Big lottery winner feels very unlucky.

[edbermac]

Saw a news magazine segment on this guy a few months ago. That old adage 'Be careful what you wish for' seems quite prophetic here.



http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/09/13/lottery.nightmare.ap/index.html

In his darkest moments, Jack Whittaker has sometimes wondered if winning the nearly $315 million Powerball game was really worth it. Jack Whittaker often wonders if he should have just torn up that winning Powerball ticket.

The jackpot that was the stuff of dreams turned into a nightmare: His wife left him and his drug-addicted granddaughter -- his protege and heir -- died. He endured constant requests for money. Almost five years later, Whittaker is left with things money can't cure: His daughter's cancer, a long list of indiscretions documented in newspapers and court records, and an inability to trust others.

"I don't have any friends," he said in lengthy interview with The Associated Press. "Every friend that I've had, practically, has wanted to borrow money or something and of course, once they borrow money from you, you can't be friends anymore."

[DS1]

1. dude

you have how many millions and you're lending? just give them 50 grand and if they stay, great. if not, you'll earn that back in investments tomorrow

cheap asshole

[LSK]

18. my thoughts exactly

[Tektonik]

2. boo freaking hoo

The next big lottery winner can give me their winning ticket, and I'll make out just fine :P

[supernova]

3. Why do people grow up not knowing how to handle money?

It's sucha strange phenomenon to me in a capitalist culture like ours. It's a tool, like anything else. You can use it wisely or foolishly.

I feel sorry for this guy.

[LSK]

19. because they dont teach it in school

[grace0418]

4. That guy had lots of problems long before he won the lottery.

The money just exacerbated the issues. You don't *have* to live so lavishly just because you can. And gee, do you think maybe if you park your giant luxury vehicle outside a strip club then go inside and get plastered on a regular basis, you *might* attract some unwanted attention from sleazy people? Oh and *perhaps* your granddaughter doesn't need multiple luxury cars with $16,000 paint jobs? Do you think that kind of overindulgence may lead to some issues?

I'm sorry the guy has problems but methinks he brought a lot of it on himself.

[redqueen]

11. What you said.

I just knew some clever DUer would already have given the other side of the story.

:hi:

[MrScorpio]

5. Just about all of my problems are money problems... Big cash will hook me up just fine

Besides. if I give someone a chunk of change, I'll tell them that it's a gift and not a loan.

[BlueIris]

6. Yeah, and...what, did he think they were going to pay him back?

Huh?

[MrScorpio]

12. I would have put $100 Million aside for myself as a principle and live on the interest

The rest I'll give away for gifts and charity

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I'd say his life was pretty messed up BEFORE he won the lottery

Money can cure ... a lack of money, but it can't give you common sense.

[skygazer]

8. It's hard for me to feel sorry for adults who behave like children

I've never understood why to a lot of people winning the lottery means acting like a giant ass.

[BlueIris]

9. I've spent some hours reading about lottery winners. Most of them wind up saying they wish they'd

never won. (They also wind up without their money and typically flat broke--seriously.)

However, that's a less common situation among the so-called "mega millions" winners (100s of millions). That's enough money that it usually takes a while for them to reach the "I wish I'd never won stage" if they're going to. And many of them don't, because many of the huge jackpots are won by people who were already financially well-off to begin with, and therefore know how to manage large piles of money, deal with sleazy "give me some money" requests, deflect media (and IRS) attention and generally not fuck up their lives after winning. So I think this guy must have had some issues before he won.

[skygazer]

10. I question whether that's the majority or if its just the ones we hear about

I was reading an article about a month or so ago in some magazine (sorry, I really don't remember where) and they were profiling a bunch of different lottery winners, people who had won over the last 20 years (I think thats the time frame).

Some of them had gone through a lot of crap but most of them had done okay. And it seemed like the people who had done the best were those who didn't drastically change their lifestyle. They may have bought a better house and sent their kids to college but they had the same attitude and the same friends they'd had before. They stayed in the same area and most of them continued to work in some way or another.

It seemed that a person's attitude about money was what made the biggest difference - those who thought of it as just one part of the whole did better than those for whom it was everything.

[regularguy]

13. Not that I feel sorry for this dude, but

there's no freakin' way I want 300 million dollars. I'm neither rich nor poor, but I like my life and I don't see how it can remain anything resembling my current life after an infusion of several hundred million $$$. Now, $300,000 would allow me to pay off debts and save a little. Get ahead of the game for once. That'd be right nice!

[TreasonousBastard]

14. This guy seems different than a lot of winners...

he had already built a multimillion dollar business and knew about handling real money before winning.

The difference between an additional 90 mill and what he had wasn't money-- it was the glare of publicity. Every little aspect of his family's life became public and from just another local wealthy guy he became a target. He even set up a foundation that already spent 23 million, but that's not good enough?

Not the sort of thing you'd wish on anyone.

[Rambis]

15. I have a core group or friends

I would more than be willing to help out financially with no intention of them paying me back a dime. I would help build some things my small town needs like a rec building and then travel. I would put the rest in a trust for the kids that they could get after college or reevaluate that if they started a career instead. Then there are various charities I would slap a million or two on.
I could hack it.

[Deja Q]

16. Damn. Maybe people who don't have friends should win more.

:shrug:

[jmowreader]

17. I think the Christian Right just LOVES this guy

About once a year they pull Jack Whittaker out of cold storage to demonstrate why you should take that dollar you were going to spend on a lottery ticket and instead give it to your local church.

Jack brought all of it on himself. First, he advertised that he was going to give a big chunk to his church. As Luke 12:48 says, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."