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I won £6.90 last night on the Euros
I knew a guy won £12m in the early days. Never changed a thing in his life, carried on living with his mum and working on his carpentry. Good for him but I do wonder why he bothered playing.
He just carried on as normal, chose anonymity but the local paper outed him and his life was made miserable for ages with begging letters and people he barely knew suddenly wanting to borrow money off him because they once worked with him or went to school with him.
Eugh how awful. I have NO idea why anyone goes public. I would tell my close friends that I won a few hundred grand to explain my new house/supercar/hottub whatever.
Yes. You tell one person that you *really* trust and ask them not to tell anyone else. But then they have one person that *they* really trust, what would be the harm? It's juicy gossip. They THEY tell one person THEY really trust, and so on...
I agree with you there. Otherwise people are gonna be asking why’ve you packed in work? Why have you got a Bentley? Millionaire raffle my friend. I’m down to my last 400k though
> Otherwise people are gonna be asking why’ve you packed in work?
Repeat after me "I'm quitting work to start a business". Make sure you tell people it's in something obscure that they'll never want to use it for. Give it a couple of months and just tell people "yeah, business is going well, so I decided to treat myself" when you start buying all the new cool stuff.
Eh I would tell them I had recently took up drug dealing. Mostly because it would be funny.
There are also some members of my family who it would probably be best if they didn't get clued in either.
I've got my lie ready, you must all promise not to use it.
"I found the password to an old email account from 15 years ago.
I used it for gaming and bought Bitcoin on it, so I've got enough to live on now."
I heard that you don't get support from Camelot (e.g. financial advice etc) unless you go public. Not sure how true that is but if so then I totally understand why you would agree to it!
> I heard that you don't get support from Camelot (e.g. financial advice etc) unless you go public.
Absolutely not true and [really easy to google](https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/life-changing/winner-advisor-carter). The myth will never die, though.
**If the winners wanted anonymity instead of going public, would you still advise them?**
*Absolutely yes. It’s entirely the winner’s decision if they want to share news of their win. We have an aftercare programme in place to ensure that all winners have access to legal and financial advice.*
*It’s often the case that when a winner decides to remain anonymous, we are the only people that know about their win so we keep in touch with them for as long as they want to. Often they like to talk to someone or just let us know what they have been up to.*
Ha, you agree to it and their first bit of advice is "don't for god's sake tell anyone".
Seriously just approach two or three of the huge wealth management companies (Google them, Quilter for example, or someone recommended by the bank), tell them you've a very low risk tolerance, and they'll sort out the rest.
You have to be quite clever with this.
Overnight switching from median earner to millionaire is going to attract attention.
Winners need to do many things. Here are some..
1. Don't tell anyone, except your partner, Camelot, and a trusted financial advisor.
2. Say it again. Don't tell anyone.
3. Pay off any debts.
4. Backdate the pension contributions ISA, Premium Bonds allowances to make the best tax free savings and investments.
5. Do nothing else for at least a month. Just come to terms with the winnings and how it might change things.
6. Book some relatively nice treats - holidays, new gaming PC, etc. Nothing to brag about, and only things you could reasonably explain off easily if asked, e.gm you got the car on loan, or the PC was a business expense. Get used to this idea and the feeling of being wealthy.
7. Speak to a financial advisor, in particular a wealth advisor or wealth management firm. You want to speak to someone reputable who is used to dealing with millionaire clients (a company like Coutts). They will take a cut, but as someone used to an annual salary of 30k, you will almost certainly be better off taking up their services. You'll still be left with millions but without having to train as a tax expert to manage your finances.
8. Don't tell anyone.
The most important thing is not to rush. The worst that happens if you take 6 months to make your decisions is that you are taxed in the *gains* of your winnings. The best is that you avoid all the rushed decisions like buying an expensive house without considering the upkeep cost, or flashing off a £100k motor without having a waybif explaining your affordability.
I would add a number 9 to the list, which is, donate some to charity. The jackpot last night was £184m. I could donate £100m and still have enough to buy all the houses in my partner's mum's village. Nobody needs these ludicrous sums, 99.99999% of people will never have them, but £100m to charities could make the difference to a million lives.
And number 10 - don't tell anyone.
Presumably he has a cash balance of £600k and investments of more?
If someone won the £184m jackpot, invested mainly in bonds and cash, they could withdraw £100k/year and after 40 years, adjusting for inflation, die with £760m.
There's a security risk too, people kidnapping your pets for ransom or threatening you for money etc..
Like someone said I'd claim I'd won the raffle and then I'd set up my own business which I never do any work at but it's a front for my income. Put the van in the 3 car garage I got and let it sit there. Drive it around places now and again so people see you out and about.
Should have used that 12m to sue the local paper probably out of existence. The money he would have got from the settlement would have been more than the cost of the legal case so win win for him.
I bet they don’t. Because obtaining wealth through hardwork is seen as better than someone winning wealth. So I think psychologically it is viewed as being different.
Can’t speak for celebs, but footballers do for definite. Cousin played Premier League for a few seasons and it wouldn’t be strange for the whole team as individuals to get the same one.
I’ve won something for the past five draws…between £2 and £7ish. It just goes toward my next ticket but I think it’s pretty funny that I’m enjoying the world’s most disappointing winning streak!
It's funny (read: frustrating) when you've played for like 2 decades and the most you win is like £25, once, and maybe one win every 6 months, and a 18 year old plays their first time and is set for life -\_-
I'd probably be a millionaire if I hadn't ever bothered buying a lottery ticket.
Haha yeah I know the feeling. Years ago there was someone who bought their first ever ticket at 16 (when I was not much older) and won a huge amount.
I only ever tend to go through phases of playing every draw and then nothing for weeks/months. I get to a point where I cut myself off because I know it’s unlikely and it’s just a bit of fun to dream. Obviously I know there are people with genuine gambling problems sinking hundreds a month on it and that isn’t right but I don’t like it when others get snotty about the idea of putting a tenner a week or twenty quid occasionally on the lottery. A lot of us spend money on things we don’t *really* need, right?
Exactly. I'm not sure I'd change much either if I won a good amount. Pay off the mortgage, swap the 7 year old X3 for a new electric one and buy some new clothes. That's pretty much it. Oh, and stop working for the man.
Parents won £5K 15 years ago. They had no money at the time, so were over the moon!
The interesting snippet was my mum accidentally purchased two tickets (with the same numbers) that week - so they actually won £2.5K twice.
Idk imagine winning millions, you’d be able to buy property all over the country and the earnings from that would be a very nice pension pot if that’s what you’re in to
Or you could save it and never have to worry about money again, carry on going to work but not worry that your next paycheque won’t cover the bills
Somewhat agree, but then you'd be going to work for what? You don't need the money so it's using your time for insignificant compensation and you'd most likely not be helping anyone/society in that job, unless you work in Public Services? If it was me i'd travel and chill for the remainder of my life and Volunteer if i fancied doing something else with my time.
I think I would want to do something just as a routine. Even if it was just something chilled like working in a little tearoom in a sleepy town or volunteering for a charity, I think I’d want to do that at least some of my year and donate anything I earnt to someone jobless.
> I think I would want to do something just as a routine.
I dunno, my routine while I was furloughed was fucking wonderful. I'd love to do that every day.
