Winning the lottery is the dream of many and to think that a stroke of luck will change your life, as well as make you forget about your financial worries, is something that only a few can live with.
But for a man from Virginia, taking millions of dollars was the beginning of his tragedy, because instead of happiness, his life was filled with unfortunate events, as if it were a curse.
The unfortunate man is Jack Whittaker, who won a record $315 million Powerball on Christmas night in 2002.
The then West Virginia businessman, who was 55 years old, opted for a single payment of $113,4 million and he became an instant celebrity because the news made all the spotlights fall on him and his family.
But the millions did not guarantee him happiness, on the contrary, they generated envy and that his family fell apart.
Four and a half years after winning the jackpot, Whittaker said he was sorry.
“Since I won the lottery, I think there is no control for greed,” he said in an interview with ABC News. “I think that if you have something, there is always someone else who wants it. I wish I had tore up that ticket”, he added.
In that time, many bad things happened to him, his wife left him and his granddaughter Brandi Bragg, who was to inherit his fortune, died at 17 years old.
The young woman, who had struggled with drug addiction, was found lying on a plastic tarp near her boyfriend’s house.
“ My granddaughter died because of money,” said Whittaker, whose daughter Ginger died of cancer in 2009.
As if that were not enough, thieves hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen from his vehicles and his home, he was also involved in legal battles and fell into drinking and gambling.
In 2002, the man told AP: “I have no friends (…) All the friends I have had, practically, have wanted to borrow money or something like that and, of course, once they ask you to borrow money, they no longer they can be friends”.