Movies About Winning the Lottery

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Posted: December 2, 2021

Updated: October 31, 2023

  • Lottery is a popular gambling game since the 15th century
  • It has been featured in several films from dramas to romantic-comedies
  • Some of the films are based on real-life events like Lucky Numbers

Everyone is dreaming about winning the lottery and become a millionaire, especially before the Christmas holidays. Film makers know that so this is an often-used topic with several films detailing the possible affects of a huge win. Most of them has a happy ending inspiring all of us to get our lottery tickets. Let’s see our list of movies about winning the lottery. 

The history of lottery goes back to a long time ago, to the 15th century. When the first lottery games were held in the Lower countries and in Italy. Since then lottery has become popular all around the world with millions of people buying tickets every week. The winners can often take home enormous sums of money, changing their lives forever. We can hear about several great real-life stories about the lucky winners, inspiring film directors to make movies about them. While others picture alternative realities about winning the lottery. We already mentioned five great films in this topic, now we selected some additional movies about winning the lottery. 

29th Street Is In Movies About Winning the Lottery

The first film on our list of movies about winning the lottery called 29th Street. It is based on a real-life story just like another great film we mentioned in our previous article, It Could Happen to You. This film is about a very lucky man, Frank Pesce Jr, who has been lucky all in his life. What’s more, even before he was born. As the original hospital where he should have been born was destroyed by fire. But his Mum went to give birth at another hospital so they both escaped the fire. 

Frank continued to be very lucky and even won the first New York State Lottery in 1976. But he couldn’t enjoy his win after some gangsters took his lottery ticket following their unfinished business with Frank’s Dad. We got to know that Frank Pesce Sr has been unlucky all his life which made several tension between father and son. The film is worth watching especially due to the performance of a young Anthony LaPaglia. While his father is played by another good actor,  Danny Aiello. 

Movies About Winning The Lottery: Lucky, a Black Comedy

The American crime comedy, Lucky is about Ben who just won the lottery. Or as it will turn out, he killed the woman who won it and took her ticket. His old-time crush, Lucy started to show interest in Ben after his huge win, and they eventually get married. But soon Lucy will discover her husband’s dark secrets and more and more dead bodies. It’s an interesting angle where money might not be enough to stay with a murderer. But luckily you don’t have to risk your life on online lotto sites in the US like The Lotter. Where you can also take part in the biggest lottery games from MegaMillions to Powerball

One of The Old Classic: If I Had a Million

We can already find films about getting rich unexpectedly in the early decades of the 20th century. One of the first films in this topic was If I Had a Million, an anthology made in 1932. According to the plot a dying industrial tycoon gives a million to eight randomly selected people instead of leaving his fortune to his family. We can follow what happened to the winners after their huge luck in eight different stories.

Even though it’s not exactly about winning the lottery, the characters of the film can feel like it. They do very various things with the money, most of them spending it in a short time. So we are all warned about the dangers of getting rich instantly. If you still want to take this risk, just fill out a lottery ticket online and hope to win the big prize. 

Lucky Numbers Was Based On a Real Scandal

Finally we have another black comedy in our list, starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow, called Lucky Numbers. The film was inspired by another real-life event, a lottery scandal in Pennsylvania, in 1980. In which the host of a TV lottery program and his associates made weighed replicas of the original lottery balls. Except balls with number 4 and 6 which then become the winning numbers. After their scam, the combination of 666 was won by several people which raised alarm with the authorities. At the end the participants of the scheme were sent to prison as it was reported by online gambling news in the US. In the film Travolta plays the cheating TV-host. While Kudrow is his girlfriend who helps him cheating. Things turn bad in the film too, though it has a happier ending than the real-life story. 

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