Who hasn’t dreamed of one day winning the lottery? In a flash, you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams, able to fly off to exotic locales on the weekend and rub elbows with the stars, all while your personal man butler keeps your drink refreshed. Well, maybe that’s taking things a little too far, but you get the picture: you’d be filthy rich.
For these women, that dream became a reality. Each of them won the Powerball lottery, and when you win the Powerball lottery you get a jackpot of historical proportions. Five years ago these women were working away at their day jobs, keeping the lights on in their house, and now they have a net worth that would rival a small country. Let’s meet these amazing women.
Mavis Wynczyk
You may have seen Mavis on the news back in August of last year, when she made the history books by becoming the single biggest winner of a lottery… ever. She won an astounding, jaw-dropping, 758.7 million dollars. That’s right – read that amount again. And what was the first thing that Mavis did when she found out she won the Powerball lottery? She phoned into work, like an absolute boss, and told her supervisor at the Mercy Medical Center that she quit.
Mavis has become so popular as a result of her Powerball win that there is actually a scam making the rounds in her hometown of Chicopee, Massachusetts, where a number of fake social media accounts have popped up in her name, offering people money for their personal information. Yikes. That’s the price you pay for being incredibly rich.
Ira Curry
When Ira Curry bought her winning ticket, it was a last minute decision. “Why not”, she thought, and she chose as her numbers the birthdays of her family members. Next thing you know the Georgia native wins a jackpot of 648 million dollars, split with a Californian man named Steve Tran. “It’s unreal”, she said in a statement released by lottery officials. “It’s a little like dreaming”. While Ira has mostly shied away from any media attention, her employer did congratulate her on her win – a move that may or may not have ulterior motives!
Gloria Mackenzie
Before Mavis unseated her, Gloria Mackenzie of Florida was the biggest single jackpot winner in history, scooping up an enormous 590 million dollar prize. At 84, Gloria didn’t have to worry about quitting work; all she had to worry about was how to spend all that money. “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person”, said one of her neighbours. It’s reassuring to know that these things happen to good people, isn’t it?
Anonymous
Back in January of this year, a Jane Doe of New Hampshire won a whopping 559.7 million dollars in the Powerball lottery. While she chose to obscure her identity using the name of a trust for the money, this anonymous woman may be forced out of hiding because, as New Hampshire law states, winners’ names need to be public information. Who knows? Maybe this woman will be on the news very soon, or maybe she won’t. All you know for now is that, whoever she is, she’s one of the world’s wealthiest people.
Winning the lottery could happen to anyone. With a few lucky numbers, a little research and game theory, you could – like these women – be sipping Margaritas on the beach for the rest of your life.
