I won the lottery TWICE & scooped $5.4million – but I lost it ALL and now live in a trailer park
A DOUBLE lottery player who scooped $5.4million after hitting the jackpot twice lost it all when her winnings streaks turned into a serious gambling addiction.
Convenience store worker Evelyn Adams, from New Jersey, won two different multi-million jackpots in the span of just four months.
She scored $3.9million in October 1985 and another $1.4million in February of 1986, making her the first person in the history of the New Jersey Lottery to win multiple million-dollar jackpot prizes.
Of the 22 states at the time with lotteries, none had had a two-time winner.
The odds of winning the first jackpot were 1 in 3.2 million, the second, 1 in 5.2 million.
Both jackpots were paid out on an annuity basis, with a total of $218,000 paid annually after 20 per cent was deducted for taxes, Lotto Analyst reports.
After winning her first prize, Adams paid off bills and set up a fund to pay college tuition for her daughter, in addition to buying a new car and giving gifts to those close to her.
Having increased her weekly ticket purchases from $25 per week to $100 weekly after winning her first grand prize, Adams said that "I'm going to quit playing" having won twice.
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It's been reported that she said she had a sense that she "couldn't go anywhere without being recognized" and felt that she had lost her privacy.
While some friends and family were happy for her and her new-found wealth, others resented it.
She deferred plans to use her winnings to study music and eventually open a music store, instead buying – and later selling – the convenience store where she had worked.
After giving away substantial portions of her winnings, Adams tried to choose more carefully among the many requests she had received, though even when the money was given to acquaintances in the form of a loan many recipients didn't feel any obligation to repay their debt.
By 2012, Adams had spent her winnings, having lost her money to gambling in slot machines Atlantic City casinos and a string of unsuccessful business deals.
"Winning the lottery isn't always what it's cracked up to be," she said, now reported to be living in a trailer.
"I won the American dream but I lost it, too. It was a very hard fall. It's called rock bottom."
"Everybody wanted my money. Everybody had their hand out. I never learned one simple word in the English language, 'no.'
"I wish I had the chance to do it all over again. I'd be much smarter about it now," says Adams who also lost money at the slot machines in Atlantic City.
"I was a big time gambler," admits Adams. "I didn't drop a million dollars, but it was a lot of money.
"I made mistakes, some I regret, some I don't. I'm human. I can't go back now so I just go forward, one step at a time."