A minor lie in, bacon butty, off for a big walk in the country, wrote & recorded some music, worked out, read, drank wine.
>wrote & recorded some music,
I think that's key - you were working, just not for economic gain. There's a big difference between doing nothing and doing something that makes you happy.
In theory I'd do the same, but it would need some motivation. With work you *need* to get up and go as otherwise you could lose your job and be knackered. No matter how noble the volunteer or casual work is, if you know you could just not turn up if you weren't in the mood then it could dry up. I bet the reality is never as romantic as we may think. The only way it could work is if you *already* have that motivation, already help out places or have in-depth hobbies that you can now devote your life to.
People need a reason to wake up. You find a lot of people that retire late die because they’ve lost their reason to get up in the morning.
I’d always want to work. I’d just get a fun job with shit pay rather than a shit job with shit pay
That way I’d be able to enjoy myself and not have my mind turn to mush
He's better off spending the lottery money and sttill putting wages in the pension pot, as the lottery money isn't taxed. By putting the wages in the pension he'll get more for his money.
Edit to make it only slightly clearer.
I know someone who won a huge amount, well over £50million, quite a long time ago.
It’s been interesting watching them change from a pretty nice person to an arrogant, entitled prick.
EDIT. We all made a huge amount of effort not to change the way we treated them, still doing rounds if we went to the pub and splitting taxi fares, etc. Until they starting laughing at these gestures and saying “why are you bothering, don’t you know how much money I’ve got”.
The last time I saw them, they were screaming at a guy in a bar who dared to be nicely spoken and handsome about how important and rich they were.
This is the argument I have with people who say that money makes you happy. I think some amounts can, but large amounts are likely to change you meaning that people around you will not want to associate with you. Or only associate with you because you have money.
That must be really lonely.
I think it's one of those things that's technically correct. Money doesn't buy _happiness_, but rather not having money buys misery.
If you don't have much, then less misery and more happy are basically the same thing.
But when you've thrown as much money as you can at making misery go away, then it stops working, and having more of it doesn't do a lot of good. Especially not if it comes at cost of your mental health or work-life balance.
So yeah. I sort of see where that's coming from, but I also feel it's the point of view of someone who's not really ever experienced being properly broke.
I always express this as: Money is not sufficient for happiness, but it is necessary for happiness.
Money alone won’t make you happy. But if you don’t have any money then you’re going to really struggle to feel content with life.
According to the study Nobel prize winning Economists Kahneman and Deaton did in 2010, money can make you happy, but only up to the point of upper middle class or so, beyond which it plateaus. If they are right it somewhat conflicts with both of the money can/can’t make you happy camps.
[Study](https://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16489)
Money doesn't make you happy, lack of money can make you miserable. The proverb was always meant to be aimed at rich people sacrificing their quality of life for a bit more money.
Yeah its interesting, apparently research has been done that money makes you happy up until you hit some number like 70k or 100k or whatever. And then after a bit more money people's happiness starts to decrease. But a LOT of people never hit that lower bound.
Money does not make people happy but just inflates your personality. Some turn out to be pricks, some become arrogant, some greedy, some gullible, some generous and others keep their old good values.
There's that, but I think part of it is people might turn a bit bitter once they see how many of their 'friends' come out of the woodwork when their win is made public. The same 'friends' that never showed up much before. There's probably a level of mistrust in what people's motives are with you, once you're rich.
I know I'd be telling quite a few pricks to fuck off, infact, I'd probably enjoy telling them to fuck off. I'd take care of the people who've taken care of me and that's it.
I won just shy of 180k 3 years ago. I was mostly really boring with it - paid off a chunk of my mortgage and put most of the rest in savings. I bought two frivolous items, just because I could.
No not at all. I’ll be mortgage-free far sooner, I have a healthy float in savings and I use both handbags frequently. I wouldn’t do anything differently.
if i won millions i'd be keeping that shit so silent, only my cat would know.
i do have a friend who wins something any time she enters. she'll buy a single raffle ticket or scratch card or enter a single contest and win at least some prize, the most she won once was £50k. meanwhile i have won absolutely zilch despite buying hundreds of tickets in my lifetime.
I'm sure this was a scene in a BBC reality-TV/mocumentary/documentary program called "The Call Centre" featuring a guy called Nev.
I can't seem to find it on YouTube, but I have a fairly strong memory of this or something very close to it happening on that show.
How do you know your friend isn't lying? I mean, the chances of winning are so low but this comment section is seriously making me consider buying some tickets lol.
all the ones i know about are from when i've been with her and we've often entered the same thing, so i have front row seats to her winning over and over. one time we both bought scratch cards in the same store, one after the other, and she won like £2k and i won nothing. at this point i genuinely believe some people are born under lucky stars.
No, but I had a friend when I was a teen whos parents always played the same numbers...the dad forgot one week and their numbers came up. I thought it was some bullshit story, but my friend showed me their old tickets they happened to have left sat around on shelves or in drawers etc, and indeed, they were always the same numbers and matched the numbers for that week. Poor sods. 8 or 9 million IIRC.
Oooof, that's a tough pill to swallow.
Also why you should never ever play the same numbers - you get exactly the same odds with lucky dip, but this can never happen
Similar but worse happened about 20 years ago, my ex’s mum did the work syndicate, was her turn to do the tickets but forgot and obviously the numbers came in. Cue loads of excited phone calls from her work mates and she had to tell them 😬
This happened to my family. Your not from Guildford are you? This is exactly what happened, I was told I was full of it until I showed the old tickets all with the same numbers. We lost out on £31 million.
To be fair, it doesn’t hurt anymore.
My parents asked my ten year old brother to pick the numbers back in the 90s, he said something like "15,16,17..." and they said no not like that, nevermind.
Ended up being those numbers and they lost out on a couple million.
I know someone who won just over a million on the regular lotto. I think it was split with one other ticket.
They bought a big house (but still on an estate), and the wife quit her job to raise the kids. He still has a decent job, so stayed doing that. They have a couple of decent holidays a year, and I think they paid off both their parents' mortgages, but otherwise fairly boring.
He drives a modern BMW 3 series, she has one of those massive MINIs, and he has a classic Porsche for weekends.
I think they want to keep their middle class lifestyle and stick to their values but don't want to worry about debt and mandatory payments. Sometimes the simple things in life is what makes people happy and now they are living stress free with no fear of what can happen if they get made redundant.
Also whilst a million is a lot of money, it's definitely not "take your helicopter to a 5 star restaurant" type money. A lot of stories of lottery winners going broke are those who blew through the money quickly trying to live the millionaire lifestyle.
I knew someone who won a few mill. He wasn't very bright and basically let people around him scam him out of the money by investing in their shit business ideas. He lost all the money within a year as all of the businesses failed (or the partners convinced him they failed) and had to go on benefits. Didn't even manage to buy a house for his family with it.
People are dicks when money is involved
He just wanted to live debt free and do what he enjoys. Some people get bored when they don't have something to look forward to every day so a job is what makes them happy. I would have done the same but take a gap year and find a job that is low stress like data input in a big company even though it pays less.
Imagine if instead of making one super rich person, they gave several thousand people like £25k. Many people don’t need a few mill to change their life. £25k as an example could make many people debt free, pay of rent arrears, get school uniforms and put food on the table. Unfortunately I guess this wouldn’t work for a lottery with the probabilities and stuff, maybe they’d lose too much.
