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FOR THE FIRST time in decades, the weekly National Lottery draw had to be postponed last week.
Panic ensued across the nation, naturally.
Given the extra a day, a few more people were likely to have chanced their luck, but it was won by one happy player in Kildare.
However, you might not feel so jealous after reading some of these stories:
Before they won a $2.76m (€2.42m) lottery jackpot in 2005, Lara and Roger Griffiths hardly ever argued.
Then they won, and bought a million-dollar house and a Porsche.But six years after their win, Roger drove away in the Porsche after Lara confronted him over emails suggesting he was interested in another woman.
Their 14-year marriage was over, a freak fire gutted their house, and every penny of their fortune was gone.
William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but was $1 million in debt within a year.
“I wish it never happened,” Post said. “It was totally a nightmare.”
A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings and his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him in the hopes he’d inherit a share of the winnings.
After sinking money into various family businesses, Post sank into debt and spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector.
Bud now lives quietly on $450 (€400) a month and food stamps.
Martyn Tott, 33, and his 24-year-old wife from the UK missed out on the fortune after losing their ticket.
They were able to convince officials, but since there is a 30-day time limit on reporting lost tickets, the jackpot became the the largest unclaimed amount since the lottery began in 1994.
“Thinking you’re going to have all that money is really liberating. Having it taken away has the opposite effect,” Kay Tott told The Daily Mail. “It drains the life from you and puts a terrible strain on your marriage. It was the cruelest torture imaginable.”
In 2004, Sharon Tirabassi, a single mother who had been on welfare, cashed a check from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for $10.5m (Canadian, €7.4m)).
She subsequently spent her winnings on a “big house, fancy cars, designer clothes, lavish parties, exotic trips, handouts to family, loans to friends” and in less than a decade she’s back riding the bus, working part-time, and living in a rented house.”
Luckily Tirabassi put some of her windfall in trusts for her six children, who can claim the money when they turn 26.
Against all odds, in the mid-1980s, Adams won the lottery twice, once in 1985 and again in 1986.
The New Jersey native won a cool $5.4m (€4.7m), but AskMen.com reports she gambled it away at Atlantic City.
Today she resides in a trailer park
A former Waffle House waitress named Tonda Lynn Dickerson got served a big plate of karma when she refused to split her winnings with ex-colleagues and was forced to pay the tax man $1.1 million (€970,000).
How did it happen? Dickerson placed her winnings in a corporation and granted her family 51 percent of the stock — qualifying her for the tax.
In 1998, Gerald Muswagon won the $10m (€8.8m) Super 7 jackpot in Canada.
But he blew it all on drinking and partying in only seven years.
Filled with remorse, Muswagon hanged himself in his parents’ garage in 2005.
Construction worker Americo Lopes won the New Jersey lottery, quit his job, and then lied about it, claiming he needed foot surgery.
After coming clean to an ex-colleague, he and a few others ganged up on Lopes for not splitting the winnings as promised.
The court ordered Lopes to split the prize.
When Mullins won the US lotto in 1993, she opted for yearly payouts instead of a lump sum, reports MSN.
She quickly found herself in debt, using future payouts as collateral for a $200,000 (€175,000) loan.
Mullins later switched to a lump sum payout, but never paid back the debt. The loan company filed suit and won a $154,000 (€135,000) settlement that was all but worthless — Mullins had no assets.
Ontario resident Ibi Roncailoli walked away with $5m (€4.4m) in a 1991 Lotto 649 drawing, but she didn’t tell her husband how she decided to spend it.
When Joseph Roncailoli, a gynecologist, found out Ibi gave $2m (€1.76m) of her fortune to a secret child she’d had with another man, he poisoned her with painkillers, the Toronto Star reports.
He was found guilty of manslaughter and reportedly asked Ibi’s family to help foot the bill for her funeral.
Michael Carroll was at his peak when he won Britain’s £9.7m (€13.1m)) jackpot in 2002, The Daily Mail reports.
But a penchant for life in the fast lane — cocaine, parties, hookers, and cars — put him back at square one in five years.
Last we heard, the ex-garbageman was hoping to get his old job back.
A Pentecostal preacher working as a stockboy at Home Depot got his prayers answered when he hit the $31m (€27.2m) jackpot in 1997.
At first, life was good with Billy Bob buying a ranch, six other homes, and some new cars.
But like many others who win the lottery, he just couldn’t say no when people asked for a handout.
Later in life he divorced and eventually committed suicide.
In 2002, West Virginia building contractor Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr. walked away with $114m (€100m) on a multi-state Powerball draw.
