Understand About Winning The Lottery

On 14 August 2010, Wilton House near Salisbury will be host to over one hundred sleek supercars. These examples of automotive engineering will be there at the invitation of the Earl of Pembroke and the organiser, Jay Broom. This is the second Supercar Day and is in aid of a local children’s charity.

Most of the members of the public who will come to see the exotic cars on the lawns will wistfully think about winning the lottery and buying similar vehicles for themselves. But do lottery winners really buy such vehicles?

Your experiences prior to a lottery win tend to colour your decisions after. Take Anthony Castro for example. He won $250 000 in the Idaho state lottery. Originally he lived in New York where he was shot in the head when 19 and left for Boise, Idaho, after the September 11 attacks. Initially he lived in a homeless shelter before finding a job, getting married, having children and then getting divorced. He observed, “After so much turmoil in my life, and the loss of my mother a year ago, this is truly a blessing for me. My dreams, everyone’s dreams, are coming true.” His decisions on how to spend the money are, perhaps not surprisingly, sensible: he has set up a trust fund for his daughter, donated money to his church and invested the rest.

Jennifer Southall of Newport, Gwent however decided to enjoy the experience. Winning £8 million on the British National Lottery, Ms Southall gave up her job as a cinema supervisor, is taking driving lessons before buying a “pretty red car,” will buy a holiday home abroad, is booking holidays abroad with her family and wants to buy a big house with a swimming pool to replace her council-owned home.

Initially the impact on Ms Southall was small. “When I went to have my ticket checked, Camelot gave me a bottle of champagne to help me celebrate, but I just went home and ordered a pizza. I still haven’t opened the champagne – I have never tasted real champagne in my life” she observed. She did go out on a shopping trip with her mother next day though and spent £1500.

The record European lottery winners, Nigel Page and Justine Laycock, were more deliberate with their £56 million winnings. Having bought a four million pound house in the country, they donated their four-bedroom house to Denise Kelso who had kept it clean for them over several years. Denise still cleans their new mansion too.

After fifteen years of the UK lottery draw, advice is readily available to new jackpot winners so they tend to be conservative with their spending choices. But they must have at least one extravagance they want to satisfy. One of the good things from playing the British National Lottery is it gives you the chance to think what you might do with the winnings. Should you be lucky enough to be at Wilton House on 14 August you might allow yourself a little dream. They do come true sometimes.

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How To Survive Winning The Lottery

On 12 February 2010 the top prize in the European lottery was £56 million and was paid out to Nigel Page and Justine Laycock of Gloucestershire. This represented the biggest ever lottery win in Britain. Skydiver Nigel told reporters “I’ve jumped out of a plane at 12000 feet but that’s nothing compared to how I’m feeling now!”

Winning the jackpot in the British National Lottery would seem to solve all problems. But is this really the case?

The top winner of the UK lottery draw one week in 1995 was Mark Gardiner. He took home £11 million and accepted the publicity that came with it. He then spent much of the money and loaned a large amount out. Subsequently he squabbled with family members and friends over money and lost touch with several of them. He summed his experience up by saying, “The trouble isn’t the money, it’s what the money brings along with it. It enabled me to get rid of a box of problems – but it just got replaced by a posher box of even bigger problems.”

The problem seems to be the overnight transition from struggling for money to wealth. Camelot, the organisers of the UK lottery draw, have prepared a support system for new winners. The person with the enviable job as winners’ advisor, Dot Renshaw, recently said that winners are now told to go off on holiday in order to come to terms with their good fortune. Rapid decisions are definitely discouraged. A panel of advisors such as lawyers and financial experts are recommended to the winners and a bank account suggested. Dealing with large sums of money is beyond many people so professional help is a great advantage.

Camelot also have staff available to answer any begging letters on behalf of winners. They also organise winners’ events where those in similar positions can discuss their experiences. Also previous winners are encouraged to talk to new winners.

As Mark Gardiner found, publicity is one of the biggest challenges experienced by UK lottery draw winners. For this reason they can now elect for anonymity and the Press Complaints Commission has drawn up rules to ensure this can take place.

Past experiences now mean British National Lottery winners are now better informed than before. This shows in polls run by the Ipsos Mori research company. It may have something to do with the characters of the people involved but 55% of lottery winners believe they are happier now than before they won the jackpot. Also it was found that nine out of ten married winners were still with their partner and nine our of ten also kept their friends.

The type of cars purchased by new winners is also interesting. Another poll showed that the top four preferred makes were Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Mini and Vauxhall. Range Rover and Porsche only came at sixth and eighth.

Since its inception sixteen years ago the UK lottery draw has created over 2300 millionaires. Now the winners get more help than before and this has made the experience a much happier one. Despite his disappointments even Mark Gardiner is happier now. He has fallen back in love with his first wife and they are to shortly remarry.

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