A custom fireworks factory
When Debbie Mather won $6 million in 2005, she initially spent her earnings sensibly. Then her childhood dreams took hold and she created her own fireworks factory. Mather now owns a business that sells fireworks with the power to light up the sky like no other.
A thoroughbred racehorse
Horse racing isn’t a walk in the park. Raising and training a thoroughbred requires a lot of sacrifice and dedication. It’s even harder if you’ve won the lottery, though. Keith Gough purchased a racehorse worth over $250,000 when he came into the money, but it failed to make anything resembling a finish line and left him broke.
A piece of the planets
Once you win the lottery, the sky is the limit! Or is it? Not if you ask David Copeland, who put his $1 million fortune towards buying pieces of land on the Moon, Mars and Venus. It’s unknown whether Copeland has since visited these portions of real estate. Maybe one day!
A race track
Michael Carroll was just 19 when he won $18 million in the National Lottery in the UK. A young man, Carroll decided to build a race track in his backyard. He eventually lost his house and said race track. The rest of the money was squandered on drink and drugs. Today, Carroll has resumed normal living with no regrets.
Some necessary knee surgery
Greta and Tony Dodd used to love dancing, but joint problems had gotten in the way with the passage of time. When they won $3.4 million in the lottery, they decided to have surgery to replace both of their knees so they could get back on their feet and in style.
A distillery
When Peter Lavery won $17.7 million he decided to not only buy a drink for everyone close to him, but a drink that he had created! $5 million of his lottery win went towards his own whiskey business. It was a raving success, and the distillery continues to make a profit to this day, only increasing his net worth.
A struggling sports club
Winner of the $170 million EuroMillions jackpot, Colin Weir decided to invest money into his local team, Partick Thistle Football Club. Having wiped their debts and pulled them out of financial turmoil, Weir left the club. To pay tribute, the club named their youth academy after the lotto winner.
Cancer treatment
Frank Long of Bowling Green, Kentucky was actually undergoing treatment for cancer when he chanced his luck on the lottery. It paid off. Literally. To the tune of $234,176,000. “This couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said “It took a lot off me and I’m still trying to process it. This is surely shocking.”
A new water park
After winning the $319 million Mega Millions jackpot, John Kutey and his wife Linda decided to spend their earnings on building a water park. In honor of their parents, the flush couple donated $200,000 to construct Spray Park in Green Island, New York.
A sweet-toothed charity
81-year-old Louise White, a Newport, Rhode Island native, had no idea that the impulsive decision to buy a rainbow sherbet and lottery ticket at Stop N Shop would change her life. Within days, she had won $336.4 million. In a nod to her sweet tooth, White created The Rainbow Sherbert Trust to aid her family after her death.
Funding a personal passion
Pot activist Bob Erb was already doing well for himself when he won $25 million in 2012, after buying a lottery ticket before attending his father’s funeral in Calgary, Canada. He had been buying them for a whopping 43 years, proving that good things come to those who wait. He donated $1 million to 420 Day, an annual event supporting pot legalization.
A trampoline park
You wanna know how long the odds were when pub landlord Nigel Willetts won $1 million in 2014? 13,000,000-to-one. Yikes. Crazier yet, Willetts had accidentally grabbed a £20 bill when he was buying the lottery tickets, increasing his chances. He took 13 people to Florida the same week. Then he built a trampoline park.
A woman’s wrestling team
Jonathan Vargas was only 19 when he became $35.3 million richer in 2008 thanks to a Powerball win. He created Wrestlicious with his earnings, a women’s wrestling promotion that lasted one season on TV. It mostly featured scantily clad women “wrestling” and performing skits.
Chasing musical dreams
Lara and Roger Griffiths managed to win $1.8 million in 2006, splashing out $670,000 on their dream home, as well as buying two more properties to rent out. They invested in the stock market and bought a Porsche. But perhaps the weirdest expenditure was Roger spending $25,000 to make a record with his college band.
