Some big lottery winners wish they had never won the jackpot

Millions of people play the lottery hoping to win big. Many who have won jackpots wished they hadn't. They confessed that winning the lottery ruined their lives. They have shared how lots of money was a curse instead of a blessing for them. Some big Lottery Winners wish they had never won.

Lottery winners

In 1988, William Post III won a jackpot for $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery.

In just three months, he was in debt for $500,000. In the early 1990s, he filed for bankruptcy. By 2006, he was living on food stamps.

Evelyn Marie Adams, a New Jersey convenience store clerk won $3.9 million in the New Jersey Pick-6 lottery game in 1985. Soon after that, she won another $1.4 million. She lost a big sum of her winnings in Atlantic City casinos. By 2012, she had to work two jobs to pay to live in a New Jersey trailer park.

Andrew "Jack" Whittaker who was already a millionaire won a $315 million lottery jackpot on Christmas Day in 2002. He started drinking heavily. He was robbed several times and had more than 400 legal complaints against him including being sued for bounced checks.

Alex and Rhoda Toth were in financial trouble in 1990. They used all but $24 of their savings to buy lottery tickets, and they won $13 million. In just a few years, they filed for bankruptcy and in 2006 they were charged with tax fraud. Alex died at age 60 before standing trial, but Rhoda served two years in prison.

Billie Bob Harrell Jr. hit it big for $31 million in the Texas Lottery jackpot in 1997. The preacher gave a lot of it away. He bought new cars and houses for his family. The pressure of strangers asking him for money took a toll on him. Within two years, he committed suicide.

Janite Lee, a South Korean immigrant, hit the jackpot for $18 million in the Illinois Lottery in 1993. She lost $350,000 in casinos in just one year.

She filed for bankruptcy in 2001. By then, she had only $700 and was $2.5 million in debt.

In 1993, Suzanne Mullins hit the jackpot for $4.2 million in the Virginia Lottery. Five years later, she borrowed $200,000 from the lottery foundation and used her winnings as collateral. She was sued in 2004 for not paying back the loan.

One of the first things Denise Rossi did after winning $1.3 million in the California Lottery in 1996 was to divorce her husband without telling him she had won the jackpot. When Thomas Rossi found out, he sued her for violating the state asset-disclosure law. A judge ruled in the ex-husband's favor and ordered the ex-wife to turn over all her winnings to him, and she was left with nothing.

In 1998, Gerald Muswagon won $10 million in a Super 7 jackpot in Canada. In just seven years, he had spent it all on drinking and partying. He felt so embarrassed and ashamed that he hanged himself in 2005.

Michael Carroll won a $15 million jackpot in 2002. He quit his garbage truck driver job and spent his money on parties, hookers, cars, and drugs. In five years, he asked for his old job back.

What recipients do wrong

Joe Correnti, a senior vice president with a St. Louis investment firm reveals that winners lose their money so early because they don't plan how they are going to spend it. They rush out and make big purchases and neglect their daily cash needs. They think budgets are for people who have little money like they used to have and not for them now that they have more money.