Paying off debts, going on vacation, quitting your job and spending time with the people and things you care most about can all be made a reality with the help of the lottery. Winning the lottery is a miracle for anyone with financial issues, but what about the players that don’t get a happy ending?
Winning so much money seems so attainable, especially with your lucky numbers at hand, but your chances of winning the lottery are slim to none. Realizing your odds is difficult for some to fully grasp, though.
“You should probably stay away from them,” freshman Ryan Glatz said. “You’re probably not going to win, barely any people do, and if you keep getting hooked, you’re just wasting money.”
This is particularly relevant to the case of Cinnamon Nicole of Cordova, TN. Nicole started a Go Fund Me page in hopes of acquiring funds to replace the money that she exhausted in hopes of securing the 1.6 billion jackpot.
“It’s fun to a point, until you start getting addicted to it,” senior Katie Johnson said.
The lottery is known to most as something that you might put a few dollars toward with the notion of “I can’t win if I don’t try.” However, within seven years, 70 percent of lottery winners end up losing their fortunes according to a study done by the National Endowment for Financial Education. A combination of financial inexperience and a leniency with money won and not earned are the leading influences. When a person does win the lottery, they might be surprised by the burden they have inherited.
“I’d be really happy at first, but then I’d get scared and nervous because you have all this money you don’t know what to do with,” Johnson said.
Having a financially secure future does help make for a more enjoyable life for winners that know how to steer their money in the right direction. Even participating in the lottery is better than dealing with other forms of betting and gambling.
“To a point money can’t really give you happiness,” Johnson said. “You just have to make it on your own.”