By: Alexia Ortiz

Many people desire to win the “lottery”, the Powerball has received 4.52 billion dollars in the year 2018 from the lottery tickets they have sold! It is clear that as a country we have the desire to be wealthy thinking it will solve our problems. But will it make it worse? I conducted a survey asking my 25 peers at my school the same question “Do you think you would be a different person if you won the lottery?” . Fifty-six of the population said they would be a different person, Forty-four percent said they wouldn't change as a person, some said they would use it to benefit their family, pay for college, and buy a house/apartment. Although people believe they wouldn't change from winning the lottery, stories from the past lottery winners say otherwise many have gone bankrupt, homeless and sometimes even dead!

Winning the lottery isn't beneficial to most people, for instance, in 1998 James Hayne ended up winning the lottery and spent most of his money on drugs. In “An Unlucky 13 lottery winners who lost their millions” it states “James Hayes was working as an overnight security guard in 1998 when he won $19 million playing California's SuperLotto game. But he quickly went from winner to loser: His ex-wife reportedly took half the jackpot money, and Hayes developed a heroin habit costing him $1,000 a week. Authorities say he resorted to robbing banks to keep up his lifestyle. The FBI nicknamed him the "PT Cruiser Bandit" and the "Seasoned Bandit," because of his car and gray hair. In 2018, Hayes pleaded guilty to bank robbery and was sentenced to 33 months in prison”(Quinn, 2022). Like many others James Haynes didn't imagine that winning the lottery would make his life worse he ended up spending his money on drugs and robbing others. This brings up the question if the lottery is helpful or if being more wealthy would worsen our mindset since William was a regular person like many of us and lost many things in life because of the lottery. Another lottery winner was WIlliam Bud who had good intentions like many of us but ended up in debt. “William "Bud" Post III struggled with money: He worked odd jobs and served time for writing bad checks. When he won $16.2 million from the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, he thought his problems were solved. But he quickly found himself in debt. He tried to help his siblings start a restaurant and a used-car business. Post purchased a plane, though he didn’t have a pilot’s license, and bought a mansion”(Quinn, 2022). William, like many of us, had the intention of helping himself and his family, which is something I found prevalent in my survey that many wanted to pay off their debts and help their family. But his generosity caused him to be in debt which means that it could happen to anyone. This emphasizes how the lottery has affected people negatively, even those who have had positive intentions.

My mother’s grandpa is an example of someone who won the lottery. He used to have to fight in boxing matches to bring food to his kid’s table. Once he had enough money to open a business he did which has since then made him considered wealthy in Mexico. But becoming wealthy has also caused conflicts within himself, once he became richer he started cheating on his wife and spending his money on unnecessary things. Which has then worsened his relationship with the rest of his family and has caused conflicts of people taking advantage of the fact that he has money. My mother’s grandpa didn't actually win the lottery but he did get wealthy on his own and even that was considered luck in our family because he was the only one of his brothers that got that lucky and led a good business. Although it helped him financially it proved that money doesn't buy happiness and that despite the many things he bought for his wife it still didn't make him forgiven for cheating.

Despite the negative stories, there has also been some good from winning the lottery for instance John Kutey was able to help benefit his own life and others without ending up in debt. In “8 Lottery Success Stories That Will Inspire You to Buy a Ticket” it states “The Keys were also able to make some personal improvements with the lottery money. John Kutey was able to leave his job working for New York State Homes and he and his wife moved to a beautiful house in Florida where they could show off Linda's Disney collection. Even though the after-tax take-home value of the prize was "only" $19 million, the Kutey's were able to help themselves and the people around them”(Grauschopf,2022). Despite the number of negative outcomes from the lottery, it has also been positive for a few fortunate winners that didn't let the money change them. People like Kutley were able to turn their life around for the better, which is what many of us aspire to do with money. However despite positive lottery stories like these the chances of lottery winners having a stable life the majority of lottery winners end up going through a tragedy. In “Curse of the Lottery: The Tragic Stories of Big Jackpot Winners.” it states “ According to the New York Daily News, 70 percent of lottery winners end up broke within seven years. Even worse, several winners have died horribly or witnessed those close to them suffer.”(Steele,2021) Therefore this means that despite the lucky few that win the lottery the majority 70 percent end up going bankrupt or just overall suffer instead of benefiting from more money. This means that the chances of having a story like Kutley and benefiting from the lottery are thirty percent!

We imagine that all our problems could be solved by winning the lottery and that we would stay the same person. But winning the lottery could change a person's perspective and could worsen people's lives. As we can see most lottery winners end up being bankrupt or in a way worse situation than they started in. Therefore we should stop hoping that money could solve our problems and focus more on what we could do to help each other without constantly wanting more money.

Bibliography. MLA style

Steele, Kari. “Curse of the Lottery: The Tragic Stories of Big Jackpot Winners.” KNXV, KNXV, 5 Apr. 2021, https://www.abc15.com/news/state/curse-of-the-lottery-the-tragic-stories-of-big-jackpot-winners#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20New%20York,those%20close%20to%20them%20suffer.&text=Shakespeare%20won%20%2430%20million%20in,of%20time%20to%20spend%20it.

Quinn, Shannon. “An Unlucky 13 Lottery Winners Who Lost Their Millions.” MoneyWise, MoneyWise, 10 Jan. 2022, https://moneywise.com/life/lifestyle/unlucky-lottery-winners-lost-millions.

Grauschopf, Sandra. “8 Lottery Success Stories That Will Inspire You to Buy a Ticket.” LiveAbout, LiveAbout, 31 Mar. 2022, https://www.liveabout.com/lottery-success-stories-to-inspire-you-to-buy-a-ticket-4158108.