Everybody knows the stories about people who won millions in the lottery or on the slot machines and then either lost it all or went completely nuts. But what about those who win a life-changing amount of money but don’t ruin their lives? These are the jackpot winners who beat the curse – and we’ve got their amazing stories!
Proven Ways to Skyrocket Your Online Casino Revenue in 2024The Largest Jackpot Winners Who Kept Their Minds
Unfortunately, there are more stories of lottery madness than success. Even so, some jackpot winners managed not only to keep their wits but also use their newfound wealth for good. Meet the lucky folks who scored huge jackpots and used the money to improve their lives without losing their minds.
Jane M., £1.3 Million (~$1.65 Million USD)
Jane M. from Lincolnshire was inspired by the book The Millionaire Mindset by Paul McKenna, which promises that “your life can change around if you think positively.” And boy, did her life change! She bought the book and the accompanying hypnosis CDs, put the CDs in the player, and hit play before spinning the reels of a progressive jackpot slot. To her delight, she hit Fluxx’s million-pound jackpot.
Reel Slots Guide - Best Real Money 5 reel Slots & Sites in USWhen asked how she planned to spend the money, Jane said she wanted to travel and buy a bigger house – but otherwise, she wanted to keep everything the same. Indeed, nothing much has changed for Jane; she still works part-time as a church cleaner, and spending the money gradually is exactly what she set out to do. Today, several years after winning the jackpot, Jane’s financial situation has improved, but she’s still the same down-to-earth lady from Lincolnshire.
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Cynthia Jay-Brennan, $34.9 Million (~$25.7 Million USD)
Powerball is known for making millionaires, but few Powerball jackpot winners have used their wealth as well as Cynthia Jay-Brennan, who donated a large portion of her winnings to various charities. In addition to setting up a trust fund for her family, the California teacher bought a new car and a new house, treated herself to some vacations, and gave lots of money to different organizations.
Penny Slots with Highest Payout % - Get Your Big Win Now!Cynthia’s selflessness didn’t go unnoticed: the city council declared September 28, 1996, “Cynthia Jay Brennan Day” in Lakeport, and the California State Legislature passed a resolution commending her for using her winnings “to enrich the lives of others.”
Anonymous, €17.8 Million (~$21.2 Million USD)
In 2018, a Finnish player scoring the world’s biggest ever Mega Fortune Dreams jackpot chose to stay anonymous. We don’t know if they followed the old “six weeks of vacation, five more days, spare time for hobbies, and the rest of the time – work” Soviet-era joke or decided to quit their day job another way, but what we do know is that the jackpot winner didn’t go public.
The mystery jackpot winner joined an illustrious roll call of mega winners whose lives were changed in other people’s favor. As a part of the company’s “made even better” Responsible Mania campaign, NetEnt donated 500,000 euros to three gameiness research organizations chosen by the anonymous jackpot winner:
- The British Institute of Gambling Medicine at Cambridge University
- The Center for Gambling Studies at the University of Sydney
- The Department of Psychiatry at Linköping University in Sweden
Having helped science figure out how to make gambling more enjoyable and less addictive, the anonymous jackpot winner kept the remainder of the €17.8 million for himself – or herself.
Jon Heywood, £13.2 Million (~$16.96 Million USD)
The biggest-ever online slot jackpot wasn’t spent on mansions, sports cars, and bling; instead, the bulk of the money was used to help Jon’s father, who was battling cancer. Luckily, the disease went into remission, and in 2017, the whole family visited the Malta flagship casino where Jon had won the mega jackpot.
BetRivers Online Casino App Review - Games & FeaturesToday, Heywood senior is doing fine, and his son has become something of a legend among slot players. When the Betway-powered record broke a year after Heywood’s win, the six-stringed bassist from England sent his congratulations to the new record holder, saying: “I hope you are going to enjoy this as much as I do.”
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Anonymous, $27 Million (~$20.6 Million USD)
Winning the Powerball jackpot turned Ernestine Whirkley Jameson Crockett into Chet Crosbie. It turned Chet Crosbie into Mr. Cashaway. And it turned an unassuming woman from Florida into a person who wants to remain anonymous.
