7
Evelyn Adams, who won twice and lost it all
Two New Jersey lottery jackpots in four months. Gone within a decade.
1 in 17 trillionThe odds quoted at the time for her double win.
Adams won $3.9 million in the New Jersey lottery in 1985, and $1.4 million again in 1986. She is the reason the phrase "lightning twice" gets used about lotteries at all.
By the mid-1990s it was all gone. Some went to family, a great deal went to Atlantic City, and the rest went the way most unstructured windfalls go. She ended up living in a trailer.
Everybody wanted my money. Everybody had their hand out.
Her story is on every lucky list and every cautionary list, which is the honest place for it. She won twice, and the second win did not help.