Unlucky Lottery Winners – They Won to Lose
No truer words have ever been spoken (rapped?) about than those written by Notorious BIG in his song, Mo Money, Mo Problems.
I don’t know what, they want from me
It’s like the more money we come across
The more problems we see
Whenever we think of winning the lottery, we rarely ever think of the problems that could come of it. We instantly think of how we can spend our cash. Sometimes we think of how we can make sure our money lasts us well into our later years or how we can make sure the winnings will take care of our families after we are gone. What we don’t think about are the people who come up out of the wood work looking for handouts. The sad truth is there are some very shady people out there—winning the lottery will rip those rose colored glasses off your face and you’ll be forced to see people’s true colors.
The lottery can change people’s lives; both for the better and the worse. Unfortunately, these stories don’t have happy endings—some end up broke, some have had family members turn against them, and some have even died. Use these stories as cautionary tales when you play the lottery.
Mark Gardiner – Betrayed by the Closest Ones
Mark Gardiner shared his story with the Daily Mail in May of 2009. The Hastings winner won half of £22.6 million and once people started to learn about the winnings, he got a rude awakening. His adoptive mother turned on him and sold a falsified story in order to cash in. Two weeks prior to him winning the lotto, his mother said that he ‘was no son of hers’. Mark then got unwanted press when someone who knew Mark and Paul, the other winner, phoned the press of the winnings. The newspapers were plied with stories where Mark was being called a “lottery rat” and a “wife beater”. On top of all this, when Mark and his then girlfriend (who he would later marry), Brenda, went away for a week, the secretary of his glazing company called him and told Mark there was bags full of letters begging for handouts and marriage proposals. The friends he bought homes for began to take advantage of him. In 2004, Mark and Brenda divorced because she couldn’t handle the pressure.
William ‘Bud’ Post – Living on Food Stamps
William Post won the Pennsylvania lottery jackpot of $16.2 million in 1988. The day that he won the lottery, it is believed that he only had $2.46 in his bank account. With such a large turnaround in financial standings, Post spent his first of 26 annual lottery payments of $497,953 at a restaurant, a used car lot, and an airplane. On these three purchases, he spent roughly around $300,000. Not long after he won, he was sued by his landlady/girlfriend, Ann Karpik for 1/3 of the winnings because the money that was used to purchase the winning ticket came from a ring that Karpik gave to Post to sell. After three years of legal battles on the case, the judge ruled that Post was to give Karpik 1/3 of the winnings. By the time the ruling came in, Post was in debt. In 1992, he refused to hand over the annual payment to comply with the judgment. This resulted in his lottery payments to be frozen until the matter was settled. On top of the legal issues, there was a murder attempt on Post and his sixth wife. Post’s estranged brother hired a hitman to carry out the deed. Of course, it was unsuccessful and the brother was arrested. Post eventually died in 2006. At the time of his death, he had racked up $1 million debt and he was living on food stamps and $450 a month stipend.
Jeffrey Dampier and Shakespeare’s Passions
The story of Jeffrey Dampier’s murder is the ultimate misfortune that lottery winnings could bring. In 1996, Dampier won the Illinois State Lottery to the tune of $20 million. He moved to Tampa, Florida and opened up a gourmet popcorn shop. He married a woman, Crystal Jackson. It wasn’t before long that Dampier began to have an affair with his sister-in-law, Victoria Jackson, which went on for seven years. Reports state that Dampier was taking care of Victoria and paying for an apartment that she was living in during the affair. It is also said that Victoria suffered from abuse from Dampier, who had “put himself in charge of every aspect of Victoria Jackson’s life.” Victoria soon began to see a man, Nathaniel Jackson (no relation) and moved him into the apartment. The Jackson’s planned to rob Dampier because “the money wasn’t coming in fast enough”. When the pair abducted Dampier, Nathaniel ordered Victoria to shoot Dampier, or he would shoot her. She shot Dampier in the back of the head. Victoria now serves three consecutive life sentences.