Plastic surgery
Sarah Cockings was a student when she bagged $4.2 million in a 2005 lottery win. She used the money to treat her close-knit family, with her parents being awarded a new house, vacations and cars. The strangest move, though, was paying for her sister’s breast augmentation.
Losing the money back to chance
In 1985 and 1986, New Jersey’s own Evelyn Adams won the lottery back to back, winning a total of $5.4 million. Convinced that luck would never run out, she fled to Atlantic City to play the slots and tables, only to lose every last bit of her earnings. As of 2016, she was flat-broke and living in a trailer park.
Nothing at all
After getting a slice of the $656 Mega Million jackpot in 2012, Illinois couple Merle and Patricia Butler didn’t know what to do with their newfound fortune. So what did they eventually decide? Nothing. That’s right. The Butlers did absolutely nothing with their money besides seeking advice from attorneys.
Sensible life choices
Denise and Paul Hardware of Wales woke up one morning in 2007 to find they had won $6 million. After heading out on a cruise to celebrate, they paid off their mortgage and bought a luxury house in Somerset before investing in a further three properties. They then paid for their son’s degree from Oxford University. Boring!
Luxury cars and designer dresses
Back in 1961, Vivian Nicholson won $160,000. In today’s money, that’s $4 million. The serial shopper headed straight to Harrods where she bought several dresses. From there, she bought another dozen luxury cars and travelled to Europe and the US. By 2016, she had spent every last dime.
Spread out among the family
Even though the odds were against them by 14,000,000-to-one, English couple George and Beryl Keates won $4.5 million on the lottery in 2012. “We gave £250,000 to each of our four sons, £10,000 to each of our nine grandchildren and gave some money to our sisters,” they revealed. With what they had left, the Keateses simply bought more tickets.
Funding a political party
1993 was a good year for Janite Lee. The South Korean had gone from making wigs to winning $18 million overnight and decided to make her mark by donating the majority of it to the Democratic Party. As it happened, Lee was way too generous and ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2001.
Pursuing a photography career
When Charlie Lagarde won the lottery on the first and only ticket she’d ever bought after turning 18, she was offered a choice: either have the £1 million upfront, or receive $1,000 paid into her account every week for the rest of her life. Lagarde chose the latter and pursued photography.
Help the needy and the sleazy
In 2002, Jack Whittaker won a Powerball jackpot of $314 million, at the time the biggest lottery win in history. The construction worker from West Virginia did the honorable thing and gave handouts to those who needed it; family members, strangers, churches and strip clubs. The usuals!
Fine dining
Kentucky resident David Lee Wards didn’t see the point in saving money for a rainy day. To him, every day was positively soaked. He crashed through $12 million of his $27 million jackpot in a single year thanks to his expensive appetite. At the height of his spending, he even bought a plane.
Plastic surgery and unwise choices
Get this: Callie Rogers was just 16 when she won $2.2 million in 2003. A decade later, she had around $2,500 left. It turned out that she’d spent all of her money on plastic surgery and naughty substances, like many, many lottery winners before her. She was later banned from driving after crashing her car under the influence in 2021.
Excessive marriages
Curtis Sharp got bitten by the love bug after winning $5 million in 1982. Not only did he enjoy an excess of dalliances, but marriages, too. These unions ate up the majority of his earnings, on top of frequent visits to the casino. Before he knew it, this New Yorker’s fortune was gone.
Devilish installments
Alex Toth, an unusual man at the best of times, was living in Florida at the time of his $13 million lottery win. Unlucky for some? Absolutely. Toth decided to receive his winnings in annual instalments of $666,666. Yup. He wasted the lot on an excessive lifestyle that only stopped when the IRS charged him with tax fraud.
A tragic addiction
In 1989, Willie Hurt won a whopping $3.1 million in the Michigan Super Lotto jackpot. Unfortunately, times were tough in America around that time and he quickly found himself in the grips of a brutal drug addiction. By 1991, he’d lost every bit of his fortune.
