It seems that every year the lottery gets
bigger and bigger as more people buy tickets hoping for a quick fix to all of their financial
problems. For its players the lottery represents a ticket
to paradise- no more having to drive to a job you hate ever again, you can finally tell
your terrible boss exactly what you think about him and his stupid little mustache. Bill collectors? Goodbye harassing phone calls forever! With tens of millions, maybe even hundreds
of millions at your disposal you're officially over life's petty problems, and can finally
live the carefree life you've always dreamed of. Yet the reality is that most lottery winners
end up blowing all of their cash, and its rare the winner who is able to hold on to
even just a portion of the money for even just a few years. So if you play the lottery stay tuned to this
episode of The Infographics Show and maybe don't tell that boss of yours what you think
of his ridiculous little mustache just yet, as we look at lottery winners who lost it
all. Lara and Roger Griffiths In 2006 Lara and Roger Griffiths of England
won 1.8 million pounds in the British lottery, and immediately moved to buy their dream 670,000
pound home- or about 871,000 US dollars. Next came the car, with a brand new 28,000
pound Porsche and a slightly less expensive Lexus 4x4 luxury SUV, which Lara used to drive
their two daughters to their 10,000 pound a year private school- for each girl. Lara immediately opened up a beauty spa, thinking
that she'd invest her money into a business that could produce a return- a smart move,
except the spa simply never became profitable. Though it's hardly Lara's fault, as she let
Roger do all the financial work and sign all the financial documents, and surprise surprise-
turns out he knew little about business or successfully running a spa. The couple also splurged on five star trips
to Dubai, New York, Majorca and Monaco, as well as top-range furniture for their new
home and a very expensive wardrobe. Roger also spent 25,000 pounds on making a
record with a band he played at in a local university- which sold only 600 copies. It wasn't all foolish spending though that
bankrupted the Griffiths, who were forced to sell their home along with their spa business
and all of their luxuries. Having bought real estate as an investment,
the Griffiths were devastated when the global economy collapsed in 2008-2009, and they lost
most of their investments in the resulting fallout. Then in 2010 a freak fire gutted their home
which had been underinsured, forcing the couple to spend their remaining money on repairs
in an attempt to sell the house. Today the couple are divorced after Lara discovered
a conversation on Roger's computer between him and a male friend indicating his interest
in another woman, and Lara works in the spa she once owned and had to sell as a beauty
technician. Roger was last heard of admitting that he
had 7 pounds in his bank and was relying on his parents for money. William 'Bud' Post III In 1988 William 'Bud' Post III won 16.2 million
after buying a lottery ticket with just $2.46 cents in his bank account. He pawned a ring worth $40 and gave his landlady
and occasional girlfriend the money for a bunch of tickets, amongst which was the winning
ticket. Settling for 26 annual payments of $497,953.47-
a smart move for any would be lottery winners by the way- he had already blown $300,000
of it within two weeks of receiving his first payment. He'd acquired a liquor license, purchased
a lease on a Florida restaurant for his brother and sister, and a used-car lot along with
its fleet for another brother. He'd also bought a twin-engine plane even
though he did not have a license. Within just three months he was already $500,000
in debt, mostly from the properties he'd bought for his siblings. A year later Post officially cut ties with
his siblings and moved into a mansion in Oil City, Pennsylvania which he bought for $395,000,
then set about upgrading it. That's when his former landlady and occasional
girlfriend sued him for a portion of the winnings, claiming that he had promised her a part of
the win- something he vigorously denied. No matter, three years later a judge ordered
him to pay her one third of his winnings, though by that time most of the money was
being spent on his mortgage payments. In 1992 when he refused to hand over his annual
payment to satisfy the judgement against him, the same judge ordered a freeze to all his
payments until the matter was settled. Post immediately began selling all of his
assets- or at least as many as he could. The mansion he'd bought and planned to fix
up was a crumbling mess, with plywood covering up some of the windows, missing shower stalls,
a swimming pool full of random junk and debris, and an old car on blocks in a yard full of
weeds out front. In 1996 he launched on a final ploy to get
out of his crushing debt, selling the mansion for a measly $65,000 and auctioning off the
remaining 17 lottery payments he was due- something we had no idea you could legally
do. That netted Post a nest egg of $2.65 million-
not bad even though he should have been earning a total of over 8.5 million if he'd managed
his money wisely. Unfortunately just one year later he'd spent
almost all of the remaining money on his debts, two homes, another truck, three cars, two
Harley Davidson motorcycles, a luxury camper, and a $260,000 sailboat docked in Biloxi Mississippi-
which he'd planned to use to start a charter fishing business. If that wasn't enough, one of his own brothers
was arrested for hiring a hitman to try and kill him, hoping he'd inherit some of the
winnings. Post would go on to live on food stamps and
a $450 a month stipend until his death in 2006. Marty and Kay Tott Not all lottery winnings are lost due to incompetence
or greed- and what has to be the fastest loss of all lottery winnings in history came down
