donations-lottery-24212Won? – Be generous

Lottery games attract millions of players every year and some of the big winners choose to invest in noble causes.

Lottery is one of the very popular betting forms worldwide and it is generally legal in majority of the countries. Research on the history of lottery games shows that it first appeared in China between 205 and 187 BC and then came to Europe during the Roman Empire. Currently, millions of people are playing different lottery games primarily in Europe, North America and Asia.

Lottery games are an interesting form of gambling, which is both praised and criticized for different reasons. Some argue that lottery gaming can hardly be a basis for developing betting addictions and usually the sums that are invested by players are rather small. Therefore, family budgets don’t necessarily struggle from playing the lottery.

Others insist that lottery games are a complete waste of money in the long run, as people don’t necessarily realize how much money they invest in lotto tickets. Another downside of lottery gaming is the fact that the odds to win big are extremely small and actual wins happen rather rarely.

Still, lotto fans are pretty solid group of people who usually play on a regular basis and often remain true to the same numbers they use for many years.

Naturally, people play lotto hoping to win the big jackpot but there are sometime cases of generous winners, who make it into the gambling news, because they prefer to share and donate their millions, instead of keeping the winnings.

Interesting health related cases of jackpot winners’ generosity

The rules in Canada require lottery winners to give a press conference when they win the jackpot. Therefore, Tom Crist, who won the fantastic amount of GBP 24.5 million in 2013 was obliged to announce his big news. It is interesting that prior the declaration the retired chief executive, who lost his wife to cancer, hadn’t told anyone about winning the jackpot, including his four children.

One can only imagine everyone’s surprise when Crist announced that he will give the whole award to different charities involved in cancer treatment and research. Apparently, this was his tribute to his wife and the first to be honored with part of the winning was the centre where she was treated during her illness.

Another health connected prize investment came from the family of Amanda Nield and her husband Graham, who invested in a lottery ticket, instead of playing mobile casinos, and won GBP 6 million from the lottery in the UK last year. They decided to be smart about their winning and instead of spending it on fancy trips and different expensive purchases, to quit working and stay home taking care of Amanda’s sick father who suffers from Alzheimer’s.

where-to-spend-24212…what would you do with your winnings?

Community related donations

When Sheelah Ryan from Orlando, Florida won the fabulous GBP 33 million from the US Powerball in 1988, she gave her winnings to different noble causes. Some of her primary donations were aimed at poor children’s operations and rent coverage for single moms, who were facing the possibility of becoming homeless.

Another noble deed was done by Chris and Colin Weir from the UK, who won GPB 161 million from the lottery and shared the money with their closest people. Later on, they started their Weir Charitable Trust, which aims at improving the quality of life in Scotland. The major areas, which are covered, are health, recreation and different forms of sport.

More extravagant jackpot investment decisions

Angela Maier’s case became extremely popular after she won GBP 330,000 from the German National Lottery, and then decided to flush all the money down the toilet.

She took this drastic decision under the influence of the five bottles of champagne she drank. Another possible reason behind her crazy decision might be the fact that she got mad at a letter from the medical facility where her husband died, asking her to cover his medical expenses.

Allen and Violet Large from Canada won around GBP 7 million from the Canadian lottery and concluded that the prize is just a “big headache.” Therefore, they decided to give away everything to friends and different charity and health organizations.

Bob Erb from Canada is another example of a huge winner getting GBP 13.5 million from the lottery in 2012. So far he has donated more than GBP 4.3 million for things like promotion of marijuana legalization and a $10,000 tip in a restaurant after he found out that the owner’s daughter had cancer.

Spending a winning is a matter of personal choice

These are just a small number of examples of lottery winners, who chose to donate instead of spend their winnings. For some it might seem like a crazy idea, but for others helping a person in need is more important than individual desires. Therefore, these kind of people should be congratulated for their decision and mentioned more often in the news.