Like most Florida jackpot winners, the Florida Lottery player claimed her prize wearing a ball cap to conceal her identity. She announced her plans to take a long vacation and buy some land; later on, she could have changed her mind about staying anonymous.
Bill B., $26 Million (~$20.2 Million USD)
Bill from Massachusetts knew what he was going to do with the $26 million Tennesse Lottery jackpot before even claiming the prize: the man would accept his lottery award anonymously. Lottery officials praised Bill’s kindness, noting that very few big jackpot winners prefer to stay away from the spotlight.
In fact, accepting lottery awards anonymously is written in the law of some states including Maryland, Delaware, and Massachusetts. Bill must have known about this because he said he was going to create a trust to receive the jackpot prize.
Realistic Roulette Strategies (And What They Really Yield)Alex Doba, C$22.2 Million (~$16.7 Million USD)
Most Canadians who win the lottery choose to accept their awards anonymously; needless to say, lottery minus bragging rights isn’t much of a lottery, but Canadian jackpot winners seem to like it that way. Anyhow, 84-year-old Alex Doba from Calgary became the second BC Lottery Winning Anonymously option and received a cheque for C$22.2 million.
According to the BC Gaming Commission, about two-thirds of lottery winners in the province choose to remain anonymous, which means that BC has likely had jackpot winners even bigger than the one won by William “Billy” MacQuarrie, a carpenter from Ontario who accepted his $11 million cheque while howling like a wolf.
Anonymous, $22 Million (~$17.2 Million USD)
Florida is one of the states where most jackpot winners choose to stay anonymous. Not being allowed to hide in the shadows doesn’t mean much to a tourism state like Florida, or so it seems based on the lottery history of the sunshine state.
One of the latest Florida lottery winners who wished to stay anonymous was awarded a $22 million prize and celebrated the win by buying more tickets. We don’t know whether the lottery winner’s team won, but we know one thing for sure: choosing to remain anonymous hasn’t made the lottery experience any less exciting for this player.
slots with deposit bonusBrian Z, $21.1 Million (~$16.8 Million USD)
Massachusetts Lottery allows its winners to claim their prizes anonymously, and it’s what the winner of the record-breaking $21.1 million jackpot did in 2002. It’s not known why the man wanted to remain anonymous, but it’s known that he was planning to share some of the wealth with his family and use some of the money for traveling.
State laws allowing lottery winners to protect their identities partly explain why so many American jackpot winners stay anonymous. A California lottery winner who took home over $20 million last year said she was grateful she didn’t have to wear a ballcap to hide her face. In California, lottery winners are identified by default unless they file a request to remain anonymous.
Sites That Offer Real Money Poker for US Players in 2023Anonymous, $20.4 Million (~$16.3 Million USD)
Some Canadians love to brag about their winnings, but most of them prefer to stay away from the spotlight. That’s why the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) offers their biggest jackpot winners a chance to claim their awards anonymously.
It was exactly what the winner of the $20.4 million Lotto Max jackpot did in May 2021. Per protocol, the WCLC announced that a person from Western Canada had won the jackpot but didn’t reveal their name; needless to say, that wasn’t a problem for the winner who was happy to speak through the WCLC.
Anonymous, £16.9 Million (~$23.2 Million USD)
Royal Flash was just another progressive jackpot slot to Neil T from the UK until the moment he started spinning and hit the then-biggest Progressive Jackpot ever paid on a Playtech software network. The lucky player walked away with £16,980,045.56, which according to him was going to change very little.
True to his word, Neil continued going to work after winning the jackpot. While many city jackpot winners would have quit their jobs in a heartbeat, the British engineer decided to use turbo boost to reach his destination way faster and stick to his normal routine – except for one minor change: no more driving an old Volkswagen Beetle!
Honorable Mentions
- Anonymous, $19.3 Million (~$15.2 Million USD) – The Florida Lottery says that winning the jackpot is just the beginning of a special relationship with the state, or so it seemed for the winner of the $19.3 million jackpot who stayed vague when describing their future plans and current occupation.
