What happened to the couple who sold their house for lottery tickets?

[pkbites]

I seem to remember a story from the late 70’s/early 80’s about a couple who sold their house and used the money to buy lottery tickets. Anyone else remember this story? What happened to them?

[Measure_for_Measure]

I seem to recall that the couple was inspired by the movie Rocky (1976).

[qazwart]

They didn’t win the lottery. That much I remember. After that, the news media lost interest.

[pkbites]

@qazwart

They didn’t win the lottery. That much I remember. After that, the news media lost interest.

Did they win any secondary prizes? For some reason I seem to think this happened in Pennsylvania or somewhere else out east, and that it was actually scratch off tickets they bought.

[ratcnc]

I have searched the internet several times over the last 15 years, to no avail, to find out what happened to this couple. This is what I remember; inspired by Rocky, they sold their house, cars, and everything that would sell and spent it all on lottery tickets. Tracking all those numbers had to be a huge task in those pre-PC days (late 76/early 77). After all the numbers had been gone through, the had won $5000. There was talk that they may recoup some money in an offer to turn their story into a made for tv movie.

[Bozuit]

Thousands of lottery tickets… how can we fail!?

[Saint_Cad]

Is this the story? If so, it doesn’t sound like they sold their house but rather spent their nest egg.

More to come if i find it.

[Saint_Cad]

and more

Tom and Philomena Drake aren’t quitting their shot gamble They’re just taking a break to collect more money THE COUPLE has already spent including money raised in two garage sales but their principal assets are locked up in real estate and stock We’re supposed to close the deal on the land we’re 15 Drake said When that goes through we’ll have to finish what we’ve started We’re looking forward to proving that we’re not rs taking work afraid of said Drake who suspended a career to play the Pennsylvania Instant Bingo game I’VE GOTTEN a lot of new customers just from all the publicity we’ve The couple said in May that they would spend their life savings about on the lottery game in hopes of winning a week for life Mrs Drake quit her secretary’s job with U.S Steel Corp and now she’s hoping for a stint either as a beauty consultant or a flagman on a construction crew v When they get Drake said they will resume the game full-time in anticipation of a single drawing where they will risk everything to gain a shot at an instant million officials draw one daily from fi i qualified entries in the game One hundred will be chosen before the actual drawing Normally any single ticket has only a one in 35 million chance of winning the grand price But the Drakes hope by a single THEIR should generate about qualified daily drawing entries Thus their chances of being semi- finalists would be about one in ten if all of them were entered in a single day I feel confident that once we become we’ll said Drake

This articlemakes it sound like they may have sold everything after the first attempt failed in May and their second attempt in June failed. But this news synopsisimplies it was their car and not their house. My favorite part?

Reporter notes Rocky lost fight.

So how did their full-time gig scratching lottery-Bingo pay off?

More

Even after investing $14,200 in the Pennsylvania state lottery, Tom and Philomena Drake (July 18) did not become rich. None of their 1,200-plus eligible tickets turned out to be winners in the million-dollar drawing, though the Drakes won $15,500 in other drawings. An agent has sold their “exclusive story” to a magazine for $5,000, and he’s trying to market it as a film. Tom is taking real estate courses at the University of Pittsburgh in case the Drakes’ bad luck holds out. But would he do it again? Tom’s answer: “You’ll have to talk to my agent.”

This book confirms that they did endup +$1000 and that they were renters and not homeowners

@Tom Drake

We’re selling everything except our clothes and our furniture and enough to pay the rent.