Woman who won lottery twice and lost it explains why it isn’t what it's ‘cracked up to be’
Topics: Money, US News, Mental Health
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Dan Cronin/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images/ CHUYN/Getty
Topics: Money, US News, Mental Health
The woman from New Jersey, claimed she was left at ‘rock bottom’ after winning the lottery not only once, but twice…talk about being lucky!
Evelyn Adams, who previously worked at a convenience store, was lucky enough to win the lottery twice, but it didn’t quite have the effect that you might expect it to.
Evelyn Adams won $3.9 million on the lotto in 1985 and amazingly, went on to win a further $1.4 million jackpot just four months later.
What are the odds of that?!
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Well guess what? We actually have the answers to that very question.
According to The Sun, the odds of winning the first jackpot were one in 3.2 million and odds for the second stood at one in 5.2 million.
However, it seems as though winning the lottery (twice!), had the opposite effect on Evelyn, who ended up penniless and living in a trailer, after making some bad business ventures. On top of that, she had an extreme gambling addiction.
She said: “Winning the lottery isn't always what it's cracked up to be. I won the American dream but I lost it, too. It was a very hard fall. It's called rock bottom."
Adams’ prize money was paid to her in annual payments of $218,000, so she was able to off some bills and set up a college fund for her daughter with her first jackpot win.
She also treated herself to a car, and treated her closest friends with lavish gifts.
And she even carried on trying her luck for the third time!
As she was reportedly spending $100 per week on lotto tickets…$5.3million not quite enough for you Evelyn?!
With all of these costly expenditures adding up, the money was bound to dry up and by 2012, Adams had spent all of her money after regularly gambling at Atlantic City casinos too frequently.
Adams talked about how her relationships changed due to her wealth: "Everybody wanted my money.
“Everybody had their hand out.
“I never learned one simple word in the English language, 'no'.
"I wish I had the chance to do it all over again.
“I'd be much smarter about it now.
“I was a big time gambler.
“I didn't drop a million dollars, but it was a lot of money.”
She concluded: "I made mistakes, some I regret, some I don't.
“I'm human.
“I can't go back now so I just go forward, one step at a time."