since, most of the time, the winner can’t say no to them, the money disappears very quickly. Creating businesses has great potential, but many times, when they start a company, they have always dreamed about does not mean they know what to do. Most business owners build them up from the ground, step by step, but the winners jump into the middle of this overnight. They don’t know the first thing about where to get goods, advertise, how to hire and employ people, etc.  That is why most businesses fail miserably, but up until that point, they swallow up millions of dollars. So, the most important thing is to avoid risky investments. There are plenty of horror stories about how real estate investment turned out as a failure, which left the winners penniless with debts in the bank. They should find an investment that brings in steady money for many years. This budget will keep them from burning through the entire winning in a few years, as the average lottery winners tend to.

Avoid Joining the Camp of Broke Lottery Millionaires!

First and foremost, the winners have to calm down and not make big decisions for a few months. Most rash decisions happen in the first few months following the win. Many give a lot away to anybody because they still have a lot and spend without reason. Therefore, to avoid following through with sudden bright ideas, they should set boundaries and say no. Another good idea is not to buy real estate or invest money in uncertain business plans, like your friend’s new career choice. If it’s possible, they should keep quiet about it until the whole thing sinks in and when they can make responsible decisions. It would definitely make their lives easier to keep it on the low. They should ask for financial advice from one or more experts. Not only about where to invest their money, but also about how to make a budget and how to distribute their money. They should make plans with their finances even if they have won a considerable sum.

Winners have to calculate how much they have to save for later, and the rate winners should use the money they set aside. They have to sit down and plan what kind of house they can buy and how much it would cost to maintain. The same goes for cars too. It’s crucial to know how much they can spend per month, whether to give away or support their relatives and charities, so they have some money to fall back on in the future.

From Millionaire to Robber

James Allen Hayes’s life took a 180-degree turn after winning the lottery jackpot, just not in the way anyone would think. Meet James Allen Hayes, a former security guard who is currently in prison for bank robbery. The Los Angeles court sentenced him to 33 months, but what got him to this point? Believe it or not, it all started with a lottery win. In 1998, James Allen Hayes hit the jackpot, winning $19 million in the California lottery. He thought this would change his life.  However, as it often happens with big jackpot winners, the money changed him, not just his life. He started shopping without thinking, from Lamborghinis to different houses. There's nothing wrong with that, right? The problems started when he divorced his wife, who took half the money, and Hayes replaced her with a younger girlfriend. Oddly enough, both ladies were named Stephanie. Later, Mr. Hayes had chronic back pain that required surgery and became addicted to painkillers.  When the painkillers stopped working, Hayes turned to a more drastic method: Heroin. Heroin is said to get you addicted after about one use, and Mr. Hayes tried more than once, so the addiction took over. Although he thought this was to control his pain, he was wrong. After all his money was gone, Hayes lived in a garage with his new wife and then came to the realization that nothing else could help his situation, only bank robbery. According to online lottery sites in the US, he heard a song and then decided to go along with the plan. 

Curse of the Lottery Winners

He was later convicted for only robbing four banks, but he actually broke the law more than ten times. Hayes read a lot of books and watched movies on the subject in order to become as professional as possible. He changed his appearance, smeared his fingers with liquid Band-Aids to avoid leaving fingerprints, and always started his tour around five in the afternoon when the police changed shifts.  Hayes never had a weapon because being caught with one would be an aggravating factor, and most importantly, he finished in three minutes. It's certainly not easy to quit heroin when you spend $1,000 per week on it. Hayes, on the other hand, succeeded, and he has probably been released in the past years. James Allen Hayes wants to write a book about his experiences, but we don't know how it's going. We couldn’t find any recent news about him, whether he has even been released or still serving.

He is Not the Only One!

So we mentioned the curse of the lottery winners. It would be great if the curse only affected Hayes, but it didn't. There were quite a few people in history whose lives took a negative turn, but also those whose lives ended soon after the win. Abraham Shakespeare was unemployed when he won $30 million in the Florida lottery but was found dead three years later. His girlfriend, who had used him for money, murdered him.  Mack W. Metcalf and his wife Virginia G. Merida won $34 million in 2000, which they spent on drugs, a mansion, and exotic pets. The couple was dead already three years later. The husband allegedly died of complications from alcoholism, and the woman died of a drug overdose. Unfortunately, Doris Murray’s life also had a sad end. In 2007 she won 5 million dollars in the lottery. 

She intended to give this amount to his grandchildren, but someone stabbed her to death in her own home. The first person on this list who was not a victim of murder is Billie Bob Harrell Jr, but his story didn't have a happy ending either. He won $31 million in the Texas lottery shortly after his wife divorced him, and he committed suicide. Another example is that money can’t solve every problem.

Curse of the Lottery Winners

Alex and Rhoda Toth had just $24 when they won the Florida Lottery’s $13 million jackpot in 1990. The couple received the amount in installments of $666,666. That’s already a bid sign! Over the years, they went through various family problems, and the tax office accused them of tax fraud. In 2002, they filed for bankruptcy. According to Rhoda, their wealth alienated them from many of their friends and family, while it also ruined their marriage.  Evelyn Basehore won the lottery twice, which is less likely than being killed by a meteor. However, he could not stop gambling, and 15 years later, she was bankrupt. Janite Lee also spent her 18 million dollars winning very quickly. You can check out the world’s unluckiest lottery winners by clicking on the link! They say that many lottery winners request anonymity to avoid the lottery curse. Of course, this may seem strange since claiming victory publicly is commonplace. Though you might agree that the curse of the lottery winners becomes real if the winners make it real!

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