Congratulations, you’ve won the lottery – now you’re screwed

Assassination, abduction or substance abuse – all part of a curse following lottery winners.

Players may see the lottery as a lucky ticket that will make all their dreams come true.

This may be the case for one lucky person from Ireland, who has just scooped the £208,000,000 EuroMillions jackpot.

The person’s identity isn’t known yet, but the Irish National Lottery confirmed that one person has won the huge jackpot, equivalent to 250million Euros.

Follow our EuroMillions lottery live blog for the latest updates

Other lucky winners include the Austrian man who pocketed the £200 million EuroMillions jackpot.

As did the Britons who, only recently this year, saw £83,000,000 and £65,000,000 jackpots drop into their bank accounts.

But these tickets turn out to be a deal with the devil.

Believe it or not, the reality of scooping a jackpot is different to what many of us imagine.

History has countless examples of winners whose lives took a turn for the worse after scooping a large sum of money.

Some studies suggest lottery winners in the US are more likely to declare bankruptcy within three to five years compared to the average citizen.

Around one-third find themselves in financial trouble – and it does not end there.

The pressure may force someone to spiral into depression, and lead to alcohol and drug abuse and problems with family and friends.

One such example in the UK is Michael Carroll, a bin man who won £9,700,000 on the National Lottery in 2002 – but declared bankruptcy nine years later.

Dubbed the ‘Lotto lout’, he gave £4 million to friends and family, including £1,400,000 to his wife Sandra Aiken.

But shortly after the couple wed in 2003, she decided she had had enough.

Over the next few years, Carroll appeared in court more than 30 times while a mansion he bought in Norfolk fell into a state of disrepair.

He has admitted he wasted millions on cocaine, gambling, prostitutes and drinking two bottles of vodka a day.

By 2013, Carroll was broke and homeless, so he returned to Scotland and worked in a biscuit factory and then a slaughterhouse before landing a job as a coal man.

Alongside bankruptcy and substance abuse, there are instances of people facing threats such as kidnapping after winning the lottery.

In 1960, Sydney salesperson Bazil Thorne and his wife Freda scooped the equivalent of £1,500,000.

The couple became overnight celebrities, but the fame and fortune brought tragedy.

It was on July 7 when their son Graeme was kidnapped while on his way to school.

A hefty ransom demand was issued with threats to throw the eight-year-old to the sharks in Sydney.

His body was eventually discovered on waste ground in a suburb. The case is also known as the first kidnapping for ransom in Australia.

A popular Reddit thread attracted comments on the dark side of winning the lottery.

User BlakeClass gave their take on the pitfalls of a jackpot win, from unlucky tales of woe to what you should immediately do if you match all the numbers.

‘It’s something of an open secret that winners of obnoxiously large jackpots tend to end up badly with alarming regularity,’ they wrote.

Sharing some key steps people should take after winning, they listed: ‘So, what the hell do you do if you are unlucky enough to win the lottery?

‘This is the absolutely most important thing you can do right away. Nothing. Do not tell anyone.

‘1) Immediately retain an attorney. 2) Decide to take the lump sum. 3) Decide right now, how much you plan to give to family and friends. 4) You will be encouraged to hire an investment manager. Considerable pressure will be applied. Don’t.

‘Investment managers charge fees, usually a percentage of assets.’

This article was originally published on March 29, 2025

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