21 lottery winners who blew it all
IBN/screenshot
The Powerball lottery, which will be drawn Saturday evening, has an estimated jackpot of $415 million, the ninth-largest in US history.
It's a lot of money, but if you do the math, buying a ticket probably won't be worth it.
Even if it does pan out, winning the lottery will not solve all of life's problems.
In fact, many people's lives became notably worse after they got super rich, and they managed to lose it all quite quickly.
Mandi Woodruff and Michael B. Kelley contributed to this report.
Lara and Roger Griffiths bought their dream home ... and then life fell apart.
The Daily MailBefore they won a $2.76 million lottery jackpot in 2005, Lara and Roger Griffiths hardly ever argued.
Then they won and bought a million-dollar house and a Porsche.
But six years after their win, Roger drove away in the Porsche after Lara confronted him over emails suggesting that he was interested in another woman.
Their 14-year marriage was over, a freak fire gutted their house, and every penny of their fortune was gone.
Bud Post lost $16.2 million within a nightmarish year — his own brother put out a hit on him.
Flickr / AlexWilliam "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but was $1 million in debt within a year.
"I wish it never happened," Post said. "It was totally a nightmare."
A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings and his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him in the hopes that he'd inherit a share of the winnings.
After sinking money into various family businesses, Post sank into debt and spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector.
Bud now lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps.
Martyn and Kay Tott won a $5 million jackpot, but lost the ticket.
REUTERS/Mike SegarMartyn Tott, 33, and his 24-year-old wife from the UK missed out on a $5 million lottery fortune after losing their ticket.
They were able to convince officials, but since there is a 30-day time limit on reporting lost tickets, the jackpot became the largest unclaimed amount since the lottery began in 1994.
"Thinking you're going to have all that money is really liberating. Having it taken away has the opposite effect," Kay Tott told The Daily Mail. "It drains the life from you and puts a terrible strain on your marriage. It was the cruelest torture imaginable."
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