The Five Most Stupid Lottery Winners Ever

To win the lottery you have to be extremely lucky. However, to keep and manage the money you have to be smart; these people failed to do so and lost everything.

Winning the lottery seems like the best thing that could ever happen to some of us; however, as much as it is a blessing, it could also be a curse if you fail to manage the money and use them wisely. History shows that not all people who have hit a jackpot were aware that money is easily spent and often they have ended up even poorer than they were prior to winning the life-changing prize. Obviously, such examples sometimes make us cry, but more often they make us laugh at people’s stupidity. Below you’ll find a list of individuals that were given the chance by Lady Luck to live the life of their dreams, but they miserably failed instead. If, by any chance, the text inspires you to try your luck on similar games, we advise you to find out more about the benefits of playing no deposit pokies and possibly hit a mouth-watering cash prize without investing a single dollar.

Willie Hurt ($3.1 million)

Willie Hurt was a happy family man with a good reputation in his community. In 1989 his life changed forever after he won a $3.1 million jackpot in the Michigan Lottery; the change was everything but good. The money basically ruined Hurt’s life, who instead of investing in his and his children’s future decided to spend it on crack and a messy divorce. Hurt lost his wife, custody of his children and he was even charged with attempted murder. Many believe that the first mistake he did after hitting the lottery was his decision to receive the prize in annual payment of $156,000 instead of taking the lump sum.  Possibly, if he had gotten and invested the whole amount rather than simply spending away the payments things would have unravelled differently. Either way, Hurt remains one of the stupidest as well as saddest examples of how money is not always the answer.

Jonathan Vargas ($35.3 million)

Hurt managed to ruin his life with “only” $3 million… imagine what $35.3 million did to a 19-year old Jonathan Vargas from Florida. The teenager hit the Powerball back in 2008 and completely failed to recognise the potential the money had by investing them in the weirdest project a person can think of.  Vargas decided to partner with Jimmy Hart to start an all-female wrestling league under the name Wrestilicious. Even though he always had passion for pro wrestling, he should’ve known that the project is unlikely to attract the expected attention. After Wrestilicious failed, Vargas made several other bad investments and faced big losses that resulted in him being broke. We hope that, at least, he enjoyed that short period of being a millionaire and that if luck visits him again he won’t do the same mistake as the first time.

Etta May Urquhart ($51 million)

Etta May Urquhart was playing lottery for 18 years when she won the Mega Millions jackpot of breath-taking $51 million. However, according to her statements, in order to avoid pressure from family members and media attention she decided to give the winning ticket to her son Ronnie Orender. Even though he promised to take care of his 76-year-old mother and his 79-year-old stepfather, the son went on a spending spree ignoring his mother’s wishes. After Orender had bought four homes and ten cars, Etta decided that her son needs to be stopped and filed a lawsuit against him. The judge froze his assets and almost a year after the lawsuit was filed the two parties managed to reach a settlement. The terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, but whatever the case is it’s obvious that Urqhart lost a huge amount of her winnings due to poor judgement.

Evelyn Adams ($5.4 million)

Evelyn Adams had luck on her side not once, but twice; that’s right, the woman hit two jackpots; one in 1985 and another one the following year. The total prize she scooped from the two winning tickets was whopping $5.4 million, but obviously that amount of money was far from enough for Evelyn to live comfortably till the end of time. We can’t scold her for giving large sums to her friends and relatives, since that’s a good deed. However, the reason that got her on this list is her addiction to slot machines, especially those in Atlantic City. Adams managed to spend her fortune within several years and ended up penniless and living in a trailer.

Jack Whittaker ($315 million)

Last but not the least, Andrew “Jack” Whittaker is one of the biggest losers considering the fact he won a massive jackpot of $315 million. At the time, his win was the largest Powerball payout in history, but he quickly managed to lose everything nonetheless. Truth be told, Jack took home “only” $115 million after paying taxes, but that’s still an amount more than enough for a nice and luxurious life. However, Whittaker had a passion for strip clubs and it was reported that when he was in the mood he would drop $100k for drinks and tips. Also, he was stupid enough to carry a large amount of his cash in a briefcase with him; therefore, one night a bartender put drug in his drink and stole over half a million from his car. His reckless behaviour earned him several lawsuits as well, thus soon after hitting the lottery he was struggling to make ends meet. It should be noted that prior to winning the cash he was already a self-made millionaire who owned a construction business; his experience, however, didn’t help him manage the enormous amount of money he effortlessly won.