I wonder what the percentage really is. You only hear about the ones that go bad. I would imagine it also has to do with the demographic that typically plays the lotto. It’s generally seen as a tax on the poor. So people who play and win may have not been the best with finances in the first place.

My high school football coach's mother won about $9 million. Never met her personally though.

Although not technically the lottery, my in-laws hit a huge windfall. They befriended their elderly neighbors, and for several years would help them out with chores around the house. The husband passed, and they started helping his widow out more and more as she aged and her health deteriorated. Lots more to the story, but ended up they were the primary beneficiaries in her will and got just shy of $3 mil.

The bummer of it is that their lifestyle is such that my wife and her brother can't really expect to see anything left to be passed down to them. We have scored a few great vacations out of it though.

I've won a few bucks here and there on scratch offs.

I’m extra helpful with any elderly, high net worth neighbors. You never know when acting nice can pay off.

My wife won the lottery, when she met me

i know 1
& he needed it

Hi all…me again. Just found out an elderly neighbor passed away last night (RIP Mrs. Krank). She didn’t leave me anything but I have other prospects.

My wife's uncle won the weekly grand.

Most I’ve won is $400 on a scratch off

2 people , one was a engineering manager , he won $6.5M back when it only paid out over 20 years , he kept working for about 10 years . Paid for college for everyone of his nieces and nephews . The other is my dental office manager , $1M , but her story was crazy . Her husband bought a Super Lotto ticket that didn't have a winner in it , he then submitted in to the " second chance " super lotto system and didn't bother to ever check back . A total random stranger calls the wife at her office , proceeds to advise her that her husband had won the second chance lotto -- she hangs up , he does this THREE times --- she finally tells him she'll look into it . She then calls her husband and tells him the story --- he tells her he is super busy and needs to get back to work and they will discuss this later ( he's a painter ) . She then calls her youngest son and tells him the story --- he looks into it and whammo , $1M bucks . The second chance ticket was due to expire in two weeks .

A group of friends put in $10 every Friday night for scratch offs. They hit 1mm one night. About 6 months later a guy in that group hit 250k

my grandma worked with a guy who won a million bucks on the publishers clearing house deal back in the mid 80's

Yeah I dunno. I agree we probably only hear about the bad ones.

If I won a huge lottery I think I would probably hide the fact from just about everyone. I would buy me a nice little private island in the Caribbean and live out the rest of my days fishing in paradise.

I don't know anyone who has won Power Ball, but I know several people who won the British online lottery. It's easy to win, you don't even have to buy a ticket, but you have to give them your bank account number to collect.