This once-happy couple took home 1.8 million pounds in 2013. They dove head first into the luxury lifestyle, while also recording an album for Roger's band and opening

their own beauty salon.

The marriage fell apart after Roger was caught going behind Lara's back — he disappeared with their Porsche in the night. The last time anyone caught up with the now-separated

Griffiths, Lara was working as an employee at the salon she once owned with 7 pounds in her bank account.

Marva won $2 million playing her favorite game in Missouri. Unlike many people on this list, all she wanted to do was fix her house and put her

grandkids through college.

She was conned by an old friend of her daughter into giving her full access of the bank account; the con artist spent the vast majority of the post-tax winnings

on herself, leaving Marva with virtually nothing.

This little lady won $1.3 million in the California lottery.

There's nothing else positive to say about this one...

Denise immediately demanded a divorce from her husband of over 20 years — without telling him about her winning ticket. When he found out sometime after the split was official,

he sued.

The judge awarded Mr. Rossi not just half of the winnings, but every. single. cent. of what his wife initially took home.

Lou won $5 million back in 1981, which at the time was the largest win in history (quaint, huh?). He was a celebrity at the time and was quick to

embrace the luxury lifestyle. "I lived for the day," he quipped in a recent interview.

After his annual $120,000 checks stopped coming, Lou almost immediately went broke. Last anyone checked, he was living in a Florida mobile home on his $250 per week pension.

The best name on this list took home over $30 million in 1997. The Texan quit his job at Home Depot and gave generously to charities and his friends.

He gave a little too generously, it turns out. He was cleaned out of every cent he'd been paid in the first two years. After his wife left him, he

took his own life with a shotgun — 20 months after winning.

Willie had already been in and out of jail before he won $3 million back in 1989. Perfect tool for turning your life around, right?

In maybe the best case of the lottery not changing a life, Willie ruined his marriage, lost custody of his kids, then very quickly spent all of the money on

his crack cocaine addiction — and later the lawyers who couldn't get him off murder charges.

Lisa won a cool $1 million in Massachusetts. She put her son in a private school, took a few vacations, then dumped the rest into her dream seafood

restaurant.

Within four years, she shut down the restaurant and was behind on all her regular bills. She said of the experience, "It's been very depressing."

Mr. Carroll won about $15 million US (he's English) in 2002. He quit his job as a garbage man and lived the dream, buying huge houses, cars, and gold jewelry.

The money was gone in 10 years -- he had to file for unemployment checks until he could get a jobs working construction, in a slaughter house and, eventually, as

a garbage man once again.

She won $4.3 million in the Virginia lottery back in 1993; she opted for the annual payments, which is important because...

Back then, you couldn't take a lump sum payment from the lottery, so Mullins opted to take a loan from a company for a huge percentage of the total amount

she'd eventually be paid.

Seven years after she won, the rules changed and she was allowed to take all of her remaining money at once, which she did — but

then she skipped out on her loan. After a few years of legal trouble, Mullins ended up indebted to the loan company for over $150,000 which she no longer had.

The South Korean immigrant won $18 million in 1993 and, to the casual eye, seemed incredibly generous. She gave massively to charities and causes, including Bill Clinton's presidential campaign.

As you probably guessed, she gave a little too generously, reportedly enjoying the amount of social status it afforded her. She didn't stop spending until she had just $700 in

the bank -- and was $2.5 million in debt.

But at least this room she paid for at Washington University is still dedicated to her...?

Edwards had earned a colorful police record and was living in his parent's basement when he won $27 million in 2001. He called it, "a poor man's dream"

at the time.

After buying a mansion, about a dozen sports cars, around 200 medieval weapons and a private jet (points for style, at least), he blew through the money in just five

years and ended up living in a storage unit with the woman he married post-win (she was 19-years younger). He'd die in hospice care in debt at the age of

58.

One of, if not the youngest lotto winners ever, is Callie Rogers of England who took home the equivalent of $2.2 million dollars at the tender young age of 16.

It's probably not surprising that a 16-year old didn't handle wealth well -- the money mostly went to drugs and partying, and was virtually all gone in a few years.

She remained something of a tabloid darling, however, and claimed after going broke that she was happier than ever.

Who's greedy enough to believe they can win the lotto not once, but twice? One Mrs. Adams, who won in both '85 and '86 for a total over $5 million.

