The Curse of the Lottery Examined

There is a phenomenon among the large mega millions lottery winners where their lives are often worse after they win the lottery, referred to as the Curse of the Lottery. There have been some documentaries made on it in more detail if you would like to see specific cases, but many times you see these people who win blow through an absurd amount of money in only a few years and end up friendless, depressed and poor after it is all said and done. In one case a man who blew through 110 million dollars in only a few years ended up committing suicide. Why does this happen and why do people think there is a curse of the lottery?

The big reason is believe it or not, most people playing the lottery are usually lower educated and looking for a ticket out of poverty. This actually flows over to gambling as well because the lottery is a form of gambling with very bad odds. Most people who avoid the lottery do so primarily because they know the statistics. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning the mega millions. Ill admit I actually play the lottery occasionally but not because I think im going to win, im paying for the daydream for that little bit of time before I lose. Maybe I look online at multimillion dollar homes, but im really just daydreaming.

The problem with many people who actually play the lottery is they think they are going to win and continue to play every day for a lifetime. Statistically even playing every day they would need thousands of lifetimes to have a decent shot at winning. If they end up winning, they often arent educated enough to realize how to move forward with the amount of money they won and will throw away that fortune. It is very similar to pro sports players who come from bad areas and never have the financial knowledge to suddenly deal with their massive income. It may look like a ton to them, but they dont realize that most people dont play very long and it has to last them a lifetime.

Lottery winners will start spending millions on multiple houses, give their friends a ton of money or if they dont people become jaded with them. People start coming out of the woodwork back into their lives only so they can try and mooch money off of them. It really makes things complicated if you dont know how to deal with it. On top of that most curse of the lottery people will ramp up their spending to insane levels. They dont realize that if they just sat back and invested the money they could live extremely comfortably off the interest. Instead they spend to levels that are insane for even the super wealthy.

Rich people often times become and stay rich because they dont spend a ton of money and have the financial responsibility that other lack. Dropping a ton of money into someone's hands over night without any prior knowledge of proper management could realistically end up destroying their lives. With no income and a fixed amount that has to last you a lifetime, including paying taxes and other penalties, you still cant afford to be irresponsible. After you lose it all you are going to realize that your life is in shambles and you have nowhere to go. I talk about the curse of the lottery, mostly because I think it relates to many in the crypto scene who are newly rich and eventually are going to throw it all away. I hope thats not the case, but it happens with everything.

-Calaber24p