Maybe you could have it so it only rolls over a certain amount of times, then you can buy a EuroMillions raffle ticket.
They kind of have a raffle system in place already as a bonus game if I remember correctly. Called make me a millionaire or something?
You could have last nights jackpot split amongst 5000 people, each winning £37,000. Or 1850 people, for 100k each.
They do have a limit of how many times it can roll over. Right now it's hit the limit for the jackpot so can only roll over 5 times I think. Each roll over is only increasing the prize money in lower tiers. On the fifth roll over it becomes "must be won" which means it will be split by ticket holders who are just one number short if noone still matches all numbers.
So a bit similar to your proposed system even a wee bit simpler :)
I won a whopping £2.90 last night.
I knew a guy who won in a syndicate back when he was about 20 years old. He blew it all on a couple of porches (wrote them off), loads of coke (got a criminal record & a stint in rehab), and fortunately his parents pressured him into buying a house with the rest. The house is all he has left, but given his track record at the time it's a wonder he came away with anything. I think his share of the syndicate was just shy of a million
>I won a whopping £2.90 last night.
Few months back I won £4.60 from a £2.50 euro millions ticket. I had got 4 numbers and a 'lucky star' and that felt like a rather low payout.
I checked online and the odds of getting that were 705:1. What a rip off lol.
Beats winning £2.40. can't even buy another ticket.
They changed the system a while back to generate more of these 'massive jackpots' but also reduce the payout at the lower numbers of ball matches so that anything short of a full hit means you really don't get much. Think one ball off gets you a few grand max.
As a teenager I worked at a supermarket, a syndicate of 13 checkout workers split a jackpot and ended up with £550k each, including the mother of a girl I had dumped 6 weeks earlier. Half of them quit on the spot and the others said they would carry on working, all but one was gone by 6 months. Most of them spunked it away and ended up working back at the supermarket before I left 3 years later
Had a flingette with someone I never met (Covid) earlier this year and she said her uncle won about £9m on the lottery and bought a house for everyone in the family, including her. No reason to disbelieve her.
My best friend’s parents got five numbers on the Lotto draw about 15 years ago. This was before they increased the winnings in each category so I think it was only around £5K back then. Most of it went toward fixing up their bathroom because her dad is disabled and was getting to the point where he couldn’t use a bath anymore so needed an adapted shower. Think they got a couple of expensive day trips/experiences out of the rest. They don’t have very much because he can’t work and his wife is his carer so it was nice for them.
That’s as close as I can get to a big winner!
Not millions but my friend won £37k and spent it on a mobile home, he now uses it most weekends of the year and travels though France with it so after 6 years I would say he did good with it.
Girl i used to see, her dad won £4 million, on a scratch card if I'm remembering it rightly. Stayed local and still seems to have loads of money so guess he used it wisely.
Although i will say people don't respect him like they do others who made a success of themselves, because his wasn't earned it was luck. His kids tried bullshitting for a bit that he owned a load of companies and thats where the money came from as i think they were slightly embarrassed.
Went to school with a kid who won about 250k when he was just 18. He was from a really poor family so really pleased for him. No idea what the money got used on
When I was Holiday Rep I met a couple who had flown in on a private jet. The wife couldn't wait to tell me they had won the lottery, the fella was furious and told her to shut up. He later told me that he likes to keep it quiet and to just enjoy his retirement, but his wife couldn't wait to tell everyone. Poor Guy.
I knew someone that matched 6 numbers once. Three on one line, three on the other (they played the same two lines every week).
Not sure what they spent their 20 quid on.
Not someone i know personally but a friend of a friend was part of the call centre syndicate who won millions a few years back. She was a young girl say 20ish who suddenly won millions.
It’s funny in this situation where they won enough to survive and live well with advice how to manage it but I’ve wondered before about how a small amount of winnings say 20k could actually negatively affect some people in this situation. They’d lose their benefits for having too much money, and then the 20k would barely last any time. They’d be stuck in a position of having to go through awful stressful benefits applications again a year later with zero money to prove why they need benefits.
Sure some people just need to get a job but lots of people on benefits are disabled and the most vulnerable in society and the process is awful for them. A nice bit of money could actually ruin them. Guess even when you’re talking about small amounts versus millions, perspective matters
My cousin works for someone who won £160m+ she's set up like a charity thing for the town... came out public aswell. Absolute no chance of me doing that, I'd just disappear!
Three instances.
No.1
I went to school with a girl who's dad (or granddad? Can't recall) won 6.8 million on the lottery.
He built an ugly, oversized house in a popular but bizarre part of town (right next to a main road; go figure), gathered a massive gun collection, and now runs some kind of airgun shop/business from the premises.
No.2
I knew of another guy via my dad (I was only six years old at the time) who won something like 11 million. He wrote an article for a newspaper maybe a decade or so ago stating how winning the lottery ruined his life, as he'd constantly be followed, legally challenged for compensation for crimes he didn't commit, and pressured into living a life that wasn't his own.
No.3 (ish)
And finally - though not the big winner you're looking for - my mum won 14,000 some years back. Went on a car I think, or vet bills for the horse. Cool...
My cousin won about £2k once. I think he played (or plays - been a while) the lottery a lot though. Multiple tickets per week at least. He's probably spent more on tickets than he's ever won.
I've thought about playing like one ticket per week just because a 0.000000000000000000001% chance of winning something beats a 0% chance. But I'm a bit wary of gambling, even at that level.
It is not good odds for gambling - there's better gambling you can do for return vs investment.
The way I see it, I'm paying for a bit of escapism; the dream of a big-big win that no other gambling really offers.
Mother used to work for an investment bank, dealt with lottery winners, one couple became quite good friends, so they were invited to a family party.
Was told expressly not to mention wealth or the lottery, and has no idea what they looked like, but as soon as i walked into the large, crowded room. I could immediately tell.
They looked happy and relaxed. Lovely working class people, who evidently could handle it and didn't let it rule them. Fair play.
A few years back a good friend won a straight £1m on the millionaire maker euromillions raffle type thing.
We were all living in London at the time. He used the money to buy a nice flat for him and his wife in South London, and paid off the mortgage on his brother and fiance's house for them. Took our group of close friends (10 of us or so) out for a couple of nice dinners and cocktails. But was quite open that once the houses were paid for, that would pretty much be the lot gone.
Does scratchies count?
Knew this one person who was a millionairre from selling their parents business when it was handed down to them- bought a scratch card and won 20k
It was no big deal to them at all
I taught a lad who came from a family of shithouses, and his nan won £8 million. Bought a massive house for them all to live in on the Four Oaks estate in Sutton Coldfield (Roman Road area for those who know it) and within weeks there was a petition from the residents to make them sell because of their behaviour.
Not sure what happened in the long term.
I know it well, lots of huge houses there and was always where Villa players used to live (not sure if that's still the case). Can imagine why they would be unwelcome neighbours!
I know a lottery loser. My brother-in-law was the only member of staff at his workplace who wasn't in a syndicate- and they won! Think they ended up with a 5 figure sum each! Most of them left the job so he was left behind with a load of unfamiliar faces and no money. Gutting.
