When you win big amounts on the lottery of your choice, how will you spend money? Depending on the prize, you’ll probably buy a house, buy a car, pay off debts, and go on a vacation. Those are the usual choices of lottery winners. But, there are many crazy variations out there, and they deserve attention.
You Wouldn’t Think To Spend Money This Way
Let’s start with probably the most famous one, the Garbage man aka King of Chavs aka Michael Carroll. His nickname isn’t really flattering, but it was kind of inevitable since Carroll both worked as a garbage collector and spent some of the winnings on wrecking cars on a race track he built around his mansion.
He was only 19 years old when he won 9,7 million pounds in 2002, but became a celebrity in England due to his post-win behaviour. He spent money on parties, prostitutes, drugs and alcohol, often causing havoc in his neighbourhood in Norfolk. He eventually lost everything and was forced to sell the mansion, was caught stealing a sandwich and now works as a coal miner.
Reality Show and Recording Dreams
Racetrack and crack cocaine may be Carroll’s choice of spending money, but Jonathan Jay Vargas had other ideas. Coincidentally, Vargas was also only 19 years old when he won 35.3 million dollars on Powerball in 2008. His most famous investment was to create an all-female wrestling reality show called “Wrestlicious”. Have you ever heard of it? Well, that gives you an idea of how successful it was: it fell through in less than a year. Vargas is also broke now.
He wasn’t the only one who dreamed about making it in the entertainment business. Lara and Roger Griffiths will be remembered for spending a large amount of their 1.8 million pound win on recording and releasing a single. Roger spent a lot of money on it, including a huge chunk for a publicist and paid promotion. It sold 600 copies and the couple are now divorced and broke.
There is Hope After All
If you are into cannabis, you might be familiar with the story about how Bob Erb decided to spend his money. Erb was a generous man even before he won the lottery. He spent his life constantly donating small amounts of money to organizations and those in need, and continued to do the same after his 25 million dollar win in 2012.
In the first year after winning the lottery, he donated more than $8 million to different causes: from handing money to the homeless to paying dental work and even cars for neighbours and friends who couldn’t afford it. But this “community saint”, as people call him, has one special thing dear to his heart: he is a passionate marijuana user and he spent around $825.000 to help legalization possible.
There are a lot more weird spending stories circling around so be sure to stop by again to check out the rest of them. What would you spend your lottery money on? Let us know and don’t forget to play in the meantime.