Imagine you have won the lotto. Consider winning it twice now. Okay, now picture losing the millions you’d won in a matter of years and falling to your lowest point. awful, yes?
Stroke of luck, then tragedy
That’s exactly what happened to Evelyn Adams, a worker at a convenience shop in New Jersey.
Adams won the lottery for $3.9 million back in 1985, and then four months later, he won another $1.4 million prize.
The odds of winning the first jackpot were one in 3.2 million, while the odds of winning the second prize were one in 5.2 million, according to The Sun.
But due to a number of poor business decisions and a terrible gambling addiction, Adams ultimately lost all of her money and found herself living in a trailer park.
After winning her first jackpot, Adams used the reward money—which was given to her in $218,000 yearly payments—to pay off some debts and start a college fund for her daughter.
Adams increased her monthly lotto ticket total from $25 to $100 and used the money to buy a car for herself as well as gifts for her closest friends and family members.
The newspaper also claims that Adams felt as though she had lost her privacy and couldn’t go anyplace without being recognized after winning two prizes.
Adams’ family and friends were generally supportive of her newfound success, but some of them’resented’ her newfound fortune.
Adams decided against continuing with her ambitions to study music and instead used some of her money to purchase the convenience store where she had previously worked, though she later decided to put it up for sale.
She also loaned out a portion of her gains, the majority of which were never repaid.
Adams frequented the slot machines in Atlantic City casinos far too regularly, and by 2012, she had spent all of her money.
The lotto isn’t always what it’s made out to be, she said. I achieved the American dream, but I also lost it. The fall was really difficult. It is known as “rock bottom.”
“Everyone had their hand out. Everyone wanted my money. I never learned one simple word in English, ‘no,'” Adams continued.
“I wished I could start the process over again. I would know better by now.
I used to gamble a lot; I never lost a million dollars, but I did lose a lot of money.
“I made mistakes; some I regret, some I don’t,” she said in her conclusion. I am a human. Since I can no longer turn around, I must move forward, one step at a time.
Do you think it’s lucky?