Unfortunately, Evelyn thought her luck would transfer to Atlantic City. The New Jersey-native blew the majority of the money in the casinos, sometimes in huge chunks at a time.

The couple was broke in 1990 when they won $13 million -- which, as we've seen, always works out fantastically.

They moved to Vegas and blew a huge chunk of their funds, then headed home to Florida to settle down — that's when court fees for a dozen things piled

on top of them and left them living in a trailer hooked up to a car battery for power. Alex would die while waiting to stand trial for tax evasion;

Rhonda got 2 years and a $1.5 million fine from the IRS.

Post took home about $16 million.

That's it. There's nothing else positive to write about this one.

Post is the probable record holder for fastest spending of lottery winnings ever: the cash was gone in less than three months. But the things he spent it on —

including his landlady strong-arming a third of his winnings, plus a private jet which he couldn't fly — pale in comparison to the fact that his brother hired a hitman

to kill him.

Urooj won a $1 million Powerball. Not nearly as massive as some others on this list, obviously, and his hopes were modest. He was going to infuse all the cash

into expanding his dry cleaning business.

Urooj died one day after getting his check.

Coincidence? The authorities thought so at first, but after insistence by a relative they gave it a second look -- turns out

he'd passed from cyanide poisoning.

The case was never solved, but fun fact: the check was cashed before he died, after which the funds went to his estate.

Ibi won over $5 million in the Canadian lottery. She was, in a way, selfless with the money, giving $2 million of it to her child.

Teensy little detail we left out: it was her illegitimate son who she'd never told her husband about — just like she didn't tell him about the lottery win itself.

And when Mr. Roncaioli did find out about all the deception, he murdered her.

This is actually a fun one:

Viv's husband won over 150,000 pounds back in 1961 -- the equivalent of about $3.5 million -- and Viv famously told the press she

was going to 'spend, spend, spend!'

No explanation of Viv's life post-lottery (technically they were betting on sports) could do better justice to her legacy than this one paragraph from her 2015 NYT obituary

(she died peacefully at age 79):

"Over the years, as was avidly reported, she owned an elegant home, a fleet of automobiles and wardrobes bursting with furs, shoes and haute

couture; divorced two husbands and outlived three more; battled alcoholism; attempted suicide; move to Malta to escape the tabloids; was deported from Malta after punching a policeman in a fit

of pique, which made the tabloids; was the subject of an autobiography... a BB television film and a West End musical, all titled "Spend, Spend, Spend"; made a second bonanza

from royalties and lost that, too; descended into bankruptcy and subsisted on a modest state pension; had a career as a timorous stripper; was featured on the cover of a

Smiths single, 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'; became a Jehovah's Witness; was disciplined at her nursing home for rambunctious behavior; and had remarkably few regrets."

The Canadian won $10 million back in 1998 and was quick to spread the wealth, buying lavish gifts from friends.

Unsurprisingly, he blew through all of his cash in 7 years — the partying got a bit out of control. He also had multiple run-ins with the law, one of

which was for sexually harassing his 19-year-old housekeeper a month after his wife died.

He spent the final months of his life working a minimum wage job to support his

six children. He hung himself in his parent's basement a year after going broke.

Any conversation about ill-fated lotto stories has to end with Jack Whittaker. He was already wealthy — he owned a construction company, yet lived humbly — when he won $312

million in 2002, the largest single payout in the game's history up until that point.

Jack would give massively to charities, mostly to churches and homeless shelters, which is all well and good. But he'd later in life tell reporters that he should have ripped

the ticket up -- here's why:

After doting on his teenage granddaughter Brandi to the tune of four cars and a $2000 per week allowance, she got heavy into drugs.

Her boyfriend would OD and die first; she'd pass within the year, found wrapped in plastic and stuffed in the back of a van.

Whittaker's car would be robbed multiple

times to the tune of nearly a million dollars cash. Which, yes, is absurd, until you know that he started spending most of his nights a local strip club that

relieved him of egregious amounts of cash on a regular basis. Eventually the manager would be accused of spiking his drinks to rip him off even more.

He'd face multiple

lawsuits from private citizens and casinos for bounced checks, and eventually be completely cleaned out by a ring of thieves who forged checks to empty his bank accounts.

Later on

his wife, Brandi's mom, would die in unexplained circumstances. And in 2016 Whittaker lost his fabulous house to a fire -- the home was uninsured.

*never goes near a

lotto ticket again*