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Lottery winner decides to donate entire prize money to charity
Featured Image Credit: Zuma Press, Inc. / REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

Lottery winner decides to donate entire prize money to charity

It's not all sunshine and roses for lottery winners, so maybe donating the prize pot is for the best

A lucky lottery winner has decided to get rid of the money and donate it all to charity rather than hanging onto the massive pile of cash.

For plenty of people, winning the lottery would be an absolute dream, but in reality such a huge prize can leave many thinking it's all turned into a bit of a nightmare.

Lots of lottery winners end up losing all the money in just a few short years, and some people have managed to score multiple jackpot wins yet were still able to burn through it all and wind up with nothing.

Others who manage to keep hold of their money find that their relationship with everyone around them changes as their nearest and dearest suddenly see them as a 'walking ATM machine'.

You might want to win the lottery but there has been a long string of winners who don't feel like it was a positive thing for them overall - and that the money brought its own heap of problems along for the ride.

If that's the case then one lottery winner might have stumbled upon the most appropriate solution for what to do with your winnings - simply give it all away to charity.

Some people play the lottery their whole lives and never win a single thing.
karenfoleyphotography / Alamy Stock Photo

That's what one South Carolina native - who wished to remain anonymous - decided to do after he won $150,000 in the Powerball on the 16 January draw.

He missed the grand prize, which would have scored him $416 million (or $224.9 million if taken all at once as a lump sum), by one number and has decided not to enjoy the limelight by staying anonymous and giving away the cash.

According to CBS12, the store in Greenville, South Carolina which sold the winning ticket will be receiving $1,500 worth of commission, while the rest of the money is going to an unspecified charity.

This will be a huge boost to whichever charity is selected to receive the lottery winnings, and the mysterious winner will also not have to pay tax since the jackpot is being donated.

At least this way they can be sure the money is going to go and do some good for the winner's chosen charity and won't alter their relationships with those around them.

Others strike it lucky and score a major jackpot on their first try.
Patti McConville / Alamy Stock Photo

$150,000 isn't among the largest jackpots people have won but there's no guarantee that such a score wouldn't change the way people look at the winner.

Some lottery winners would rather go to extreme lengths to remain anonymous than let the cat out of the bag on their earnings, and a few have even gone so far as to not tell their families.

When it comes to trying to find some sort of pattern in lottery winners you can send yourself doolally trying to figure out what sort of tricks you could employ to get the right result.

Some winners land a jackpot of millions on their first ever ticket, while others think they've cracked some sort of formula to fortune.

At the end of the day it's just a numbers game.

Topics: US News, News, Money