Top 5 Lottery Winning Facts

The things that are statistically more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery, are quite incredible! The odds of winning the US Mega Millions jackpot are around 1 in 259 million, meaning that you are (amongst other things) more likely to become a movie star! You're also statistically more likely to win an Olympic gold medal, become the American president (if you live in America, of course) or be the one in seven million people who dies due to their left-handedness, and their misuse of a right handed product... National Geographic claims that you really are more likely to get struck by lightning... Or killed by a shark, or injured by a toilet this year... Think about that next time you're on a bathroom break!

The internet is awash with horror stories, in which lottery winners ride the coattails of their wealth to early ruin, rather than early retirement. In the words of one infamous bankrupted lotto winner: "I only started to think about three things -- drugs, sex and gold. The dealer who introduced me to crack has more of my lotto money than I do." The truth is that most winners wind up living 'average' lives, eventually! The highest estimates say that around 70% of big winners are back to financial square one within ten years. If you win, you probably shouldn’t quit your day job. In fact, researchers say that almost half of all winners keep clocking in Monday morning. And even more–about 60% of them–keep buying lotto tickets.

From spouses to shopkeepers to lottery pool participants, a big money win will often bring out the worst in people! For example: in 2012, US construction worker Americo Lopes was ordered to pay his co-workers $10 million, after cheating them out of a $38.5m lottery pool win; In the same year, a UK shopkeeper, ironically nicknamed 'Lucky', tried to cheat someone’s great-gran out of her £1 million prize by claiming her ticket to be 'worthless' - the fraudster was arrested however, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison! He wanted the penthouse suite, but he got cell block C!

In Sweden, a chance to live life in the proverbial fast lane can be yours, by living your day-to-day life in the slow. In a successful attempt to lower the average speed of road users in the country, Sweden runs a 'Speed Camera Lottery', in which the license plates everyone not driving like a maniac are entered into a prize draw. The best part is that the prize money is actually a portion of the speeding fines! So the better you drive, the better your chances! The worse you drive, the more winnings for more winnings for this guy!

The one unavoidable lottery fact is that it is very lucrative, but more for the organisers than the players! Odds of winning anything at all on Mega Millions are only roughly 1 in 15, but despite these modest figures, over $70 billion is pumped into playing the lottery every year! CNN says that more money is spent on the lottery than on books, video games, music, movie tickets and sports tickets combined Lower income families spend more of their money on playing, and the average American throws over $200 toward it. Supposedly, the money raised benefits public services like education, though many are skeptical.
So, what do you think? Is the lottery good clean fun, or an unfair tax on the poor and the stupid? For more against-the-odds Top 10s and no chance in hell Top 5s, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com!