One too many house parties
In 2011, a $2 lotto ticket turned Canadian Gerald Muswagon into a multi-millionaire to the tune of $10 million. He bought a house and turned it into a party hotspot, living a lavish lifestyle for five years before ending up broke. Towards the end of his life, he was working manual labor on a farm to support his six children.
Losing the winnings to a scammer
Marva Wilson spent all her money on a scammer called Freya Pearson, though not intentionally. The great-grandmother won $2 million in the Missouri lottery in 2008 and was groomed by Pearson, who began handling her taxes. She then started a nonprofit in her name, stealing all the money. Pearson was sentenced to five years in prison.
A twin-engine plane
William Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery back in 1988. From the get-go people were out for his money, including an ex-girlfriend who sued him for part of his winnings. Meanwhile, his brother hired a hitman to kill him. Eventually, it was a twin-engine plane purchase that left Post broke.
Opening a restaurant
Massachusetts native Lisa Arcan won a nice $1 million in 2004. After spending a few bucks on a furnished house and some fancy vacations, Arcand opened a restaurant in her hometown of Lawrence, which turned out to be a dud. Within a few short years, the business – and Arcand’s net worth – went under.
Not living to spend a penny
So what did Urooj Khan do with his earnings of $1 million back in 2012? Nothing. The Chicago businessman didn’t even get his hands on a dime of the stuff thanks to his unexpected death. Later tests revealed that he’d been poisoned with cyanide.
Accumulating debt
The Virginia lottery was kind to Suzanne Mullins when it awarded her $4.3 million back in 1993. Paid out over 20 years in $50,000 instalments, she funded an uninsured relative’s illness, eventually landing herself in debt. She then decided to receive her money in a lump sum. In 2004, a judge ruled she owed $154,147 in debt. Ouch.
A long-awaited divorce
What did Denise Rossi do with her $1.3 million lottery win? She filed for divorce, of course! In 1996, after 25 years of wedded bliss, Thomas Rossi was shocked to learn his wife wanted out. Soon after, he learnt that she had won the lottery 11 days prior to her demand. A judge ruled that Denise intentionally broke asset-disclosure laws to hide the jackpot winnings, awarding every penny of her money to Thomas.
Random purchases and a poisoning
Ibi Roncaioli won a $5 million lottery jackpot in 1991 and allegedly squandered the entirety on random purchases. Tragically, she also spent the handsome salary of her gynaecologist husband, Joseph, who in turn poisoned Ibi with cyanide in 2003. He was charged five years later.
New knees
Ronda Isaac, a mortician from North Carolina, won a $150,000 Powerball in 2023 and pledged to put it towards something helpful. Yes, instead of blowing the lot in Vegas or AC, Isaac decided to get “new knees” in a replacement surgery. “When you work standing up all the time, that’s pretty exciting,” she said.
Paying off the house
We’ve all bought a $5 scratch card at one time or another in our life, but we’ve never actually won anything. School bus driver Paula Harris did. $150,000 to be precise. “I was so excited,” she said. “Now I can pay off my house.” Whatever happened to irrational spending? We might be living in end times, Paula.
Living a quiet peaceful life
We know (have a slight, likely-inaccurate hunch) what you’re thinking. Ronnie Wood? A lottery winner?! Hasn’t he earned enough touring with the Rolling Stones for the best part of forty years? Wrong guy. This is Ronnie Woods. And he won a million dollars from a $10 scratch card in 2023. His main goal? To “just want to live in peace and enjoy life.”
Wiping out a student debt
You’re not going to catch Amanda Dietz slacking. This lottery winner of a cool $300,000 was never tempted by the forbidden fruits of yachts and cars and houses. “The day I bought my ticket, I had just given a speech about student loan debt.,” Dietz said in 2017. “I told the audience how wonderful it would be to win the Lottery to wipe all of my debt out at once, and now here I am. It’s incredible.”