That was just about his last stroke of good fortune.
In two separate instances, thieves ran off with $745,000 Whittaker stashed in his car. Later on, he was sued by Caesar’s Atlantic City for allegedly bouncing $1.5 million in checks.
Within four years, his fortune was gone.
In 1989, Willie won a $3.1m (€2.7m) jackpot in the Michigan Lottery.
Fast-forward two years later and Hurt got divorced, lost custody of his children, was charged with attempted murder, and picked up a crack-cocaine addiction.
The habit was so bad, it sucked away his entire fortune.
When Denise Rossi won $1.3m (€1.1m) in the California lotto, she left her husband without a word, reports People magazine.
Thomas knew something was up, but agreed to divorce her anyway.
Two years later, he intercepted a letter at his new Los Angeles home revealing the truth.
He sued Denise for not disclosing her winnings in the divorce, and the judge awarded Thomas every cent.
After winning an $18m (€16.6m) lottery jackpot in 1993, Janite Lee’s earnings were gone within a decade.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that Lee, a wigmaker from South Korea, blew her winnings on, of all things, charity.
A reading room was named after her at Washington University’s law school, and she was a major donor for the Democratic Party.
But her giving hand, coupled with a little gambling and a lot of credit card debt, allegedly did her in. She filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
Welsh-born Luke Pittard won a £1.3 million jackpot (€1.7 million) in 2006, but spent it all on a trip to the Canary Islands, a wedding, and a house.
A year-and-a-half later, Pittard was forced to take a job at McDonald’s flipping burgers.
He says he’s happy, and his leftover winnings collect interest.
Alex and Rhoda Toth hit the $13m (€11.4m) jackpot in Florida in 1990. Within 15 years they were destitute.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, the couple declared bankruptcy and were eventually accused of tax evasion by the IRS.
Alex passed away before his case went to trial and Rhoda eventually served two years in prison.
Daily Mail UK reports Vivian Nicholson got a taste of the good life when she won a fortune — £152k (€205k) — in Britain’s football pools in 1961.
Too bad she blew it all filling her closet with haute couture.
Years later, Nicholson is jobless, a newly-minted Jehovah’s Witness and a widow. She’s also been married five times.
Callie Rogers was just 16 years old when she won £1.9 million in the U.K.’s lottery (€2.6m) in 2003 — too young to know how to manage her money or where it would lead her, according to Gawker.
Rogers had two children then blew the rest on partying, vacations, and gifts for her friends.
Now Rogers works as a cleaning woman and is reportedly facing bankruptcy.
Barry Shell won $4m (€3.5m) Canadian dollars in the Ontario lottery in 2009 after he used the last of his cash to buy a ticket.
But there was a warrant out for his arrest on charges of theft and possessing stolen property, and police figured out where he was after seeing a photo of him with his prize.
He gave his winnings to a relative.
- Michael B Kelly, Pamela Engel, and Mandi Woodruff
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Thank you Deirdre! And agree with everything you’ve said
Just want to say , THANK YOU for your return to help us ALL in the long run .
Totally agree, combined with the increase in hand washing it would definitely help. I’d go as far as to suggest that it becomes mandatory in all places of work and public places. I work as a garda and our police force should be setting an example with mandatory wearing of ppe while on duty. Every bit helps. Stay safe
@Alan Campbell: Isn’t it a little unsettling how so many people end a sentence with the words “stay safe” these days. I agree with you, I think we as a society should adapt to wearing masks right now and especially those who deal with the public, emergency services, healthcare workers, shop assistants etc. As the author said, there’s ample evidence from societies who do wear masks that indicates significantly less of their healthcare workers become infected. This is something worth paying attention to.
I can’t help but get the impression that the decision not to have healthcare workers wear masks here was a political rather than medical one. There simply wasn’t enough masks available for the tens of thousands of healthcare staff, bearing in mind they’d have to be changed at least every half hour. I’m sure someone said they didn’t want to scare people by seeing health staff wearing masks, although this is nonsense, it’s a common sight in any hospital to see medical staff in scrubs, gowns and masks.
It’s been reported from other countries in Europe who bought PPE and test kits from China they had to reject them as they were substandard. On tonights RTÉ news we were told the PPE we bought recently from China may be different from what we’re used to, it’ll work, but be “different”. Draw your own conclusions.