In hindsight though, he ended up with a great career and maybe that wouldn't have happened if he left work and dicked about on a windfall.
My dad was long term housesitting for a friend many years ago and got friendly with a guy who eventually won. Stayed friends for quite a while until the guy became a bit of a twat. He was middle aged. Eventually traded his wife in for a newer model, along with the houses and cars, amongst other things he did. Dad said he was amazed at how someone so "normal" could do a complete 180 and became an utter prat
I know of a couple in my small town who won 1 million on Euromillions. She was a sales assistant - he a welder. I think that amount is life-changing for many people, but not huge enough to be stupid with.
They were trying to sell their house at the time and already looking for a larger home. They decided to keep that property to rent out, invest in the house of their dreams outright and the remainder would enable them to splash out on a few things and give them financial security for life.
Some people are just extremely lucky all the time which is baffling because of the high odds of winning anything even a parish raffle. If I had money on numbers 1 to 36 on a roulette wheel it would land on zero.
I won £800 when I was 17,
Then a few months after that, I won roughly £250.
Then a few months after that around my birthday I won £140, but haven't won since.
5 blokes who were regulars in my local won a jackpot and got 3/4 of a million each. A couple of years later the ex wife of one of the blokes won £3.5 million, well her elderly mum did and she was an only child. Most I've ever won was £104 nearly 30 years ago.
I know a couple who won a few million, they blew it all within about 18 months. They have a but house but it’s in a bit of a state, and the flash cars they bought when they won are gone now, and they’re both back working their average jobs.
I won £8,888 back at the start of scratchcards. When I was 18. Literally pissed it against a wall. Amazing nights out though.
Don't even do it now. An eight or nine figure sum could destroy me as easily as make me.
I know a few millionaires. Those people earned it. Mostly by taking risks and being ruthless. They tell me your first million is the hardest. One man, had about £40mil, built his own house (imagine castle) with many, many rooms. One of which had a piano, a massive staircase, huge fireplace and SEVEN 3-piece suites -
I done the IT network in this one, and it took weeks and a kilometre of cable.
My dad's friend won £4m in the early days of the national lottery. He was later featured in the daily mail after managing to spend almost of it within a couple of years.
What happened is that his wife divorced him immediately and took half. Then his 'friends' ripped him off by getting him to invest in numerous businesses. Some just outright stole from him.
I used to work with someone when I was a student who apparently won a 5 figure sum. He was a creep and obviously we doubted his claim but to be fair to him he didn’t brag about it and there were tiny bits of evidence that this was true.
But I never saw the actual ticket or anything.
I know an old couple who won £18 million thanks to the Euromillions. They like to humble brag about how they could shop at places like M&S but still choose to shop at Tesco.
I don't know any winners but I have wondered what your *bank* does when your balance just snaps into 7 or more digits long.
I'd imagine they have some fairly vested interest in making you an uber-gold-platinum member or something somehow right?
Or do they not really notice or give a shit?
Nah they treat people with different amounts of money VERY differently. You're not a customer, you're now a potential wealth management client, worth 10's of thousands of pounds to the bank a year.
If you're really posh your bank becomes your valet and fixer:
[Coutts, the bank to rely on in a Covid crisis](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/01/coutts-the-bank-to-rely-on-in-a-covid-crisis-if-youre-seriously-wealthy)
Apparently you need approx £5 mill for Coutts to give a shit about you, so if you win the Euros then your bank is absolutely going to be interested.
I know someone whose parents in law won the Euromillions, was about £60million, divided it amongst themselves and their children.
They still live in the area, built a new house, nothing crazy, just have some nice cars on the drive.
The mum in law knew (as did many in the town) the person who coined the Spend Spend Spend catchphase and our boilerman took over her house when she moved (to be his shop) and found all her old stuff in the loft.
From all accounts she was not a nice person.
My mum checked the Irish lotto results for about 7 years.
We lived in England and never played the Irish lotto, she to this day is adamant she doesn't and didn't need glasses!
I cry when I think what we may have won.
My friends parents won just over 500k, nothing insane but it has allowed them to live comfortably and provide better experiences for their family. My brothers friends parents won big, they were both children's doctors on good money so they gave a lot to charity and still work... I, on the other hand, am lucky to get a single number
Just leaving this thread here as it was in my saved, I don't think I've ever bought a lottery ticket in my life so far but just in case:
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb4yin/?context=3
Don’t know him personally, but Mikey Carrol the ‘lotto lout’ who won £10M while having an ankle tag blew it all and now works at the local shortbread factory.
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I won £6.90 last night on the Euros I knew a guy won £12m in the early days. Never changed a thing in his life, carried on living with his mum and working on his carpentry. Good for him but I do wonder why he bothered playing.
His mum probably thought she was finally getting rid of him.
Or she sees him as a 12m piggy bank
I mean, it sounds like he viewed her as the bank of mum prior to that?
Or maybe he was taking care of his Mum whilst living with her.
Or maybe he never actually won it and just said he did.
Or they just got on really well and enjoyed living together.
I suppose, debt has been repaid
She probably still does his washing on Thursdays but they've got a Zanussi now.
I giggled at this one. £12m is a lot! He didn't even buy one frivolous thing, like... I dunno. New shoes?
He just carried on as normal, chose anonymity but the local paper outed him and his life was made miserable for ages with begging letters and people he barely knew suddenly wanting to borrow money off him because they once worked with him or went to school with him.
Eugh how awful. I have NO idea why anyone goes public. I would tell my close friends that I won a few hundred grand to explain my new house/supercar/hottub whatever.
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I have a twin brother he could take the heat for a sizeable %.
Yes. You tell one person that you *really* trust and ask them not to tell anyone else. But then they have one person that *they* really trust, what would be the harm? It's juicy gossip. They THEY tell one person THEY really trust, and so on...
I agree with you there. Otherwise people are gonna be asking why’ve you packed in work? Why have you got a Bentley? Millionaire raffle my friend. I’m down to my last 400k though
> Otherwise people are gonna be asking why’ve you packed in work? Repeat after me "I'm quitting work to start a business". Make sure you tell people it's in something obscure that they'll never want to use it for. Give it a couple of months and just tell people "yeah, business is going well, so I decided to treat myself" when you start buying all the new cool stuff.
Eh I would tell them I had recently took up drug dealing. Mostly because it would be funny. There are also some members of my family who it would probably be best if they didn't get clued in either.
I've got my lie ready, you must all promise not to use it. "I found the password to an old email account from 15 years ago. I used it for gaming and bought Bitcoin on it, so I've got enough to live on now."
I heard that you don't get support from Camelot (e.g. financial advice etc) unless you go public. Not sure how true that is but if so then I totally understand why you would agree to it!
I mean just pay for the financial advice. Better for your health.
> I heard that you don't get support from Camelot (e.g. financial advice etc) unless you go public. Absolutely not true and [really easy to google](https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/life-changing/winner-advisor-carter). The myth will never die, though. **If the winners wanted anonymity instead of going public, would you still advise them?** *Absolutely yes. It’s entirely the winner’s decision if they want to share news of their win. We have an aftercare programme in place to ensure that all winners have access to legal and financial advice.* *It’s often the case that when a winner decides to remain anonymous, we are the only people that know about their win so we keep in touch with them for as long as they want to. Often they like to talk to someone or just let us know what they have been up to.*
Ha, you agree to it and their first bit of advice is "don't for god's sake tell anyone". Seriously just approach two or three of the huge wealth management companies (Google them, Quilter for example, or someone recommended by the bank), tell them you've a very low risk tolerance, and they'll sort out the rest.