- Anonymous, C$13.6 Million (~$10.7 Victory Slot MachineMillion USD) – Beating almost 87 million to 1 odds, a lottery player from Ontario became Canada’s 19th largest lottery winner of 2021. Like most Canadians, the jackpot winner chose to stay anonymous but left his hometown, saying he was “off to explore the world.”
- Anonymous, £14.1 Million (~$19.5 Victory Slot MachineMillion USD) – This jackpot winner created headlines in 2012 after becoming Playtech’s second biggest jackpot winner and fourth-ever Victory Slot Machine. Very little is known about the Glutters Online Casino player except for one detail: the jackpot winner was using the alias ‘jasmineflo13’.
Did Winning the Jackpot Ruin These People’s Lives?
Not at all! Although there are plenty of sad lottery stories such as that of Abedabad three jackpot winners who were robbed and killed shortly after splitting a $1.2 million jackpot, our list proves that not all jackpot winners lose their marbles after hitting the big prize. Indeed, many people have gone completely nuts after winning the lottery, but so far, our top winners have resisted the temptation to buy insane stuff with their jackpots.
Instead, many jackpot winners have learned to say no to anything that costs a fortune and yes to anything that brings true happiness, including helping others and continuing to live a modest life. Using a fraction of their jackpots for charity and donating gamefulness research organizations might be two completely different things, but both show that money can bring joy not only to its owners but also to others – and that’s awesome!
Method of Winning: Are Slot Machine Jackpots Better Than the Lottery?
Whether you should chase progressive jackpot slots in casinos or buy lottery tickets may depend on the law of your country because, well, not all countries allow gambling, and not all forms of gambling are legal. For example, whereas residents of Finland can play Finnish lotto games, they are banned from all online casinos; meanwhile, French players can play at licensed operators but can’t take part in certain types of gambling, such as the lotteries operated in neighboring countries.
safe casinos onlineAll that aside, some people prefer playing the lottery to chasing progressives at online casinos, and others believe that progressive slots give you better chances of walking away with a life-changing amount of cash. What’s best is that you can spice up your lottery routine with some and diversify your gambling.
Progressive jackpots are often considered more rewarding than lottery jackpots because a small percentage of every bet goes towards increasing the jackpot, which can reach incredible sizes in online casinos with a large number of users. On the other hand, lottery jackpots rely entirely on ticket sales, which means that the organizer may advertise a huge jackpot only to announce the following week that actually, the grand prize is a smaller amount due to insufficient interest.
Awesome Land-Based Casinos near Anchorage, Alaska (Updated)Notwithstanding these differences, some lotteries rank among the biggest jackpot wins ever, which shows that lottery jackpots can definitely compete with progressive jackpots in size. Another advantage of the lottery is that it often offers larger odds of winning the jackpot and even produces jackpot winners who match multiple tickets.
Beat the Curse Yourself!
Although some people have gone crazy after winning the lottery, joining the club of lottery madness is not inevitable. If you want to stay sane while having a chance to walk away with a massive sum of cash, consider taking the following tips into account:
No Deposit Casino Bonuses You Can Claim Right Now (2023)- : Don’t rush with your decisions.** You haven’t claimed your jackpot yet, so take your time to think about hiring a financial advisor and forming a team to manage your daily activities.
- Beef up your security. If there’s one thing that winning the lottery can do to you, it’s making you a target for scammers and swindlers. Until you learn to distinguish genuine requests from fake ones, let your financial advisor deal with everybody wanting to take some of your money.
- Stay kind. There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself to something expensive, but donate some money to a charity or a gameplay research organization. Seeing that your jackpot win can make other people’s lives better will give you an indescribable feeling of satisfaction.
- Keep calm and carry on. Many jackpot winners change their lifestyle slightly, and that’s okay. Accepting some invitations, trying new things, and going on exotic trips can be fun; just don’t forget to get back to your regular routine eventually.
- Say no to stupidity. Expensive cars break down more often than cheap cars; a private island requires someone to take care of it, and so on and so forth. Saying no to stupidity means using your common sense and skipping everything that looks like a waste of money.
Now that you know winning a jackpot doesn’t have to turn you into a lunatic, you can safely and have a chance to join our list of jackpot winners who didn’t lose their heads after winning big. Who knows, maybe we’ll write an article about the second batch of sane jackpot winners!
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