Thea and Paul Bristow

Thea and Paul Bristow, hailed as the most generous lottery winners in Britain, surely deserve the credit they were given. Although the couple has been donating to their local scout troops and an eco-conservation program, the couple’s biggest feat was when they rescued Torquay United from closing its doors. The club had been in the football league for 80 years but was dismissed to the Football Conference by the end of the 2006/2007 season. That’s when the couple stepped in and saved the day for football enthusiasts. With the club in great financial distress, the Bristows together with other financial backers took over the club in 2007. By the end of the 2008/2009 season, Torquay managed to make it back to the Football League.

Luke Pittard

This is the story of a McDonald’s crew becoming a millionaire, only to end up where he started.  Luke Pittard had been nicknamed by his workmates McMillion, after hitting the lottery jackpot. However, he ended up returning to his job at McDonald’s after a few years. Not because he went bankrupt, but because he was bored with the rich lifestyle.

After the instant rise in digits on his bank account, Luke Pittard had gone on to purchase luxuries he wasn’t able to enjoy before. He started with a $52,000 wedding at Cardiff Hilton Hotel and a $404,000 4-bedroom home, which houses a trampoline for his daughter, Chloe! He treated his extended family, too— from paying off his nan’s mortgage to buying his cousin a Rolex.

Michael Carroll

A £9.7m National Lottery jackpot winner back in 2002 became a coalman working seven days a week in Scotland not too long after. Michael Carrols was a 36-year-old binman who won the lottery jackpot with a ticket worth only £1. After giving a million each to his mother, his aunt, his ex-wife, and her mum, he squandered the rest living the high life. He spent the winnings on a lavish lifestyle and even had a record of 30 court appearances, which earned him the nickname ‘King of Chavs’. With the help of a financial advisor Carroll set-up an investment bond worth £3.9 million that generated a monthly income, but by 2003 the bond was claimed and Carroll had to live off of it.

William Post

William Post was considered an unlucky man. He was orphaned at a young age and led a nomadic lifestyle during his early adulthood. The day he won the lottery he only had $2.46 in his bank account and had been surviving on disability payments. During the 1988 Pennsylvania lottery, Post won a total of $16.2 million. However, he burned through this amount within just three months and ended up $500,000 in debt. It wasn’t completely his fault, however. The post fell victim to crime, tragedy, and poor money management. He was swindled by his landlady, purchased an already used car lot, restaurant, and a plane.  His very own brother hired a hitman on him and was arrested for doing so.

Jack Whittaker

Andrew Jackson Whittaker was the winner of the Powerball multi-state lottery in 2002, for which he received the jackpot of US$314.9 million. He owned the largest single winning ticket in American lottery history. Prior to winning, Whittaker was already a millionaire and he had been the president of Diversified Enterprise Construction in West Virginia for 12 years.

All was well until his streak of misfortune began. Less than a year after winning, his car was broken into by thieves who stole $545,000 in cash. In 2004, his granddaughter, Brandi Bragg, passed away tragically. Then in 2016, his home was engulfed in fire and was deemed a total loss. Whittaker had said that the residence was not covered by an insurance policy.

Alex Toth

Prior to winning $13 million from the lottery in 1990, the Toth’s had been subsisting on canned soup, beans, and rice for weeks. On the day Alex Toth bought the lottery ticket, he was left with $25 for the remaining week. Fortunately, things would soon turn around for him and his family. Winning changed a lot of things for them and for the first 3 months, the family lived in a hotel that’s worth $1,000-a-night. There they gambled, dined, and shopped without much thought to money management.

They then settled with their children after buying a 10-acre land. Trouble would befall the family, however. The Toth’s ended up filing for bankruptcy twice and were convicted of fraudulent tax returns. Unfortunately, Alex Toth passed away penniless.

Lisa Arcand

Single mother Lisa Arcand’s life changed after she won the lottery. However, like others before her, she didn’t seek the help of a financial advisor. This led to many mistakes, which left her bankrupt despite the huge winnings. Arcand began spending tremendously. She hosted parties, went on vacation, bought a new house with new furniture, and enrolled her son in a $10,000 annual tuition private school. Arcand also realized her dream of owning and operating a restaurant in her hometown. Unfortunately, the restaurant was forced to shut down due to various reasons, and most of her money was used to keep the restaurant afloat. These things happened on top of the steep tax rate that she had to pay for receiving her winnings upfront.

John Kutey

In 2011, John Kutey was one of the seven who shared a mega jackpot.  Although there is nearly no information about their investments, we know that John and his wife Linda decided to donate part of his $19 million to build a water park. Located in his hometown, the project was in honor of his and his wife’s parents. He also used $200,000 of his winnings to replace an old park in Green Island, New York. The brand new Spray Park opened in 2013, at no expense to local taxpayers. John and Linda showed that the money they won wasn’t exclusively for them. Instead, they built a place to memorialize their parents and share their joy with the entire community.

Louise White

The 2012 PowerBall winner was an 81-year-old Newport woman named Louise White. For almost a month, Rhode Island was abuzz about the winner of the largest prize in the state lottery’s history. On March 6th, she was introduced by the Rhode Island Lottery as the lucky ticket holder. White bought her ticket at the Newport Stop & Shop. She was described as a vivacious octogenarian when she met with lawyers to collect her $336.4 million cheques. What did Louise do with her winnings? She established the Rainbow Sherbert Trust. It was named after the ice cream flavor that led her to the grocery store where she bought her winning ticket. It is also the favorite of her son, LeRoy White, who is also a well-known Newport musician.

Bob Erb

Bob Erb from Canada won a $25 million Lotto Max jackpot in 2012. As he was going to his father’s wake, Bob stopped at a gas station and bought the tickets. The clerk at the store, however, made a mistake and gave him an extra ticket—a stroke of luck, in this case. Despite winning big, the construction worker still wanted to continue his job, but also made investments for his family. He donated to the food bank and other charitable organizations. The British Columbia native also shared some of the $50-million jackpots with a group of oil workers in neighboring Alberta. Before winning the jackpot, Bob had been buying tickets for over 43 years in hopes of finally winning the grand prize.