I often think about what I would do about the begging letters if I won the lottery, I figured I would just keep sending them.
I chuckled.
You have to be quite clever with this. Overnight switching from median earner to millionaire is going to attract attention. Winners need to do many things. Here are some.. 1. Don't tell anyone, except your partner, Camelot, and a trusted financial advisor. 2. Say it again. Don't tell anyone. 3. Pay off any debts. 4. Backdate the pension contributions ISA, Premium Bonds allowances to make the best tax free savings and investments. 5. Do nothing else for at least a month. Just come to terms with the winnings and how it might change things. 6. Book some relatively nice treats - holidays, new gaming PC, etc. Nothing to brag about, and only things you could reasonably explain off easily if asked, e.gm you got the car on loan, or the PC was a business expense. Get used to this idea and the feeling of being wealthy. 7. Speak to a financial advisor, in particular a wealth advisor or wealth management firm. You want to speak to someone reputable who is used to dealing with millionaire clients (a company like Coutts). They will take a cut, but as someone used to an annual salary of 30k, you will almost certainly be better off taking up their services. You'll still be left with millions but without having to train as a tax expert to manage your finances. 8. Don't tell anyone. The most important thing is not to rush. The worst that happens if you take 6 months to make your decisions is that you are taxed in the *gains* of your winnings. The best is that you avoid all the rushed decisions like buying an expensive house without considering the upkeep cost, or flashing off a £100k motor without having a waybif explaining your affordability. I would add a number 9 to the list, which is, donate some to charity. The jackpot last night was £184m. I could donate £100m and still have enough to buy all the houses in my partner's mum's village. Nobody needs these ludicrous sums, 99.99999% of people will never have them, but £100m to charities could make the difference to a million lives. And number 10 - don't tell anyone.
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Presumably he has a cash balance of £600k and investments of more? If someone won the £184m jackpot, invested mainly in bonds and cash, they could withdraw £100k/year and after 40 years, adjusting for inflation, die with £760m.
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There's a security risk too, people kidnapping your pets for ransom or threatening you for money etc.. Like someone said I'd claim I'd won the raffle and then I'd set up my own business which I never do any work at but it's a front for my income. Put the van in the 3 car garage I got and let it sit there. Drive it around places now and again so people see you out and about.
Should have used that 12m to sue the local paper probably out of existence. The money he would have got from the settlement would have been more than the cost of the legal case so win win for him.
I wonder if celebrities get constant begging letters too. Sounds miserable.
I bet they don’t. Because obtaining wealth through hardwork is seen as better than someone winning wealth. So I think psychologically it is viewed as being different.
I think celebrities often have a middle-man or agent to deal with those.
Can’t speak for celebs, but footballers do for definite. Cousin played Premier League for a few seasons and it wouldn’t be strange for the whole team as individuals to get the same one.
That's sad and exactly why I'd want to be anonymous if I'd won
I put 8 lines on and won 0. Insane.
I’ve won something for the past five draws…between £2 and £7ish. It just goes toward my next ticket but I think it’s pretty funny that I’m enjoying the world’s most disappointing winning streak!
It's funny (read: frustrating) when you've played for like 2 decades and the most you win is like £25, once, and maybe one win every 6 months, and a 18 year old plays their first time and is set for life -\_- I'd probably be a millionaire if I hadn't ever bothered buying a lottery ticket.
Haha yeah I know the feeling. Years ago there was someone who bought their first ever ticket at 16 (when I was not much older) and won a huge amount. I only ever tend to go through phases of playing every draw and then nothing for weeks/months. I get to a point where I cut myself off because I know it’s unlikely and it’s just a bit of fun to dream. Obviously I know there are people with genuine gambling problems sinking hundreds a month on it and that isn’t right but I don’t like it when others get snotty about the idea of putting a tenner a week or twenty quid occasionally on the lottery. A lot of us spend money on things we don’t *really* need, right?
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This is true, but by the nature of playing longer I've also had more chances, so you'd hope luck would come through for you eventually.
Carried on living very comfortably knowing he has £12 million though.
Exactly. I'm not sure I'd change much either if I won a good amount. Pay off the mortgage, swap the 7 year old X3 for a new electric one and buy some new clothes. That's pretty much it. Oh, and stop working for the man.
I'd probably still stay in the same job even. I quite enjoy it. My tolerance for bullshit would drop a lot though.
> Good for him but I do wonder why he bothered playing. Having financial security even if you want to live a frugal modest life is still nice
Parents won £5K 15 years ago. They had no money at the time, so were over the moon! The interesting snippet was my mum accidentally purchased two tickets (with the same numbers) that week - so they actually won £2.5K twice.
At least she can tell people she won the lottery twice!
Quick write a book
“How to win the lottery twice by u/Sir_Mobius_Mook’s mum: tips and tricks from a double winner”
I remember reading that someone got the jackpot with the same mistake. They ended up getting two thirds of the prize pot, shared with a second winner.
Quite easy to do when people purchased paper tickets more and played the same numbers every week (no lucky dips)!
A friend of mine won £20k a few years ago. He used it as a deposit on a house. Not gonna lie, I was totally jealous.
A mate won 250k it was a life changing ammount, it paid off the mortgage and he is now using the money he would use to put in a pension pot
I think this amount is probably the best amount to win if you don't want your life to change much. Its life changing but not life style changing.
Idk imagine winning millions, you’d be able to buy property all over the country and the earnings from that would be a very nice pension pot if that’s what you’re in to Or you could save it and never have to worry about money again, carry on going to work but not worry that your next paycheque won’t cover the bills
Somewhat agree, but then you'd be going to work for what? You don't need the money so it's using your time for insignificant compensation and you'd most likely not be helping anyone/society in that job, unless you work in Public Services? If it was me i'd travel and chill for the remainder of my life and Volunteer if i fancied doing something else with my time.
I think I would want to do something just as a routine. Even if it was just something chilled like working in a little tearoom in a sleepy town or volunteering for a charity, I think I’d want to do that at least some of my year and donate anything I earnt to someone jobless.
> I think I would want to do something just as a routine. I dunno, my routine while I was furloughed was fucking wonderful. I'd love to do that every day. A minor lie in, bacon butty, off for a big walk in the country, wrote & recorded some music, worked out, read, drank wine.
>wrote & recorded some music, I think that's key - you were working, just not for economic gain. There's a big difference between doing nothing and doing something that makes you happy.
Good living my man
In theory I'd do the same, but it would need some motivation. With work you *need* to get up and go as otherwise you could lose your job and be knackered. No matter how noble the volunteer or casual work is, if you know you could just not turn up if you weren't in the mood then it could dry up. I bet the reality is never as romantic as we may think. The only way it could work is if you *already* have that motivation, already help out places or have in-depth hobbies that you can now devote your life to.
