Have you ever known anyone who's won a big prize in the lottery?

[Janejanejaneagain]

daydreaming...would love to hear stories!

Forgot to add the tenuous links to a couple of winners. Woman who worked in the same building won around £3m some years ago. I think her “D”P burned through quite a bit of it on expensive cars.

When we bought our last house the neighbours directly opposite won £3.3m. That would be over 20 years ago. They moved fairly soon after.

One of the Trainee Manager who worked for my DF won the Pools many years ago he bought a farm and went to agricultural college as that had always been his dream apparently.

A friend won 150k on 5 balls plus bonus, not long after it started. He bought his house, and the fact that he was mortgage-free allowed him to train as a nurse (a dream he hadn't been able to afford to do at the time). It changed his life. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person either.

Yes. An ex boyfriend…£6.5m.

statistically I don't think it would make much difference whether someone bought one ticket a week or whether they bought twenty

A friend only bought his first and only lottery ticket because the shop didn't have enough change.
He got in trouble with his wife for wasting £1. That night he won £1.7 million.
It was such good news for them as they couldn't afford to go and see their son in Australia.
Hadn't seen him in the flesh for over 8 years.
He was late 70 and they still live in the same small bungalow.

Yes. Kept most of the £1m win to herself. Moved and basically dumped her adult kids and grandchildren. Karma came for her in a devastating way.

I know someone who won about 150-200k. Fairly life changing for her as she was able to move into a much nicer house.

Close relative won a million. Spent it all on houses that sold for a loss, drugs, drinks and fast cars. Now divorced and penniless.

I know of someone who won £1million. He is already a multi millionaire. I'm only a bit jealous.

Yes our next door neighbour who was a strange guy very antisocial he won in the region of 300k on the lottery. Anyway he turned overnight into a friendly, helpful model neighbour inviting us for barbecues etc, He took a country of years off work got married went on loads of holidays. Anyway when he'd spent up and had to go back to work he reverted back to the antisocial miserable sod.

Yes my SIL and her DP (who was a complete waste of space) won the pools years ago. She didn’t have it long as her DP ran off with it. Worked out well as she met my BIL afterwards who was so much better for her.

A current colleague won many millions with her former partner. They did the usual splurges - cars, houses, holidays, and a fair amount of surgery for her. They blew it all quite quickly, split up and both had to go back to work.

That’s why I wouldn’t tell anyone and definitely wouldn’t out myself with expensive purchases.

Someone I worked with years ago at a casual job won about £100k. He came to work because he was in shock. Never saw him again after that.

A few years later, a colleague’s Mum won a couple of hundred thousand. Not a fortune in London but he was able to put a substantial deposit on a nice flat.

Someone I know (s customer where I work) won big on the Euro millions. And I mean really big - money beyond most peoples wildest, craziest dreams.

If you win really big, you have to leave the country asap.

Somewhere tax is lower and no 40% inheritance tax, and incoming wealth tax.
Good advice, even if we had a sensible government, which we don't.

In the early days of the lottery one of my night staff rang me on Monday morning to say she wouldn't be in for her Wednesday shift, in fact she wouldn't be back at all because she had won the lottery, £2.4 million. It was a bit hectic because the press immediately started ringing me to find out if it was our company she worked for, some were lovely, some were just awful and looking for dirt. We did some publicity with her including a slot on national lottery live with Dale Winton!😃.
This girl had not a spare penny to her name. She was allocated an advisor from National Lottery, she went to hire a car because she didn't have one, but her card was declined, after telling her advisor they made a phone call and said try your card again, it worked and she said that's when you know you have money. Last I heard, many years ago, she was helping with aid convoys to Romania

You sound like a fucking lovely person. We are one of the few countries where gambling winnings are free of tax. I wouldn't mind paying tax on my winnings at all and IHT would be fine for me, especially when I am so much better off than the majority of people through no hard work of my own.

That's what they all say but just you wait 😉

I don't know any lottery winners, but I know a few people who started a company and then sold them for like £20-£50m, plus another one who got a £15m bonus.
It's different as they were pretty well off already as the companies were quite successful, whereas most lottery winners start with very little.
But they typically bought a bigger house, then invested the rest. Pretty boring really. One guy plays Padel 5 hours a day and is happy as a pig in shit.

I knew someone that won the Pools back in the day

I’ve always oddly believed that I will win the Euromillions jackpot 🤷🏼‍♀️ I don’t know why. I do it online and win most weeks …usually just enough for the next week’s ticket. I feel almost obliged to keep playing it. I was never sure of the numbers or whether I ought to be doing a lucky dip … but the numbers came to me really oddly, on Christmas Eve a few years back and I’ve used them ever since. I once met a lady who’s Mother had a really strong sense that she was going to win the lottery on a particular day so insisted her daughter bring her to a shop that sold tickets. And she won! Enough to pay off her children’s mortgages & not have to worry about money for the rest of her days. I do know that if I win I won’t be telling anyone … I’m just going to spend the rest of my life performing anonymous and random acts of kindness 😊

Yes, two people. One friend and one relative, both of whom won in excess of a million. One invested most of it in property (much of it outwith the UK) and basically runs a holiday letting business, and the other sold her 3 bedroom house and bought a four bed just down the road, her husband retrained for a profession he’d always wanted to work in, and they invested the rest. They live happily on two part-time salaries and some of their investment interest.

I know a winner from the first lottery draw in 1983. Not the jackpot but a very nice pot.

The first lottery in the UK was November 1994. I remember it because we were at a 21st birthday and some people had put tickets inside the birthday cards.

I know someone who won £100,000 on a scratch card. He had a 12 month career break and put down a deposit on a house after renting for many years.

Big typo from me! Yes 1994 😏