I am also a nurse on the frontline. I have accepted that I am inevitably going to get covid19 at some point. We are being told that we are not allowed to wear a mask, let alone PPE for suspected contact cases unless they have symptoms. It IS virtually impossible to maintain social distancing from patients when you have to personally assist and examine them. Many patients ARE contacting Covid 19 within the hospital setting. I firmly believe that healthcare workers are a link in the spread of this virus, to no fault of our own. Our hands are red raw and broken from washing. PPE and masks are being locked away and there is almost an inquisition into why we request it. Why ask our community to sacrifice so much in their lives when we as healthcare workers cannot protect them!
@Gwen Murphy:
No wonder 25% of cases to date are actually healthcare workers, as reported yesterday. You’re not even given protective equipment.
Dr Holohan also said that only 20% of healthcare workers with the virus picked it up in work, the remainder (80%) are as a result of travel or in the community. That brings the overall tally to less than 5% in real terms. It is expected that the proportion of healthcare workers infected will fall overall as the travel ban and social distancing measures kick in.
Fair play for coming back and don’t worry, very few of those returning are being placed on isolation wards, there are still plenty of other sick people that need your care.
@Pharmy: Ah well, as long as you are happy with those statistics that’s what counts.
@Pharmy: Healthcare workers on isolation wards will often use the same facilities as others, same canteen, elevators and other facilities within the hospital, labs etc. They can’t teleport in and out of their work area.
@Pharmy: I am also a nurse on the frontline. I have accepted that I am inevitably going to get covid19 at some point. We are being told that we are not allowed to wear a mask, let alone PPE for suspected contact cases unless they have symptoms. It IS virtually impossible to maintain social distancing from patients when you have to personally assist and examine them. Many patients ARE contacting Covid 19 within the hospital setting. I firmly believe that healthcare workers are a link in the spread of this virus, to no fault of our own. Our hands are red raw and broken from washing. PPE and masks are being locked away and there is almost an inquisition into why we request it. Why ask our community to sacrifice so much in their lives when we as healthcare workers cannot protect them!
@Gwen Murphy: Ah but that speech.
On your side by the way, this is what happens when management who won’t be near the front line get to make the decisions for those who are.
But that speech.
@Gwen Murphy: My partner is a hca in a nursing home and tells the same story in relation to ppe.
I work in an acute hospital, I am familiar with the current situation. All those that need PPE, have it. All those who want it, do not. It’s an important distinction.
Most of our PPE is locked away and distributed on an as needed basis because of wide scale theft of this vital equipment from the hospital.
Given the huge number of workers in our hospitals and their increased risk of contracting the virus through increased exposure, keeping our number at less than 5% of the national total would be OK.
My wife has been taken out of theater and placed in a ward, she went to the ward yesterday and discovered no nurses are wearing masks or are they being given out on the ward. When she rang occupational health and she was informed that it is up to hospital management to decide on these precautions. This is wrong, if nurses are putting there health, and that of there families, at risk they should be afforded all protection. HSE must give all hospitals clear guidance on health staff protection. All patients must be assumed to be contaminated and appropriate precautions taken and enforced for health workers safety. If we fail in this we are doing these people a massive disservice.
When all of this is over and we come out the other side, please don’t forget how hard healthcare workers have worked, don’t forget the risk to our own lives, don’t forget that we continued to show up for work as this situation worsened, many of us with longterm illnesses ourselves, many of us with family members and friends who we could not see for months and months, many of us isolated and isolating so as to protect the general public, our own families and friends from the risk of contracting the virus from us, many of us losing family members, friends and colleagues and unable to attend funerals and unable to grieve properly. Please don’t forget about all of this the next time the government suggest pay cuts and job cuts for those who have protected us all.
@Sirius: Well said.
@paulmurphy
Stop making excuses there are solutions. Masks are vital to protect our frontline staff. It is a huge morale issue if healthcare workers are having to treat their colleagues.
Think outside the box. We can make our own surgical masks. For much less than the price of the Dail printer. There is currently an offer on the table. See link!
https://twitter.com/neilosands/status/1244911275060142085?s=20
@Barney Corleone: The World Heath Organisation are now changing their stance with regard to the wearing of masks, I personally have chosen to wear one since this outbreak and will continue to!
I would suggest that the author would read all the information that has been made available to healthcare workers only as late as Monday that continual wearing of surgical masks would require six changes per day to be effective and therefore is wasteful. The issue is that we are going through PPE faster than we can acquire it because of people panicking and not having all the facts about cases before donning the required PPE. The cohorting of patients in hospitals is making it easier to identify where you do and don’t need PPE. If we all start wearing masks just in case to carry out our daily tasks, there will be no PPE for when the surge happens. Spreading misinformation is worse than spreading the virus.