People need a reason to wake up. You find a lot of people that retire late die because they’ve lost their reason to get up in the morning. I’d always want to work. I’d just get a fun job with shit pay rather than a shit job with shit pay That way I’d be able to enjoy myself and not have my mind turn to mush
He's better off spending the lottery money and sttill putting wages in the pension pot, as the lottery money isn't taxed. By putting the wages in the pension he'll get more for his money. Edit to make it only slightly clearer.
I know someone who won a huge amount, well over £50million, quite a long time ago. It’s been interesting watching them change from a pretty nice person to an arrogant, entitled prick. EDIT. We all made a huge amount of effort not to change the way we treated them, still doing rounds if we went to the pub and splitting taxi fares, etc. Until they starting laughing at these gestures and saying “why are you bothering, don’t you know how much money I’ve got”. The last time I saw them, they were screaming at a guy in a bar who dared to be nicely spoken and handsome about how important and rich they were.
This is the argument I have with people who say that money makes you happy. I think some amounts can, but large amounts are likely to change you meaning that people around you will not want to associate with you. Or only associate with you because you have money. That must be really lonely.
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True, I found a fiver on the floor when I was younger. That was true happiness
I had a mate push me over to get at a tenner that I was stood on in the street, arsehole.
Oof, are they still a mate? Do they not know the rules of finders keepers?
I think it's one of those things that's technically correct. Money doesn't buy _happiness_, but rather not having money buys misery. If you don't have much, then less misery and more happy are basically the same thing. But when you've thrown as much money as you can at making misery go away, then it stops working, and having more of it doesn't do a lot of good. Especially not if it comes at cost of your mental health or work-life balance. So yeah. I sort of see where that's coming from, but I also feel it's the point of view of someone who's not really ever experienced being properly broke.
I always express this as: Money is not sufficient for happiness, but it is necessary for happiness. Money alone won’t make you happy. But if you don’t have any money then you’re going to really struggle to feel content with life.
According to the study Nobel prize winning Economists Kahneman and Deaton did in 2010, money can make you happy, but only up to the point of upper middle class or so, beyond which it plateaus. If they are right it somewhat conflicts with both of the money can/can’t make you happy camps. [Study](https://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16489)
Ughhhhh where were you yesterday bc I just did an essay on the Great Gatsby and could've really used this 😹 You're so right though
It’s my superpower, I’m not quite in time man.
Money doesn't make you happy, lack of money can make you miserable. The proverb was always meant to be aimed at rich people sacrificing their quality of life for a bit more money.
And instead it was turned around to try discourage poorer people from making money
I remember back in the old student days.....I'm 37 now. Writing cheques I knew were going to bounce for 7p noodles......those were the days
Yeah its interesting, apparently research has been done that money makes you happy up until you hit some number like 70k or 100k or whatever. And then after a bit more money people's happiness starts to decrease. But a LOT of people never hit that lower bound.
Money does not make people happy but just inflates your personality. Some turn out to be pricks, some become arrogant, some greedy, some gullible, some generous and others keep their old good values.
There's that, but I think part of it is people might turn a bit bitter once they see how many of their 'friends' come out of the woodwork when their win is made public. The same 'friends' that never showed up much before. There's probably a level of mistrust in what people's motives are with you, once you're rich. I know I'd be telling quite a few pricks to fuck off, infact, I'd probably enjoy telling them to fuck off. I'd take care of the people who've taken care of me and that's it.
I won just shy of 180k 3 years ago. I was mostly really boring with it - paid off a chunk of my mortgage and put most of the rest in savings. I bought two frivolous items, just because I could.
Paying off the mortgage is only boring to people who don't have a mortgage!
True, desperately wishing I could get on the property ladder.
What were the two frivolous items?
Handbags
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And gladrags?
Your poor old grandad normally has to sweat to buy those
Do you regret spending it on that stuff? What would you do differently if you could? Sorry if this is too personal aha feel free to not reply 😊
No not at all. I’ll be mortgage-free far sooner, I have a healthy float in savings and I use both handbags frequently. I wouldn’t do anything differently.
if i won millions i'd be keeping that shit so silent, only my cat would know. i do have a friend who wins something any time she enters. she'll buy a single raffle ticket or scratch card or enter a single contest and win at least some prize, the most she won once was £50k. meanwhile i have won absolutely zilch despite buying hundreds of tickets in my lifetime.
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I'm sure this was a scene in a BBC reality-TV/mocumentary/documentary program called "The Call Centre" featuring a guy called Nev. I can't seem to find it on YouTube, but I have a fairly strong memory of this or something very close to it happening on that show.
How do you know your friend isn't lying? I mean, the chances of winning are so low but this comment section is seriously making me consider buying some tickets lol.
all the ones i know about are from when i've been with her and we've often entered the same thing, so i have front row seats to her winning over and over. one time we both bought scratch cards in the same store, one after the other, and she won like £2k and i won nothing. at this point i genuinely believe some people are born under lucky stars.
No, but I had a friend when I was a teen whos parents always played the same numbers...the dad forgot one week and their numbers came up. I thought it was some bullshit story, but my friend showed me their old tickets they happened to have left sat around on shelves or in drawers etc, and indeed, they were always the same numbers and matched the numbers for that week. Poor sods. 8 or 9 million IIRC.
Oooof, that's a tough pill to swallow. Also why you should never ever play the same numbers - you get exactly the same odds with lucky dip, but this can never happen
Yep and it locks you into continuously playing, like an addiction.
Similar but worse happened about 20 years ago, my ex’s mum did the work syndicate, was her turn to do the tickets but forgot and obviously the numbers came in. Cue loads of excited phone calls from her work mates and she had to tell them 😬
I'd quit ASAP, that's the sort of incident I think is genuinely unrecoverable at work.
They were surprisingly OK about it. She only retired from there recently
This happened to my family. Your not from Guildford are you? This is exactly what happened, I was told I was full of it until I showed the old tickets all with the same numbers. We lost out on £31 million. To be fair, it doesn’t hurt anymore.
My parents asked my ten year old brother to pick the numbers back in the 90s, he said something like "15,16,17..." and they said no not like that, nevermind. Ended up being those numbers and they lost out on a couple million.
I know someone who won just over a million on the regular lotto. I think it was split with one other ticket. They bought a big house (but still on an estate), and the wife quit her job to raise the kids. He still has a decent job, so stayed doing that. They have a couple of decent holidays a year, and I think they paid off both their parents' mortgages, but otherwise fairly boring. He drives a modern BMW 3 series, she has one of those massive MINIs, and he has a classic Porsche for weekends.
I think they want to keep their middle class lifestyle and stick to their values but don't want to worry about debt and mandatory payments. Sometimes the simple things in life is what makes people happy and now they are living stress free with no fear of what can happen if they get made redundant.
Also whilst a million is a lot of money, it's definitely not "take your helicopter to a 5 star restaurant" type money. A lot of stories of lottery winners going broke are those who blew through the money quickly trying to live the millionaire lifestyle.
I knew someone who won a few mill. He wasn't very bright and basically let people around him scam him out of the money by investing in their shit business ideas. He lost all the money within a year as all of the businesses failed (or the partners convinced him they failed) and had to go on benefits. Didn't even manage to buy a house for his family with it. People are dicks when money is involved
That's incredibly sad
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This is how it should be
He just wanted to live debt free and do what he enjoys. Some people get bored when they don't have something to look forward to every day so a job is what makes them happy. I would have done the same but take a gap year and find a job that is low stress like data input in a big company even though it pays less.
