Dumbest lottery winners ever!
Money in general and lottery jackpots in particular don’t make people smarter, only richer and these stories about dumb lottery winners reconfirm this idea. Many of those who end up winning the jackpot, are so surprised by their good fortune that they don’t know how to react and some of their decisions are downright surprising. Furthermore, the results of lottery draws are absolutely random and no skill whatsoever is required, so there is no connection between the players’ intelligence and the cash they win.
Too much money can cloud judgment
Those who are not used to handling consistent amounts of money, are naturally overwhelmed by sizable jackpots and they don’t know how to react properly. Sarah Cockings won $6 million after purchasing a British national lottery ticket and she found no better purpose for this cash than to buy two pairs of breasts for her sisters. At least Sarah was generous but not all lottery winners are just as selfless and Arnim Ramdass did the exact opposite when he found out about his good fortune.
He assumed that by disconnecting Internet and television, he will succeed in keeping his wife in the dark and keep all the money to himself. Unfortunately for him, his wife was smarter than him and found out about the entire affair by using another computer. At the other end of the spectrum we have Janite Lee whose charitable urges caused her to donate most of her money to Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign and other organizations. Add to this the fact that she spent a significant portion of the $18 million jackpot on slot games and it is easy to understand how it was possible for her to run out of money completely.
Misguided generosity for lottery winners
Stupidity is sometimes a matter of perspective, but some facts are so surprising that leave no doubt about the intellect of the perpetrators. Richard Lustig takes full advantage of lottery winners’ stupidity as there are many who buy his worthless book about how to increase the chances of winning big. Those who got lucky once assumed that now that they have a bankroll, all they need is a reliable strategy to maximize their profits. It’s not a lie if they believe it, but what happens in the real world is that the system is rubbish and the more money they invest based on these guidelines the more they will lose.
Other lottery winners know that the threshold separating generosity from selfishness is thin and they look determined not to cross it in either direction. Brian and Mary Lohse for instance agreed to donate $3 million to a high school, under the condition that the locker of the opposing team will be painted pink. We can only assume that they had their reasons to make these requirements, what is certain is that the high school complied to receive the money.
