How to Lose $3 Million in Six Years

How to Lose $3 Million in Six Years
by Mike Krumboltz

Stop us if this sounds familiar: A very lucky person wins the lottery and expects life to change for the better, but instead, things go horribly wrong. It's a story as old as the hills, but each time it happens, it causes a huge commotion in Search. The latest "victim" of sudden wealth is a young woman from the U.K. who won millions of bucks several years ago, only to lose the vast majority of it shortly thereafter.

Callie Rogers was just 16 when she won a whopping $3 million in the lottery. Six years later, she reports that she blew untold sums on drugs, partying, exotic cars, and breast implants. A staggering $730,000 went to designer clothes alone, Ms. Rogers explains in an article from AOL. Says Rogers: "I honestly wish I'd never won the lottery money — and knowing what I know now I should have just given it all back to them." She's currently left with around $32,000.

In these trying economic times, Ms. Rogers will likely find little sympathy. Still, it's worth noting that she's hardly the first big winner who wished she'd never bought a ticket. There is such a thing as the lottery curse: As mentioned in a previous Buzz Log, there are numerous cases of lotto winners getting divorced due to stress and losing everything from poor investments. A few have even died at the hands of greedy relatives. A 2007 article from ABC will fill you in on a few more examples.

Knowing she's not the first jackpot winner to suffer hardship won't make her life any easier. But perhaps Ms. Rogers can take some comfort from the fact that there are others out there with eerily similar stories: They won big then lost big, and often wish they'd never even played.