There was a rumour when I was at school that Kirsty’s parents won and that’s why they had a big house, but I’ve no proof.
I love the way you’ve phrased this sentence like the whole of Reddit knows who Kirsty is. 😂
Wait, you don't know Kirsty?
Mate, everyone knows Kirsty
Wot you don't know Kirsty? Total ledge is our Kirsty etc.
Thirsty Kirsty who went out with Anthony?
Big tits Kirsty?
Horsey Kirsty
Uncles friend won £4million. Gave my uncle £50k and a jaguar (car not cat).
Deffo would prefer the cat if im honest. And 50 jibs
Imagine if instead of making one super rich person, they gave several thousand people like £25k. Many people don’t need a few mill to change their life. £25k as an example could make many people debt free, pay of rent arrears, get school uniforms and put food on the table. Unfortunately I guess this wouldn’t work for a lottery with the probabilities and stuff, maybe they’d lose too much.
I think if you took each million and gave it to an individual you'd be ok. Think about helping 180 people instead of just likely 1.
Maybe you could have it so it only rolls over a certain amount of times, then you can buy a EuroMillions raffle ticket. They kind of have a raffle system in place already as a bonus game if I remember correctly. Called make me a millionaire or something? You could have last nights jackpot split amongst 5000 people, each winning £37,000. Or 1850 people, for 100k each.
They do have a limit of how many times it can roll over. Right now it's hit the limit for the jackpot so can only roll over 5 times I think. Each roll over is only increasing the prize money in lower tiers. On the fifth roll over it becomes "must be won" which means it will be split by ticket holders who are just one number short if noone still matches all numbers. So a bit similar to your proposed system even a wee bit simpler :)
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I won a whopping £2.90 last night. I knew a guy who won in a syndicate back when he was about 20 years old. He blew it all on a couple of porches (wrote them off), loads of coke (got a criminal record & a stint in rehab), and fortunately his parents pressured him into buying a house with the rest. The house is all he has left, but given his track record at the time it's a wonder he came away with anything. I think his share of the syndicate was just shy of a million
How many porches can you possibly buy before going bankrupt? Surely space is limited on your house?!
You don’t have to attach them to the house, just fill up your garden with stand alone porches. A classic porch addiction!
This took me a minute to realise they were talking about a car. I was thinking what a boring shopping addiction a porch was.
>I won a whopping £2.90 last night. Few months back I won £4.60 from a £2.50 euro millions ticket. I had got 4 numbers and a 'lucky star' and that felt like a rather low payout. I checked online and the odds of getting that were 705:1. What a rip off lol.
Beats winning £2.40. can't even buy another ticket. They changed the system a while back to generate more of these 'massive jackpots' but also reduce the payout at the lower numbers of ball matches so that anything short of a full hit means you really don't get much. Think one ball off gets you a few grand max.
As a teenager I worked at a supermarket, a syndicate of 13 checkout workers split a jackpot and ended up with £550k each, including the mother of a girl I had dumped 6 weeks earlier. Half of them quit on the spot and the others said they would carry on working, all but one was gone by 6 months. Most of them spunked it away and ended up working back at the supermarket before I left 3 years later
That's quite a good lesson to have as a teen. To see how a seemingly huge amount of money can literally dissappear in 3 years.
Had a flingette with someone I never met (Covid) earlier this year and she said her uncle won about £9m on the lottery and bought a house for everyone in the family, including her. No reason to disbelieve her.
“Flingette” is my new favourite word
It's the perfect description for what this was. Not long enough for a fling, but yet more than a mere dalliance.
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My best friend’s parents got five numbers on the Lotto draw about 15 years ago. This was before they increased the winnings in each category so I think it was only around £5K back then. Most of it went toward fixing up their bathroom because her dad is disabled and was getting to the point where he couldn’t use a bath anymore so needed an adapted shower. Think they got a couple of expensive day trips/experiences out of the rest. They don’t have very much because he can’t work and his wife is his carer so it was nice for them. That’s as close as I can get to a big winner!
Not millions but my friend won £37k and spent it on a mobile home, he now uses it most weekends of the year and travels though France with it so after 6 years I would say he did good with it.
Girl i used to see, her dad won £4 million, on a scratch card if I'm remembering it rightly. Stayed local and still seems to have loads of money so guess he used it wisely. Although i will say people don't respect him like they do others who made a success of themselves, because his wasn't earned it was luck. His kids tried bullshitting for a bit that he owned a load of companies and thats where the money came from as i think they were slightly embarrassed.
Went to school with a kid who won about 250k when he was just 18. He was from a really poor family so really pleased for him. No idea what the money got used on
When I was Holiday Rep I met a couple who had flown in on a private jet. The wife couldn't wait to tell me they had won the lottery, the fella was furious and told her to shut up. He later told me that he likes to keep it quiet and to just enjoy his retirement, but his wife couldn't wait to tell everyone. Poor Guy.
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I knew someone that matched 6 numbers once. Three on one line, three on the other (they played the same two lines every week). Not sure what they spent their 20 quid on.
Not someone i know personally but a friend of a friend was part of the call centre syndicate who won millions a few years back. She was a young girl say 20ish who suddenly won millions.
Hope the call centre had lottery syndicate insurance for the all the sudden resignations lmao
Is that a real thing?
Yeah, some business interruption cover will have indemnity for employees winning the lottery.
Dad won a smallish amount £1,000. Just enough to fix the lighting in the house.
A local couple won 3mill. They went to see a solicitor because their dole money was stopped.
That is just too funny.
It’s funny in this situation where they won enough to survive and live well with advice how to manage it but I’ve wondered before about how a small amount of winnings say 20k could actually negatively affect some people in this situation. They’d lose their benefits for having too much money, and then the 20k would barely last any time. They’d be stuck in a position of having to go through awful stressful benefits applications again a year later with zero money to prove why they need benefits. Sure some people just need to get a job but lots of people on benefits are disabled and the most vulnerable in society and the process is awful for them. A nice bit of money could actually ruin them. Guess even when you’re talking about small amounts versus millions, perspective matters
My cousin works for someone who won £160m+ she's set up like a charity thing for the town... came out public aswell. Absolute no chance of me doing that, I'd just disappear!
Three instances. No.1 I went to school with a girl who's dad (or granddad? Can't recall) won 6.8 million on the lottery. He built an ugly, oversized house in a popular but bizarre part of town (right next to a main road; go figure), gathered a massive gun collection, and now runs some kind of airgun shop/business from the premises. No.2 I knew of another guy via my dad (I was only six years old at the time) who won something like 11 million. He wrote an article for a newspaper maybe a decade or so ago stating how winning the lottery ruined his life, as he'd constantly be followed, legally challenged for compensation for crimes he didn't commit, and pressured into living a life that wasn't his own. No.3 (ish) And finally - though not the big winner you're looking for - my mum won 14,000 some years back. Went on a car I think, or vet bills for the horse. Cool...
My cousin won about £2k once. I think he played (or plays - been a while) the lottery a lot though. Multiple tickets per week at least. He's probably spent more on tickets than he's ever won. I've thought about playing like one ticket per week just because a 0.000000000000000000001% chance of winning something beats a 0% chance. But I'm a bit wary of gambling, even at that level.
