John McGuiness
John won ten million British Pounds in the U.K. Lottery. He immediately began to blow it all on whatever fit his fancy, from high-end sports cars, to lavish gifts to friends (including his ex-wife, ironically) to exotic trips and exclusive clubs. Before long, John had not only spend all of his £10,000,000, but incurred a total of over £2.1 million in debt to the bank of Scotland. So much for those quick and easy winnings!
Rhoda Toth
Mrs. Toth won the Florida Lottery in the amount of $13 million. She and her husband immediately spent all of it, refusing to pay anything in taxes to the IRS. The couple ended up on the run, and were eventually arrested while living off the electricity from a car battery. Her husband died in a stunt related to pretending to have Multiple Sclerosis in order to fool the government into giving him disability benefits. Mrs. Toth is now living in poverty, has been convicted to 2 years in prison, and owes the IRS $1.1 million in unpaid taxes. Oops.
Billie Bob Harrell
This man’s story may be the saddest of them all. He won $31 million in the U.S. Lottery. Before he knew it, he was met with letters from strangers begging for money, and his wife left him. He gave freely to those in need, but soon found himself facing more pressures than he knew what to do with. Billie soon disappeared, along with his millions. His body was found two years later, and an autopsy showed that he’d committed suicide. No one knows what became of his millions.
Vivian Nicholson
This woman claimed she would spend her winnings without regard, before she even won. Upon winning, she quickly lived up to her own prediction, spending her winnings so fast that she even had a television documentary made about her.
Willie Hurt
Willie, then a happily married man with an active social life, won 3.1 million dollars in the Michigan Lottery. Within a few years, he’d become a Cocaine addict, lost his wife, been charged with murder, and lost it all. To this day, Willie doesn’t even know where his family lives.
Shelfik Tallmadge
Shelfik was feeling down when he spend his last five dollars on an Arizona state lottery ticket. He was shocked to find that he won nearly $7 million. Tallmadge spent his millions on sports cars and exotic vacations, quickly watching it dwindle down to nothing. He has since declared bankruptcy, and is now broke.
Lawrence Candlish
Candlish is a Scottish man who won £5.5 mililon in the U.K. lottery. Remember, this is more like $10 million in U.S. dollars. He spent it all on houses for his numerous relatives, buying them all nice houses on the same street. Unfortunately, he soon tired of the attention he was getting, and ran out of money, fleeing to somewhere in Spain to get away from it all.
Peter Kyle
Mr. Kyle is an ex-British soldier who won £5 million pounds in the British lottery. Unfortunately, he readily took advice from nearly anyone who talked to him, and ended up squandering his money in countless bad investments. He ended up bankrupt, living on welfare and staying in a house where he earns his room and board by doing chores for the owner.
Evelyn Adams
This woman actually won the New Jersey lottery, not once, but twice. This is in spite of the odds of this happening, which are 17 trillion to one. Evelyn proceeded to gamble away all of her winnings, and is now living in a trailer home.
