22 Hard To Believe Facts About Lotteries & Jackpots

In 2012, everyone in the town of Sodeto in Spain won the £600 million lottery jackpot except for a man named Costis Mistotakis because ticket sellers forgot to come to his door.

In 2011, a Chicago couple won $30 million in the state lottery and didn't tell anyone. Not even their kids.

A 19-year-old garbage man named Michael Carroll won $14.4 million in the British Lottery in 2002, spent it all on gambling drugs and prostitutes. He is now working in a cookie factory.

Lottery winners in the U.S. tend to move house immediately to areas of established privilege, whereas Canadians tend to renovate. Nearly 80% of winners from both countries quit their jobs (often to their regret), and many who kept working were alienated from co-workers.

A man named Willie Hurt won the lottery in 1989 for $3.1 million. He then spent all the money on crack, cocaine, and was later charged with murder.

An accountant named Peter Joseph Kelly murdered his client, a $5 million lottery winner, just because he was pushed over the edge by her continued wasteful spending.

A Canadian lottery winner named Sharon Tirabassi blew through her $10 million winnings in less than 10 years and now lives paycheck to paycheck.

A woman named Christina Elizabeth Goodenow bought a winning lottery ticket with her dead mother-in-law's credit card. The police claimed it was obtained by illegal means and kept the $1 million jackpot for themselves.

In 2005, a Chinese man named Zhao Liqun found that he could still buy lottery tickets within a 5-min window after the winning numbers were announced. Through this loophole, he won over $4 million. Chinese authorities discovered the loophole and, in 2007, he was sentenced to life for fraud.

A New Jersey man named John Roland purchased two identical lottery tickets and won the Jackpot. With one other winning ticket sold elsewhere, John received two-thirds of the $879,000 prize instead of half.