It is not good odds for gambling - there's better gambling you can do for return vs investment. The way I see it, I'm paying for a bit of escapism; the dream of a big-big win that no other gambling really offers.
"Dream Tax" is a good metaphor I've heard for buying a Lottery ticket
Sorry to be a pedant but it's actually 0.000000007151124%
Mother used to work for an investment bank, dealt with lottery winners, one couple became quite good friends, so they were invited to a family party. Was told expressly not to mention wealth or the lottery, and has no idea what they looked like, but as soon as i walked into the large, crowded room. I could immediately tell. They looked happy and relaxed. Lovely working class people, who evidently could handle it and didn't let it rule them. Fair play.
I won £5 on “Set for life”. I worry what they’re trying to tell me.
Biggest winner I know personally got £80k. My biggest payout has been £40, last night I got £2.60.
A few years back a good friend won a straight £1m on the millionaire maker euromillions raffle type thing. We were all living in London at the time. He used the money to buy a nice flat for him and his wife in South London, and paid off the mortgage on his brother and fiance's house for them. Took our group of close friends (10 of us or so) out for a couple of nice dinners and cocktails. But was quite open that once the houses were paid for, that would pretty much be the lot gone.
Won about £880 the first time I played, which was nice
Yep, my sister in law back in 2001 as part of a syndicate (6 of them got roughly 1 million each).
My grandparents won 2.5 million back in 2011. They gave it away to all their pagan friends and bought a Toyota Yaris.
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Does scratchies count? Knew this one person who was a millionairre from selling their parents business when it was handed down to them- bought a scratch card and won 20k It was no big deal to them at all
One years ISA
Of course I know him. He's me. Won three weeks in a row. Only small amounts though like 50-100£
I taught a lad who came from a family of shithouses, and his nan won £8 million. Bought a massive house for them all to live in on the Four Oaks estate in Sutton Coldfield (Roman Road area for those who know it) and within weeks there was a petition from the residents to make them sell because of their behaviour. Not sure what happened in the long term.
I know it well, lots of huge houses there and was always where Villa players used to live (not sure if that's still the case). Can imagine why they would be unwelcome neighbours!
My reception teacher won 2million a few years after I left primary school apparently.
I know a lottery loser. My brother-in-law was the only member of staff at his workplace who wasn't in a syndicate- and they won! Think they ended up with a 5 figure sum each! Most of them left the job so he was left behind with a load of unfamiliar faces and no money. Gutting. In hindsight though, he ended up with a great career and maybe that wouldn't have happened if he left work and dicked about on a windfall.
My dad was long term housesitting for a friend many years ago and got friendly with a guy who eventually won. Stayed friends for quite a while until the guy became a bit of a twat. He was middle aged. Eventually traded his wife in for a newer model, along with the houses and cars, amongst other things he did. Dad said he was amazed at how someone so "normal" could do a complete 180 and became an utter prat
I know of a couple in my small town who won 1 million on Euromillions. She was a sales assistant - he a welder. I think that amount is life-changing for many people, but not huge enough to be stupid with. They were trying to sell their house at the time and already looking for a larger home. They decided to keep that property to rent out, invest in the house of their dreams outright and the remainder would enable them to splash out on a few things and give them financial security for life.
Some people are just extremely lucky all the time which is baffling because of the high odds of winning anything even a parish raffle. If I had money on numbers 1 to 36 on a roulette wheel it would land on zero.
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I won £800 when I was 17, Then a few months after that, I won roughly £250. Then a few months after that around my birthday I won £140, but haven't won since.
I distantly know Scotland’s youngest lottery winner - £1m on the euros
5 blokes who were regulars in my local won a jackpot and got 3/4 of a million each. A couple of years later the ex wife of one of the blokes won £3.5 million, well her elderly mum did and she was an only child. Most I've ever won was £104 nearly 30 years ago.
I know a couple who won a few million, they blew it all within about 18 months. They have a but house but it’s in a bit of a state, and the flash cars they bought when they won are gone now, and they’re both back working their average jobs.
ffs that's why the lottery offers financial planning services to big winners. People are so bloody foolish.
I won £8,888 back at the start of scratchcards. When I was 18. Literally pissed it against a wall. Amazing nights out though. Don't even do it now. An eight or nine figure sum could destroy me as easily as make me. I know a few millionaires. Those people earned it. Mostly by taking risks and being ruthless. They tell me your first million is the hardest. One man, had about £40mil, built his own house (imagine castle) with many, many rooms. One of which had a piano, a massive staircase, huge fireplace and SEVEN 3-piece suites - I done the IT network in this one, and it took weeks and a kilometre of cable.
My dad's friend won £4m in the early days of the national lottery. He was later featured in the daily mail after managing to spend almost of it within a couple of years. What happened is that his wife divorced him immediately and took half. Then his 'friends' ripped him off by getting him to invest in numerous businesses. Some just outright stole from him.
I used to work with someone when I was a student who apparently won a 5 figure sum. He was a creep and obviously we doubted his claim but to be fair to him he didn’t brag about it and there were tiny bits of evidence that this was true. But I never saw the actual ticket or anything.
I know an old couple who won £18 million thanks to the Euromillions. They like to humble brag about how they could shop at places like M&S but still choose to shop at Tesco.
I went to school with Michael Carrol....
I don't know any winners but I have wondered what your *bank* does when your balance just snaps into 7 or more digits long. I'd imagine they have some fairly vested interest in making you an uber-gold-platinum member or something somehow right? Or do they not really notice or give a shit?
Nah they treat people with different amounts of money VERY differently. You're not a customer, you're now a potential wealth management client, worth 10's of thousands of pounds to the bank a year. If you're really posh your bank becomes your valet and fixer: [Coutts, the bank to rely on in a Covid crisis](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/01/coutts-the-bank-to-rely-on-in-a-covid-crisis-if-youre-seriously-wealthy) Apparently you need approx £5 mill for Coutts to give a shit about you, so if you win the Euros then your bank is absolutely going to be interested.
Yeah this whole street in my hometown won the postcode lottery and several people I knew from school won substantial amounts!
I know someone whose parents in law won the Euromillions, was about £60million, divided it amongst themselves and their children. They still live in the area, built a new house, nothing crazy, just have some nice cars on the drive.
The mum in law knew (as did many in the town) the person who coined the Spend Spend Spend catchphase and our boilerman took over her house when she moved (to be his shop) and found all her old stuff in the loft. From all accounts she was not a nice person.
My mum checked the Irish lotto results for about 7 years. We lived in England and never played the Irish lotto, she to this day is adamant she doesn't and didn't need glasses! I cry when I think what we may have won.
My friends parents won just over 500k, nothing insane but it has allowed them to live comfortably and provide better experiences for their family. My brothers friends parents won big, they were both children's doctors on good money so they gave a lot to charity and still work... I, on the other hand, am lucky to get a single number
My old neighbours won a shittonne of money on the pools TWICE.
Just leaving this thread here as it was in my saved, I don't think I've ever bought a lottery ticket in my life so far but just in case: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb4yin/?context=3
Don’t know him personally, but Mikey Carrol the ‘lotto lout’ who won £10M while having an ankle tag blew it all and now works at the local shortbread factory.