@Paul Murphy: Ok let’s waste lives, not masks!
@Paul Murphy: It’s not okay to “waste” masks but it’s okay to let medical workers get infected and potentially die? Are you serious???
@Paul Murphy:
Stop making excuses and find solutions. Masks will save lives and should be worn. 8 per day if needs be. Protect our frontline staff.
Neil O. Sands (#AnswerIrelandsCall)
@neilosands
Has made an offer to fund and house a surgical mask manufacturing machine if aerlingus will take care of the logistics. It can produce 600 surgical masks per minute.
https://twitter.com/neilosands/status/1244911275060142085?s=20
@Barney Corleone: I’m working on the frontline…..I know what I need and waste will lead to lost lives as will misinformation. You won’t see educated hospital workers walking around with masks on
@Seriousnojoke: I’m working on the frontline…..I know what I need and waste will lead to lost lives as will misinformation. You won’t see educated hospital workers walking around with masks on. At this point more people are becoming infected in supermarkets than they are in hospitals and thats fact!
@Gwen Murphy: I’m working on the frontline…..I know what I need and waste will lead to lost lives as will misinformation. You won’t see educated hospital workers walking around with masks on.
@Paul Murphy: What a stupid comment. So your argument is that to effectively protect healthcare workers would require a lot of masks and PPE, so let’s not bother. Have you thought this through? And when the rates of those getting infected increases to 50%, who will replace them, where will they come from? You’ve just said the existing staff are disposable.
Who are you keeping the PPE for, what emergency, these people are the frontline emergency staff, there is nobody else.
@Paul Murphy: Can you explain what you mean by “educated hospital workers”?
@Paul Murphy: Then I feel very sorry for you. Truly.
Look at the medical workers infection rate in South Korea and China where wearing masks are mandatory. And look at Europe’s, in particular Italy’s and Spain’s.
Knowledge is continually being gained and updated based on evolving realities. Guidelines that worked 10 or 5 years ago may have become inept today, let alone facing a brand new epidemic.
Use your brain.
@Paul Murphy: Hi Paul. Your colleagues in ST James’s and the HCSA in the UK would disagree with you. And for good reason. Are they uneducated? https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/all-uk-hospital-staff-and-patients-should-wear-masks-says-doctors-group
@G Row: I would suggest you enquire to the amount of education and training that has been made available to all grades across the HSE in relation to the PPE required and the daily updates disseminated through various means to all workers. We are quite educated in the risks and requirements , yes there are shortages of certain items such as ‘Duck Bill’ FFP3 masks purely because people used the wrong masks initially and tye were no longer available , but retrospectively these masks are only required around patients that require aerosol producing interventions such as intubation.
@Arch Angel: i didn’t say healthcare workers , like myself, are disposable, what I have said there is a responsibility to reduce waste in the equipment we will eventually require en masse when the surge appears and to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem . If we follow the education provided we will get through this. It is in the HSE’s best interest to protect its workers in the best possible way to ensure we have a functioning front line and not to have people preaching panic measure because they haven’t heeded the advice on offer.
@Barney Corleone: I really wouldn’t be taking any advice from the UK given their initial reaction to the current crises and I can’t comment on any action in any other hospital other than my own location. However I would offer that ALL of the information I have to hand is distributed on a national basis and not a local basis and St. James is indeed in the same hospital group I work in and I haven’t had any instruction that states I should be wearing PPE in all cases, I reckon if you were asked to provide documentary evidence of same you would be hard pushed to do so.
@Paul Murphy: Here you go Paul. https://twitter.com/ProfJohnCrown/status/1243698377931530242?s=09
@Paul Murphy: Management I presume?
@Barney Corleone: Thanks for that,
@G Row: don’t presume
@Paul Murphy, Bet I am right though?
@G Row: Nope
@Paul Murphy: Don’t believe you.
@Paul Murphy: so misinformed and off point. If there is enough masks for all, we should all wear masks. It’s how south Korea achieved their current status. This health care comment of “I need the mask not you” it pathetic now. Educated professionals in Korea wear masks all the time too, and I’d rate their health service around 400 times higher than Ireland. Stop spreading lies
@Paul Murphy: there are none so blind as those who will not see. Don’t waste your time on the wilfully ignorant, you have better things to do.
I fully understand the concern of the health care workers, along with the welfare of patients most of them are concerned about bringing it home to their own families.
Is the issue a global supply shortage? Genuinely is there much more anyone can do? And this not a point the already been made.
have your say