News and opinion writer
Mansions, luxury cars, and beach vacations are what most people fantasize about buying with a big lottery jackpot. However, some winner's wildest dreams go far beyond the obvious, and they've tried to fulfill their most outlandish fantasies with their millions.
While some of these winners lost their fortunes chasing their dreams, others found even more success when they said goodbye to their nine-to-five life and embraced their passions.
These are the craziest purchases made by lottery winners.
Wrestling for love
From The Bachelor to Love is Blind, Americans love reality dating shows. Lottery winner Jonathan Vargas loved them so much that he decided to star in his own.
Vargas was just nineteen and living at home in 2008 when he won a $35 million Powerball jackpot. While there are so many things that a teenager could imagine spending his millions on, Vargas had his eyes set on a very specific prize: fame and female wrestlers.
The South Carolina resident decided to spend a chunk of his winnings producing a reality television show called Wrestlicous Takedown, which combined Vargas's two passions in life, female wrestling and female attention.
The show featured twenty female wrestlers, including Draculetta, a vampire wrestler; Charli Kisses, a pop star wrestler; and White Magic, a VooDoo priestess. Each episode featured the women fighting in the ring and fighting for Vargas's attention, who went by the name JD Rich on the show.
Vargas was engaged when he filmed the show but claimed he wanted to “test his love” before settling down. He mentioned:
When I won this money, I never planned on getting married, ever. I was like, f*** that. Then I met Shana. I knew she was the one, we hit it off, and she's been with me ever since. At one point, I did wonder if she was with me for the money.
While the show was professionally produced and marketed to networks and cable channels, it only lasted one season.
If that description sounds just a little too unbelievable, episodes of the show can still be found on YouTube.
Party like a rock star
Roger and Lara Griffiths struck it big when they won $2 million, and while they made some of the purchases you'd expect, such as a new Porsche and a mansion, Roger had an even bigger dream that he wanted to pursue: becoming a rock star.
He had always fantasized about touring the world with his band, and even in the promo pictures he and Lara took with their big lottery check, he held a guitar over his head.
However, he worked as an IT manager in 2005 when he won the UK National Lottery and was far from the glamorous life of parties and sold-out arenas. With his new winnings in hand, he reunited with his old band and paid for a recording studio, producers and sound engineers to create the rock album he had always dreamed of recording.
He spent $30,000 recording the album but only sold 600 copies once it was released. While spending thirty grand for a failed album is hardly the most egregious use of the money we've ever heard of, it did reflect Roger and Lara's careless approach to spending.
Roger admits they would buy things without even asking the price, and Lara claims that at one time, they owned thirty cars and fifteen designer handbags that they believed could be investments. Their fortune really turned for the worse when their investments nose-dived during the 2008 global financial crisis.
Today, Roger and Lara are divorced, their fortune is gone, and they've each had to move back in with their parents.
Roger has since expressed regret about his careless spending, saying:
I had it all, but it's gone. I feel ashamed to say this, but I haven't been smart enough to make it work. I'm trying to keep the wolf from my door, but I'm running out of ideas. If it wasn't for my family helping me, I'd be in trouble.
On the other hand, Lara has expressed fewer regrets, telling reporters:
People kept saying I was stupid, pumped full of plastic surgery, and needed my kids taken away. But the fact is, I spent it wisely — and I had a great time.
Racing to the finish line
For some people, the best part of winning the lottery is the things they can buy, quitting their job and enjoying financial security. For others, the best part of winning is now they can afford to pursue their most fantastic dreams.
The latter was true for Joe Dennette, who bought 23 Mega Millions tickets a day after being laid off from his job as a home builder and won a $47.8 million jackpot from the May 1, 2009 drawing.
Dennette had a lifelong passion for auto racing, and now that he was a multi-millionaire, he decided he was ready to start his own racing group. He spent $3 million to launch his team on the Camping World Series Truck circuit, which is the top league for racing high-powered pickup trucks. His truck carried the number 23 to represent his winning lottery ticket.
He called his team Joe Dennette Motorsports (JDM), and he actually enjoyed some success on the circuit, with his drivers scoring several finishes in the top ten.
Dennette stated to the reporters:
With the equipment, the team, and the driver we're running, we can win races and contend for the championship this year. We're going for the top straight off. We're not in this just to make a name for ourselves; we're going for a victory. Kevin Harvick's equipment and the PME engines have always been good, and if you have awesome equipment, there's no reason you can't win.
While JDM raced independently for two years, in 2013, he merged with NTS Motorsports, and his drivers raced under the new name. While NTS Motorsports remained competitive on the Truck circuit, the team ran its final race in 2016, and Dennette retired from ownership.
Although he's no longer a team owner, Dennette says that he was able to hold onto most of his wealth by setting up various trusts and annuities before he became involved in motorsports. He still plays the lottery and says he now buys 123 tickets every week.
Go boom
We're used to reading about lottery winners who go all in on big luxury purchases. Still, Debbie Mather, who won over $6 million (GBP 4.7 million) from the UK National Lottery, decided she wanted to make a different kind of dream come true.
She always enjoyed watching fireworks displays as a child, so she invested $600,000 of her winnings into opening a fireworks factory. While she had no previous experience making fireworks, she turned her business into a success that is still running today. Mather even claims that she's now made more money selling fireworks than she has from winning the lottery.
While she still has to work hard to make her factory a success, she says the satisfaction of doing something she enjoys is worth it. She told reporters, “They say money can't buy you happiness, but it has certainly bought me contentment.”
Backyard wrecking yard
Michael Carroll might be the most famous of all the lottery winners who have lost their fortune. A former garbage man, he was known as the “Lotto Lout” when he won over $10 million in 2002 and promptly set about spending it as recklessly as possible.
From cars to jewelry to never-ending raucous parties, Carroll spent his money like he was afraid it might catch on fire. However, his most unusual purchase while he still had his millions was sponsoring demolition derbys in the backyard of his house.
Michael would buy old cars and then drunkenly smash them to pieces with his friends on the grounds of his country estate. When the night was over, they'd abandon the wrecked cars, and his once pristine home looked like a junkyard.
Unfortunately for Michael and the area's car dealers, he burned through his entire fortune in just a few years and has since had to take on odd jobs such as a wood hauler and delivery driver.
According to Michael, what upset him most wasn't losing millions but being banned from his favorite bars because of his bad behavior. He recalled:
My mugshot was behind every bar in the county, and even the places I'd behaved over the years in told me I was no longer welcome. Pubs I'd been going to since I was seven or eight years old closed their doors in my face.
To the moon!
While we're used to stories of lottery winners buying massive mansions with their winnings, British lottery winner David Copeland decided to go off the planet when looking for new land.
Copeland won $1.2 million (GBP 950,000) playing the UK National Lottery, and while he was sensible enough to save most of his money, he decided to make one genuinely bizarre purchase: land on the moon. While technically, no one owns the moon, he found a website that claimed it could sell him space on Earth's closest neighbor, and he purchased two acres on the lunar surface for around $150.
While such a purchase may make him sound loony, Copeland has been very careful with his money. After winning, he upgraded to a slightly larger house (on Earth) and saved most of the rest of his money. Today, he still works as a private driver for wealthy clients, but he enjoys not feeling the pressure to be at work constantly.
“Winning the lottery just gave me the freedom to choose what to do. I'm not full-time chauffeuring in,” he told reporters. “I've just been very sensible, as you can tell.”
When asked what his last purchase was, Copeland replied that he had bought a tin of beans for dinner.
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