I’ve worked with two people who have won in different states.
Back in the early '80s, I was an orderly at a hospital while on break from college. One of the maintenance guys hit for about 3 million. I joined the Navy shortley afterwards, so I don’t know what happened to him over time.
In the late '80s, I worked with in Norfolk with the first active-duty sailor to hit the Pick 6. At the press conference in Richmond, he made a big noise about how he was going to stay in, fulfill his obligation, yada yada yada.
Within six months he put in for a hardship discharge, and the command’s final decision came down to what me and a YN3 in the Bureau of Personnel decided. To this day, I remember the XO walking into our office with the package in her hand and dropping it on my chief’s desk while making a noise like a ticking bomb.
Oh, I know I would too. I’ve now been divorced for longer than the entire length of our relationship, from first non-date to the end of the divorce process. But as she attempted financial fraud by accusing me of financial fraud in the divorce, I can safely bet that she’ll find some idiot lawyer and convince him that there is some “reason” (meaning, batshit insane madeup crap from out of her head) that I owe her half of what I’ve won. Then she’ll lose, and go back to crying to her friends about how I lied about everything and the Judge was against her and so on and so forth.
A young guy I worked with last spring won about 20k on a scratch ticket. He then went on to bring it up to 50k through internet gambling (a mix of online poker and sports betting.)
Then he lost it all, and a few thousand more, on internet gambling. Mind you, this was after he quit by merely not showing up one day, and when they called him, he said
“I don’t need to work anymore, cause I got all this money.”
My parents won about $4,500 in the Florida Lottery a few years ago. They were saving up for their dream house at the time, and that small amount was just enough to help them get it.
I’ve already thought about this situation as well. Especially since I pay child support and lotto is considered income, therefore she would have a rather large increase in child support. The answer? Give the ticket to my mom to claim.
I know a guy who won $150K in a lottery. He bought a house, and put up with some ribbing–why didn’t he buy a fancy car, why didn’t he take a trip, that sort of thing. Some years later, he got the last laugh when he sold the house for a handsome profit.
Any Canadians remember the story of the guy from Ontario who won big on the lottery (multiple millions, I believe), didn’t tell his wife he’d won, divorced her, then cashed the ticket in? I didn’t hear any follow-up on that guy, but I don’t think he got away with it.
My sister and brother-in-law won a new, furnished house last year worth over half a million dollars. The way they haven’t shared their windfall with the family at all has strained relations somewhat - they had new furniture in the house that they needed to get rid of, and instead of giving anything to family, they tried to get top dollar for it from us. We understand that it’s all theirs to do with as they wish, but it still doesn’t seem quite right.
A very long time ago, probably in the early Fifties, my folks were neighbors with a couple who won the Irish Sweepstakes for $64,000. This was a tremendous amount of money back in the day. They moved from the Bay Area to Woodland, CA, where they bought a modest but larger home and quit their jobs (they were in their late fifties anyway). They were comfortable, happy, never had to work again, and never filed bankruptcy, lost their home, etc.
The Irish Sweepstakes was a really big deal back then. Every year my Dad would receive a large packet of lottery tickets in a heavily stamped envelope from Ireland that he was supposed to sell and return the proceeds to an address in Limerick. Oddly enough, it all worked somehow with little corruption reported. Who knows? When I think about it now, it all sounds shady.
A high school friend won 350K at a dollar slot machine in Reno about 10 years ago. They bought a small condo in Monterey that they’ve since retired to.
A group of local Sears employees won about a million dollars each in a 25 million state lottery. The older employees quit work; the younger continued to work while buying larger homes, financing their kids’ educations, etc.
Was that one of those hospital lotteries or the Stampede Lottery or something like that? On a visit to Calgary a couple of years ago during Stampede, my Dad bought me a chance on the truck and boat combo–as he put it, “I would have bought you a chance on the house, Spoons, but you already have a house. I thought you’d like a truck and a boat better.” Well, Dad, sure, but I could probably realize more from the sale of a house. Never mind; Dad’s gesture was well-meant, and as things turned out, the two of us had a lot of fun talking about what I’d do with a brand-new truck and boat. We agreed that if nothing happened, our conversation was worth the cost of the ticket.
Ironic … I was going to post a similar anecdote related to someone I met who’d won the lottery. Met him in an alcohol treatment center. The guy split a sizeable jackpot between several people; he came away with something like two or three million. He was young, in his late 20’s. Spent it all on alcohol, coke, and whatever other vices and contraband he could find. Spent it on them almost every day. He even abused his wife. She left him, took their child, and divorced him. He lost the house, and a some portion of whatever money was left. In the end he had absolutely nothing to show for his millions except for a destroyed marriage, a smaller house, and an empty addiction he couldn’t feed. He’d wasn’t in the group because he was in treatment; he was clean and sober and merely volunteering his time to share his story.
I gather I was supposed to feel sorry for him, but I absolutely despised him. If I had that money, I’d buy a house for cash and invest the rest in an income fund and retirement accounts. The idea that anyone could spend it all on substance abuse positively boggles my mind and disgusts me.
Yup - it was some hospital lottery. The kicker about these two winning is that the house they won is their third house; they were doing very well financially before they won. I’m glad for them and all, but they didn’t need it, even a little.
Never mind; Dad’s gesture was well-meant, and as things turned out, the two of us had a lot of fun talking about what I’d do with a brand-new truck and boat. We agreed that if nothing happened, our conversation was worth the cost of the ticket.