Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Is Winning the Lottery a Blessing or a Curse?

Have you ever won the lottery before? Almost all people will say "No" as there is less than one in a million chance to win the lottery. Everyone at one time or another buys lottery in a lifetime. Then, the buyers will imagine the moment when they became a winner. Also, they may dream living in luxury, driving a fancy car, lavish money on poor people. Though, the odd of winning the lottery is “1 chance in 86,000 of dying from poisoning”, millions of people buy lottery tickets every day, dreaming of turning their lives around.

But, do you think the life will be happier when you become a millionaire in all of a sudden? In my opinion, winning the lottery will not make a better life in general. Looking over the winners in America or Britain where their history of lottery is ahead, there were more cases of those winners who lived a misery life than living happily. Committing suicide, divorce, drug, alcoholic, bankrupt, jail… All kinds of adversity may happen after a big windfall of money.

Financial management is one of the problems. Many people who buy lotteries are unemployed, poor and minor. For that reason, it will be hard to manage millions of money for them as they had no experience. According to a California study, 40 percent of lottery buyers are unemployed. In Indiana, 65 percent of minors play the lottery.

Generally, these sorts of people do not know how to manage an enormous amount of money that well. For that reason, the money may lasts for average five to six years. Winners waste their prize money on gambling, buying fancy cars and villas, drugs and so on. They will just keep using and using it and will all gone in short time. This situation becomes very serious because the winner is now used to live like a millionaire but once money is squandered, they will get stress and under lot of pressure. This may also lead to suicide.

For example, Callie Rogers from Workington in Cumbria, she won £1.9m in 2003 and she was only 16 years old. She wasted her winnings buying a fancy car cost £33,000, gave £3,000 to her boyfriend to drive her around. Also, half a million was spent on homes for her and the family, £200,000 on holidays and £450,000 on clothes. She even had a breast implants. However, Callie Rogers felt lonely that people especially troublesome boys, loved her money not her. She tried to suicide but survived. She said with regret “I wish I had never won.” Therefore, hitting the big one is not a blessing as the winners do not spent their winning wisely and bankrupt easily.

Another reason is that it will be hard to adjust in local community once the dream comes true. All kinds of people will come to the winner asking for some money. Relatives, friends, friends of friends, and even strangers will expect money. One winner said that “everybody wanted my money; everybody had their hand out…” These factors may cause mental problems and may suicide at last.

According to the news article, a Britain’s youngest lottery winner, Christopher Donnelly, committed suicide as he could not manage being “publicity”. He said that he even had people camping outside of his house and it strained on him and his family.

Furthermore, most people are greedy and possessive for money, so they could commit an offense or a crime to keep the money for them. For instance, in October 2001, one winner went to the extent of killing his wife as he did not want to share his half of the prize. Moreover, another winner of £440,000 on the National Lottery O’Leary from Merseyside in England was “convicted of the manslaughter of his wife Michelle during a fight at the family home.” Thus, it seems that lottery may change life, but in a short time, normally it leads to the downfall.

To sum up, winning the lottery may not bring a better life or happiness and is not a very good idea. The majority of winner faced problems such as financial management and mental trauma because of sudden windfall of amount that beyond their control. Winners become a target of relatives, friends and strangers and their life could become a nightmare. Plus, it is certainly, not easy to handle millions and in very short time the money will be gone. Many winners have suffered those kinds of disaster and it even lead to suicide. Therefore, I believe that winning the lottery is not always very pleasing as the old same. Everything comes with a price and in this case a price that eventually become a disaster.

APA reference

Culbertson, J. (2009) The dangers of winning the lottery. Retrieved 9 May, 2010. From

Goodstein, E. 8 lottery winners who lost their millions. Retrieved 9 May, 2010. from
Randall, D. (2010) Curse of the lottery winner. Retrieved 9 May, 2010. from

Lottery winners – the good and the bad. (2004). Retrieved 9 May, 2010. from

The facts about the lottery. Retrieved 9 May, 2010. from

Youngest lottery winner found dead. (2010). Retrieved 9 May, 2010. from