to nothing more than bad luck. Marty and Kay Tott were a newlywed couple
watching their TV one night when they saw a news story about the lottery's unclaimed
jackpot, with the winning numbers listed on screen. Realizing those had been the numbers that
they played, the couple immediately tore up their apartment looking for the winning ticket. Unfortunately the couple were unable to locate
the ticket, and so the couple launched an appeal with officials investigating their
claim for seven weeks before being satisfied that it was genuine. Because the couple had waited so long to report
the lost ticket however, due to their not even having been aware that they had won,
a court ruled that the company running the lottery had no obligation to actually pay
up. The couple was devastated and the new marriage
was badly affected, their dreams of moving into their own home and starting a family
indefinitely delayed as they were forced to continue to make ends meet with a joint income
of 34,000 pounds. Evelyn Adams Winning the lottery is a one in a lifetime
event with astronomical odds- at least it's supposed to be. Yet in 1985 Evelyn Adams of New Jersey won
the state's 3.9 million jackpot in October, then won the 1.4 million jackpot just four
months later. The convenience store clerk became an instant
celebrity and was bombarded with requests for financial aid from both the public and
her own family, and for her part she gave a lot of money away to people asking for help. Most of her family members whom she helped
financially did not seem to think that they had any obligation to repay her, and while
some of her family was good-natured about her win, others were angry because she had
so much money. At first Adams spent the money wisely, buying
the convenience store she worked at (imagine that revenge against your boss) and returning
to school to study music, with the goal of one day opening a music store. Unfortunately for her prudent planning though,
Adams would go on to gamble most of that money away in Atlantic City a few year later. Gerald Muswagon In 1998 Gerald Muswagon won a $10 million
jackpot on a $2 Super 7 ticket. Immediately Muswagon launched on an incredible
spending spree, buying new vehicles for himself and his friends, as well as a home that was
turned into a nightly party pad fueled by large amounts of drugs and alcohol. After two years of hard partying and splurging
on luxuries for himself and his very bad-influence friends, Muswagon started trying to get a
grip on his life and started a logging business, which quickly flopped due to low sales. In 2000 he led police on a high speed chase
and was sentenced to three months in jail, followed by a conviction in November of 2002
for fondling a 19 year old woman he'd hired to clean up his house, and given another three
months in jail. After losing all of his money, seven years
later Muswagon was forced to take a job doing heavy lifting on a friend's farm just to make
ends meet and support his girlfriend and six young children, though shortly after his body
was discovered in his parent's garage, where he'd hung himself. Suzanne Mullins Sometimes the stresses of life are greater
than the windfall that a lottery win can provide, and in 1993 when Suzanne Mullins hit a $4.2
million jackpot she decided to split the winnings three ways with her husband and daughter,
netting her after taxes 20 annual payments of $47,778.84. Yet Mullins did not splurge her money wastefully
as most lottery winners on our list, and instead used most of the money on her uninsured son-in-law
who was very ill, running up $1 million in medical bills before finally dying in 2000. To help cover the medical expenses Mullins
took out a loan in 1998 with the People's Lottery Foundation, a company that serves
lottery winners who need their money faster than their annual payments arrive. They lent her $197,746.15, which she agreed
to pay back with her yearly checks through 2006- but in 2000 when the lottery rules changed
and allowed the winners to collect their money in one lump sum, Mullins cashed in on the
remaining amount, albeit at the same penalty that other winners who take the lump sum over
the annual payment all receive. In her bid to try to pay the mounting medical
costs of her son-in-law, Mullins was unable to pay back the PLF, which sued her for the
remaining amount. Sadly Mullins still has to repay the money
to the PLF, and with most of her winnings spent on medical costs, she's forced to pay
out of her normal job. Mrs. Mullin's story just goes to show that
in America the healthcare system is so broken, that even if you win the lottery you have
no guarantee of still being able to afford medical care- though we guess hoping to win
the lottery is a better plan than just dying, as our politicians today seem to expect us
to do. Winning the lottery can seem like a dream
come true, and upon hearing the good news it can be easy to be overcome with all matter
of wants and desires. Most people spend their lives working jobs
they dislike and living paycheck to paycheck, so the news that the world is suddenly at
your fingertips and everything you've ever seen on TV and wished you could have or do
is now available to you can make people prone to some very unwise decisions. Some psychologists have theorized that some
people simply aren't meant to handle vast amounts of wealth, and of the lottery winners
that go on to live happy lives, it's the ones with motivations and aspirations that they
were pursuing even before their big win that end up being the best adjusted. So if you ever win the lottery don't forget
to still pursue your dreams, but make sure it's a dream actually worth pursuing and not
just a whim you want to splurge on, because one day the money will run out. What would you do if you won the lottery? Also, make sure you check our other video,
why you dont want to win the lottery!
