Many people dream of leaving their price per head lives behind and winning the lottery, but the odds of becoming a millionaire are astronomical. Your odds are better to simply have your own pay per head sportsbook and earn a steady but basic income.
Still people will always buy a lottery ticket ‘just in case’, but what happens if you actually win? The person below has found out the hard way that winning isn’t everything.
Jack Whittaker was never one to buy a lot of lottery tickets when the Powerball jackpot reached enormous proportions. Instead he simply asked for one random ticket. That one random ticket during Christmas of 2002 would prove to be his lucky day as it were, as he was blessed with $314 million dollars.
But money is not always a blessing as the West Virginian would soon learn. His acts of generosity to churches and local charities made some across the state and country feel that they too deserves some, whether or not they did.
The money was also a curse to Whittaker’s granddaughter, who got caught up in the world of illegal drugs. The drugs would lead to one boy dying of an overdose and the granddaughter, Brandi, also being found dead.
For all the money in the world, money can still not buy happiness, but it can sure wreck it. Almost 2 years to the day, Whittaker and his estranged wife Jewel, sat beside each other at their granddaughter’s funeral.
6 weeks later they were divorced.
In July 2009, Whittacker’s daughter Ginger Whittaker Bragg and the mother of his dead granddaughter, was also found dead in her home of an apparent overdose. Authorities did an autopsy, but foul play was not suspected. When reached for comment, Whittaker, now with no family and no fortune, said “I wish I’d torn that ticket up.”
With no money, no family, and no hope anymore, it’s a wonder why anyone would play the lottery, with a such a heavy price per head.
Yet people will continue to play as they dream of changing their lives too, and hopefully not like Whittaker.
