They lost it all: lottery winners who couldn't handle their fortune

People can get a little crazy when they win the lottery and there have been plenty of cases where big winners have done something completely idiotic. 

Join us as we take a look at the wild stories of how some lottery winners managed to lose it all. Click on to see our list of six of the world's dumbest lottery winners, we saved the best for last.

Jose Antonio Cua-Toc was a 27-year-old illegal Guatemalan immigrant living in Houston when he attempted to claim his $750,000 lottery prize by having his employer, Erik Cervantes, retrieve his winnings for him. 

Photo by YouTube @Univision Noticias

Cua-Toc was afraid his immigration status would be revealed if he claimed his ticket, a situation Cervantes used to his advantage when he attempted to keep Cua-Toc’s ticket and money. Cua-Toc later sued Cervantes and won the case according to Macon Telegraph. 

While Cua-Toc may have won his case against Cervantes, the majority of his money was spent on court fees and taxes, and the illegal immigrant would get arrested for drunk driving in 2011 and was set to be deported to Guatemala according to Lottery Analyst. 

In 2018, Barb Reddick was very happy when she and her nephew Tyrone MacInnis won $1,222,639.00 in Nova Scotia’s Chase the Ace lottery. But Reddick’s mood turned sour on TV after she realized she would have to share the winnings with her nephew. 

Photo by YouTube @CBCNews

Angry over the splitting of their winnings, Reddick told Chase the Ace and her nephew that they would be “going to court” because she had bought the ticket. Reddick had indeed bought the ticket but the phone number attached was MacInnis’ according to a CBC News report. 

Reddick did take MacInnis and Chase the Ace to court and settled for an $850,000 amount while her nephew would get $350,000. "I'll never put anyone else's name on a ticket," Reddick told reporters. "Especially family. It hurt."

Denise Rossi won a jackpot of $1.3 million dollars in 1996 but decided that she didn’t want to share her stroke of luck with her husband, Thomas Rossi. So what did Denise do? She ended her 25-year marriage and kept her winnings a secret. 

Photo by Twitter @lotterycritic

Thomas Rossi later found out about his ex-wife’s lottery win according to the Los Angeles Times and sued Denise. Superior Court Judge Richard Denner viewed Denise’s betrayal as an act of fraud and ruled that Thomas was entitled to receive the full lottery winnings amount. 

Denise would later appeal Judge Denner’s ruling arguing that spousal battery had forced her to keep her winnings secret, but the appeals court rejected her claim. 

Evelyn Adams was the first person to ever win a major lottery twice, from which she collected a crisp $5.4 million dollars. Unfortunately for Evelyn, she had only won the lottery twice because of her major gambling problem according to The U.S. Sun. 

“By 2012, Adams had spent her winnings,” The U.S. Sun reported, “having lost her money to gambling in slot machines, Atlantic City casinos and a string of unsuccessful business deals.”

"Winning the lottery isn't always what it's cracked up to be," Evelyn told reporter Adriana Elguata. "I wish I had the chance to do it all over again," Evelyn added, "I was a big-time gambler.”

Gerald Muswagon’s story of triumph, addiction, and loss is a little more depressing than that of Evelyn Adams. 

Photo by Twitter @lotterycritic

Muswagon won $10 million dollars in Canada’s Super 7 jackpot in 1998 according to The Globe and Mail, but he would spend all of that on his alcohol addiction in just seven years. 

The former lottery winner later took his own life out of despair, proving once and for all that winning millions could easily ruin your life. 

Callie Rogers became Britain's youngest lottery winner when she won £1.87 million pounds in 2003 at age 16. Initially, Rogers seemed quite level-headed about her win and said she would “take some advice” and “not spend loads” according to the UK’s Daily Star. 

"I'm still going to shop in the same shops and do the same things," she told reporters at a press conference after her lottery win. But Rogers’ life would quickly spiral out of control shortly after receiving her winnings. 

“After she won the whopping sum,” the Daily Star reported, “she spent thousands on drug-fuelled parties, designer clothes, and plastic surgery, which included three boob jobs.”

“Callie suddenly found it hard to maintain friendships after people tried to befriend her to get a hold of some of her windfall,” the Daily star added.

Within a couple of years, all of Rogers’ lottery winnings were gone and years later she admitted to regretting how she handled the situation. 

"It was too much money for someone so young,” Rogers said during an interview on ITV’s This Morning. “Even if you say your life won't change, it does – and often not for the better,” a sentiment probably shared by the other four lottery winners on this list.