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THE POWERBALL LOTTERY in the United States, which was drawn during the week, had an estimated jackpot of $1.29 billion.
It’s the largest global lottery prize ever, but if you do the maths, buying a ticket probably won’t be worth it.
Even if it does pan out, winning the lottery will not solve all of life’s problems.
In fact, many people’s lives became notably worse after they got super rich, and they managed to lose it all quite quickly.
Before they won a €2.54 million 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 that 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 €14.92 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but was €900,000 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 that 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 €410 a month and food stamps.
Martyn Tott, 33, and his 24-year-old wife from the UK missed out on a €4.6 million lottery 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 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 €6.5 million.
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 million, but AskMen.com reports that she gambled it away at Atlantic City.
Today she resides in a trailer park.
Tonda Lynn Dickerson, a former Waffle House waitress, 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 million.
How did it happen? Dickerson placed her winnings in a corporation and granted her family 51% of the stock — qualifying her for the tax.
In 1998, Gerald Muswagon won the €6.5 million 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.
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 €184,000 loan.
Mullins later switched to a lump sum payout, but never paid back the debt. The loan company filed suit and won a €142,000 settlement that was all but worthless — Mullins had no assets.
Construction worker Americo Lopes won the New Jersey lottery, quit his job, and then lied about it, claiming that he needed foot surgery, reports The New York Times.
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.
Ontario resident Ibi Roncaioli walked away with €4.61 million in a 1991 Lotto 649 drawing, but she didn’t tell her husband how she decided to spend it.
When Joseph Roncaioli, a gynecologist, found out Ibi gave €1.84 million 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 £9.7 million— €13.82 million — 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.
In 2002, West Virginia building contractor Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr. walked away with €105 million after taxes on a €290 million multistate Powerball draw.
That was just about his last stroke of good fortune.
Thieves ran off with €500,000 Whittaker stashed in his car. Later on, he was sued by Caesar’s Atlantic City for allegedly bouncing €1.38 million in checks.
Within four years, his fortune was gone.
A Pentecostal preacher working as a stock boy at Home Depot got his prayers answeredwhen he hit the €28.5 million 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 1989, Willie won a €2.86 million 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 that it sucked away his entire fortune.
When Denise Rossi won €1.2 million 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 €16.6 million 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 — €1.75 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 €12 million 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 died before his case went to trial, and Rhoda eventually served two years in prison.
Daily Mail UK reports that Vivian Nicholson got a taste of the good life when she won a fortune — £152,300 (€203,200) — 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 when she won £1.9 million — about €2.75 million — in the UK’s lottery in 2003, and she was too young to know how to manage her money or where it would lead her, according to Gawker.
Rogers had two children and 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 $4 million (€3.68 million) in the lottery in 2009 in Ontario, Canada, 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.
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Nice the know the British are monitoring text traffic from Ireland, makes me feel all safe and fuzzy inside.
Pity we’re to incompetent to do it ourselves!
@Michael It is being done here by G2 who have offices in newbridge so “we” can do it. Ireland is a part of echelon & shares information with the UK & other countries.
This poor Garda will probably lose his pension now ….not
Which newbridge????
Kildare would be my guess.
Didn’t know G2 operated from the big white elephant in newbridge wonder why they built it there and not the curragh camp
The jewellery crowd work for mi5
Probably lost his pension when he resigned?
Lidl have a major presence in Newbridge. Just saying.
COME ON LETS HAVE THE TRUTH , the con has gone on for far too long and its time to disband the brass in the gardai its ..DISGUSTING
Noirin … THE FORCE BE WITH YOU. its time for the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and now you name
Near the curragh of kildare
Harry, what’s your story? God knows I’m no lover of the guards, but you just seem belligerent – what motivates this?
I reckon Harry’s had that much drink taken now, he’d bate any man..
Welcome Harry. It’s been a while since the last Garda related article. Don’t let it so long until you crawl out from under your rock next time.
i remember you@mike so should the readers for your PR stunts
PR stunts? What are you on about you horrible man. High time you kept your bitterness an seething grievances towards the Gardai to yourself or else take them elsewhere. You are only an attention seeking annoyance here on the Journal.
you made the news @mike and its not good its …disgusting.. cop on
Everything is being watched and tracked. Facebook, twitter, email phones and text …… But don’t say you weren’t warned by Orwell !!
Orwell- A modern prophet
I can foresee the book Animal farm being banned in America.
Its Ironic that this book was written as a satire against the former Soviet Union, the tables have turned 180°
I disagree !
My view is that this planned well in advance and he was privy to the information. 1984 was meant to condition us into accepting the Orwellian police state or yes he was a prophet or the elites used it as a blue print ……. Anyway we are way past 1984 now and it’s getting increasingly worse but in fairness we are allowing it.
“1984 was never supposed to be an instruction manual”
He was neither privy to info nor were his works used as blueprints. He just understood the consequences of particular actions. Look how accurately he predicted the outcome of communist governments in Animal Farm (and remember that was written in 1945, long before communism had the become the bogeyman of the east) and you’ll see he was just a genius. I’d love to know if he’d have been happy or depressed at his predictions being so accurate.
The book that really sums up what’s happening at present when it comes to surveillance is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. He had his finger right on the pulse all those years ago.
