# Lottery Winner Blows £9.7 Million, Wants Job as Trashman Back **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 20, 2010, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113 "2010-05-20T10:14:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/1 "2010-05-20T10:14:21Z")
Another cautionary tale involving a lottery winner: [Michael Carroll](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8692475.stm), the notorious “chav king” who won £9.7 million ($13.9 million at current exchange rates) on Britain’s National Lottery in 2002 when he was 19, has blown all his money and wants to return to his former job as a trashman. As much of a jerk and petty criminal as the guy is, I have to say he might be onto something in the last paragraph of the article. [QUOTE=BBC] Asked if he regretted what he had done since winning the jackpot, Mr Carroll said: “When you give nine million pounds to a 19-year-old what do you think is going to happen?” [/QUOTE] [Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN4WCAxCwPM&feature=PlayList&p=94256DCB6E697705&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1) to a documentary on Carroll. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/2 "2010-05-20T10:25:27Z")
The guy got to spend it and have the fun of spending it. I don’t care if he spent it all in one big party binge while he was young. I don’t care if he has to go back to work, and neither did he or he’d have saved some. The message of these articles is always bitter grapes written by people that didn’t win the money. Reporter: See it would have been better if they never had the money. I knew it. God I wish I had won. No. Stick to chastising the guy. Now he has to do something shameful like work. Ha ex-rich bastard! At least I can ridicule him now that he’s poor and he can’t afford to sue me. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/3 "2010-05-20T11:11:04Z")
It’s really just a matter of proportion. I know people that get paid and head to the bars and drink their paychecks. This is a good example though of proportionalism. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/4 "2010-05-20T11:19:00Z")
What is “affray”? ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/5 "2010-05-20T11:20:17Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > The guy got to spend it and have the fun of spending it. I don’t care if he spent it all in one big party binge while he was young. I don’t care if he has to go back to work, and neither did he or he’d have saved some. The message of these articles is always bitter grapes written by people that didn’t win the money. > > Reporter: See it would have been better if they never had the money. I knew it. God I wish I had won. No. Stick to chastising the guy. Now he has to do something shameful like work. Ha ex-rich bastard! At least I can ridicule him now that he’s poor and he can’t afford to sue me. IMV, it’s simply human nature for many people to be interested in rags-to-riches-to-rags stories - they want to know how the person in question blew all those bucks. (Or pounds, or euros, or whatever.) And there’s nothing like a bit of schadenfreude to help pass the day. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/6 "2010-05-20T11:25:24Z")
If I had won £9.7 million at 19, I would still have it today… even at 2% it is $260K/yr. Anyone can live on that forever. The guy is a moron. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/7 "2010-05-20T11:28:41Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What is “affray”? Seems like it’s essentially a fistfight, according to [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affray). ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/8 "2010-05-20T12:29:09Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > If I had won £9.7 million at 19, I would still have it today… even at 2% it is $260K/yr. Anyone can live on that forever. The guy is a moron. Gotta agree with that. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/9 "2010-05-20T12:50:03Z")
These days in the UK you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere that gave you an interest rate that high! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/10 "2010-05-20T13:24:19Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What is “affray”? It’s a rumpus. Or a fracas. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/11 "2010-05-20T13:26:54Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > If I had won £9.7 million at 19, I would still have it today… Same. I’m such a low key, low impact type, I wouldn’t know what to spend it on, and just keep myself surrounded by nerdy toys. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/12 "2010-05-20T13:39:54Z")
I think it was in _The Millionare Mindset_ that the author says that many who are poor were never taught to handle money and so, no matter how much comes in, the same amount goes out and they never progress. It makes some sort of sense to me - where do we learn to handle money? At best, most of us learn from watching our parents, no one really teaches us. ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/13 "2010-05-20T13:39:57Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > If I had won £9.7 million at 19, I would still have it today… even at 2% it is $260K/yr. Anyone can live on that forever. The guy is a moron. I have to agree with this also. Even if you had an expensive year, and spent a million, you would still have time to take a step back and realize that you are plowing through your money. You would even have time to realize it a year after you’ve done it. Another thing I can’t ever figure out is how people who have become incredibly successful get into drugs and lose everything! I just saw an episode of Intervention where a girl was making 130,000 a year at 19, and ended up losing everything because of drugs. The last thing I’d be doing with millions of dollars is blowing it on drugs. Sometimes I hate people. My coworkers and I were talking about winning the lottery last week, and we started talking about what kind of car we would buy. I didn’t realize we were going for the most expensive car there was, and I said “If I won the lottery, I’d probably go buy a new ranger or something.” :smack: I was only thinking about how much easier it would be to go craigslisting… ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/14 "2010-05-20T13:40:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Just before he was jailed he admitted … that he had spent £1.2m of his lottery fortune on cocaine but added that he had stopped taking drugs. Hookers (probably) and blow!! ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/15 "2010-05-20T13:40:38Z")
Not me, I would go one a sick spending spree, buying everything I have ever wanted in life. I wouldn’t even look at the price tags, just do the whole kid in a candy store thing. Gimme this one and this one and that one and that one and OH twelve of that one! Not sure what I would do with the remaining 7 million though… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/16 "2010-05-20T14:03:51Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > If I had won £9.7 million at 19, I would still have it today… even at 2% it is $260K/yr. Anyone can live on that forever. The guy is a moron. I have no idea how you’d even spend that kind of money. I mean, that’s enough to live almost anywhere you might want, _do_ anything you want - first-class tickets to a week-long vacation in Lichtenstein? Done! Oh, you want a condo on Capitol Hill? Done! And so on. Only way I could see burning through that kind of money is if I decided to use it for politics or charity - say, kicking a few million into the DC Vote/Statehood movement. Even then, though, I doubt I’d let myself go broke. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/17 "2010-05-20T14:14:41Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I have no idea how you’d even spend that kind of money. There was a story in the UK newspapers a while ago about a guy came into a large sum of money and lost it to alcohol and drugs. I can’t remember the exact details (so no cite) but I have a feeling his wife won on the lottery, divorced him and paid him a substantial chunk of cash. He gave up work because he was suddenly in a very good financial position. However, he got bored very quickly and ended up drinking because he’d got nothing better to do. The downward spiral continued until he reached a point where he was virtually penniless simply because he’d allowed his addictions to get out of control. It is my understanding that people who win substantial amounts on the lottery are offered shedloads of financial advice, including ways to invest their money to keep an income flowing so it’s not as if they just have millions dumped into their accounts and are just left to get on with it. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/18 "2010-05-20T14:18:59Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Oh, you want a condo on Capitol Hill? Done! Pshaw. Anyone can afford that. Those things only cost [$600](http://www.mediaite.com/online/rachel-maddow-who-was-paying-bart-stupaks-c-street-rent/). It’s practically Section 8 housing! ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/19 "2010-05-20T14:26:31Z")
Let’s see, how much would it cost to party 5 days per week: booze and drugs would be roughly $400/day per person, and let’s say he has 10 friends to pay for to keep him company, so that’s about a million dollars per year down the drain. ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113/20 "2010-05-20T14:35:21Z")
Sure, and if he has 100 friends it’ll be 10 million per year oh shit [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-winner-blows-9-7-million-wants-job-as-trashman-back/540113.md?page=2)