Everyone dreams of winning the lottery, setting up family members for life, and retiring with millions in a bank account. Unfortunately, the odds of hitting a Mega Millions jackpot, for example, are one in 176 million. Moreover, the probability of landing the main Powerball prize is even more significant at one in 292 million. Hence, for most individuals that prefer to test their luck on games of chance, casino online USA sites are a far better option, as prizes on these platforms can get far more easily attained than in lotto draws.
Nevertheless, billions worldwide choose to play the lottery weekly, considering it casual entertainment and not really gambling. Some even win. Heck, someone has to, right? However, have you ever wondered what these extremely lucky people go on to do with their staggering rewards? Well, we are here to tell you.
Colin Wier spent £2.5 million on 55% of the Partick Thistle Football Club.
The Weirdest Thing a Lottery Winner has Bought
Once that jackpot hits and a person sees that they are holding a winning ticket, a flood of emotions is likely to burst through them. And, in the days following a big win, a person’s mind will definitely race, running through different possibilities regarding what they can do with their millions of dollars.
In this scenario, the best action for such lucky individuals is to hire a group of financial advisors. Then buy and read a stack of books on managing jackpot wealth. Sadly, few nationwide and state lottery winners do that. Instead, most splurge on things they have dreamt of for years.
Scotland’s biggest lotto winner Colin Wier, who scooped £161 million in 2011 on a EuroMillions draw, spent £2.5 million on the Partick Thistle Football Club, wiping its debts and bailing it out of financial ruin. In return, the club named its youth academy after him. Wier donated his 55% stake of Partick Thistle to its fans, putting the club back in the hands of the local community.
Another Brit that spent his lottery winnings a bit unconventionally was Michael Carroll, who won $18m on UK’s National Lottery when he was only nineteen. Carrol decided to spend some of his prize fund to build a race track in his back garden where he could drive luxury cars at unsafe speeds.
A charming story from the US is that Lee Robins, who in 1993 won a $111 million Powerball jackpot and used a portion of his winnings to open the 226-acre Camp Winnegator, a kids’ summer camp in Wisconsin.
One downfall of winning the lottery in many states is that the commissions that run it can publicize their winners. Only in eleven US states can parties choose to remain anonymous. So, winners likely have given loads of cash to family and friends. People who have flocked to them after reading about their win. Conversely, when landing a casino jackpot online, the operator has no right to announce prize winners. Of course, unless they choose to get named.
What Percentage of Lottery Winners Spend their Entire Prize?
According to a study conducted in Florida, around 70% of lottery winners lose their prize money in five years or less. That happens regardless of the winning amount. Similar percentages apply to those who win big on real money casino games. But, going by the Florida survey, only one percent of the Sunshine State’s winners eventually go bankrupt. Ergo, they rarely wind up on the street.
We should note that lotto payouts of more than $5,000 get subjected to a 24% federal withholding tax. The same percentage applies to wins snagged at US-based gambling sites comparable to many of the top offshore ones featured on our casino reviews page. Thus, the government immediately takes a quarter out of all lotto winnings. Also, state lotto commissions/organizers seldom payout the entire reward in full for significant wins. These usually get supplied in installments.
Furthermore, what most people don’t understand about lotto winners is that it takes these people six to nine months to adapt to their new lifestyle. During this period, they spend much of their money carelessly, mainly to travel the world. They also tend to be overly generous towards others, not realizing that once a money spigot gets opened, it is hard to stop it from gushing. Since most individuals who play the lottery are from the working class, they are not financially literate, meaning they do not know how to handle vast sums properly.
The most popular investment lottery winners make is real estate.
Do Lottery Winners Invest Their Jackpots?
Over 50% of people who win the lottery retire. The most common area winners choose to invest their prize in, without a doubt, is real estate. The Uk National Lottery has paid out more than £8.5 billion in jackpots. Per findings from Camelot and Oxford Economics, its winners have invested a fourth of this figure into properties. Another £2.12 billion got placed into business investments, with 15% of winners starting companies.
Most financial experts agree that the wisest thing to do with lottery winnings is to stick a good chunk of them into Treasury bonds and watch the interest accrue. They advise that putting money in gold is a good idea, and placing a small portion into Bitcoin may not be horrible. That is so despite the world’s original digital coin boasting a history of high volatility. Investing in the bond market is too a must per multiple analysts. These state that short-term municipal bonds should get preference. Likely many will think that buying stocks of companies with proven track records of paying out healthy annual dividends may be a smart move, but that is still a form of gambling, aking to playing online casino games. And Lady Luck rarely smiles on the same people over and over again.