I’ll give you a warning, stop chipping at your police force, pay them well and equip them well, or these brain dead cuts will come back in the years to come and bite you in the arse. Orwell I ain’t , this ones obvious.
Mary
Brave new world is a brilliant read. Huxley was differently in the know. When you consider his brother Julian Huxley and his work in eugenics, which ties very much into that book.
Use Orbot. Just Google it :-)
Yes, I enjoyed it very much. Very prophetic.
The Evening Herald has it’s Finger on the Pulse …..
Hopefully the paramilitaries weren’t on the Orange network…
What’s the punishment for treason anyway?
Oh! I deleted a text by mistake, I wonder if MI5 could tell me what it was.
Maybe they were tracking known dessidents in the north and tracked up an incomming text. It’s more likely than randomly picking one text out of the 20 million or so sent every day in Ireland.
Of course our messages are stored for years and a mobile phone is better than any ID card for tracking people.
Why do you think it’s illegal to clone an IMEI number even if you own the two phones and even if they are pre-pay.
Forensics use filters that red flag terrorist buzz words, tagged IMEI numbers, etc so if they had some terrorist on watch they would be recording all his incoming calls and text messages.
Even if the phone was unregistered pre pay they can use voice recognition and cell site analysis to pinpoint to within 15 feet to where calls are originate from. They can also switch on most 3G smart phones remotely and turn them into monitoring devices.
Back to the Nokia 3210 so.
They can also track the joker
So the Garda in question has left the force etc.. so…When did this happen??
He should have used a carrier pigeon
Is it just me or is the real story here that mi5 listening to all our text messages.
Don’t worry, the several gigabytes of information they have on every single one of us since we first used a phone, computer or any form of electronic communication will never be used for evil or coercive purposes.
They are just storing it for posterity.
If the PSNI was contacted then I would suspect it was a NI dissident with a UK number which MI5 was monitoring.
No shit, Sherlock!
Arsehole, Dublin!
No Jonny it is not just you…..but should we be surprised is another question
The Gardai are under funded and as a result we are paying a price for the policing being done on a cheap budget. More Gardai are needed and more money provided in order to provide a decent service. More prisons are badly needed.
Mindfulirish it must be pointed out the vast majority of police are honest, brave and hard working, it was fine gael Alan Shatter that reduced the budget. Even if the monies and resources are there you will always have some rogue cop who is a filthy money grabber or a scab of the police force.
I believe Gsoc are what is needed here and not the police policing themselves.
So a guard is going to investigate a guard. Nothing new there then
He’s not a guard now and the file will be in the control and prosecuted by the DPP
Yea great. So who prepares the file for the DPP ??
Dan the police do but most people do not know that.
Correct me if I’m wrong, wouldn’t a Garda who resigned from the organisation be a civilian now?
entertainers u lads r
Hard to believe a Garda would just text a Paramilitary like that, juvenile mistake. Of course British intelligence monitors everything.
When did this Garda retire?
In any branch of any job u will have a bad egg. I’m not a guard the majority are decent and hard working, tho’ they could ease up on the rosd tax haha, to all you guards don’t let this get u down walk our and meet joe soap he respects you.
A tu till hor
Monkey and organ grinder spring to mind, MI5 what a laugh………
The Minister isn’t as reforming as the government have told the irish people she is.
Cases in the past of Garda cohorts and collusion
Abbeylara same dorty cop as Stardust case. Look how the police cohorts picked on Claire Daly T D , look at the Smithwick report, Cooper report , Guerin report, Flood report all corrution and dirty cops.
If this is so serious why was Gsoc not told. Does the Minister not recognise if filthy liars are in charge of detailing a report they will certainly cover ove their past unlawful activities. The police won’t find any fault while they police themselves. Surely GSOC should be doing the report and investigation.
Her officials in her department in the crime division have finger prints of collusion all over past reports, In crime division there works a dirty criminal.
dan public will we get you to prepare the file you dope who else prepares files on criminal cases barmen or bus drivers
Thanks James for clearing that up. When can I prepare the file. It will take 2 minutes. Text sent from guard to family member who is a terrorist. End of story. Don’t waste taxpayers money pretending it makes a difference , justice smiticks spent years finding out that guards passed info to the IRA and what was done about it nothing. So same here. Forget about it
Smithwick’s conclusion was that unknown Gardai passed on the information and that the three named suspects didn’t do it.
What action precisely would you like the Gardai to take?
Ok Sherlock
Who gave them permission to keep tabs on us ?
The politicians of the day are useless they just exist to be in the pockets of lobbyists for business people. The department of justice must come up with the money and the support for good policing. With terrorism at an all time high it is more important to have a strong police force with all the equipment and resources necessary to fight crime and terrorism.
infainesss shes useless and we all know it
Garth she is a good genuine person but is surrounded by cohorts who changed and gagged truthfulness being allowed near any conclusion placed in the public domain. Adversely she is a good person but as a minister surrounded by people who denied the truth , until they are gone nothing can be reformed. The minister needs outside inspector and advisers if she is to reform the department of Justice. I have proof a person in her Crime division department wrote to the current director of the forensic lab to do up a report that would suppress the truth. The Dr S. wi **s done what she was told. Time to root these people out.
Who is investigating MI5?
We’re good at asking for full reports.
No point in wasting money the Garda are inocent they are always inocent ALWAYS
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