7 wild ways that people have spent their gambling winnings
Winning on the pokies, the lottery, scratchies or even on the horses is an absolute thrill. At first there’s an overwhelming upsurge of raw emotion. We call this that ‘winning feeling’. Once that subsides though, reality sets in. That’s when you begin to let your mind wander over all the new things that you’re going to buy.
A new car, renovations or even an entirely new home are all popular ways to spend your newfound wealth, but there are other more creative (see: fun) things to spend your winnings on. So whether you’ve just come into some cash or simply want some inspiration for when you do win at Fair Go casino, check out these 7 wild ways that people have spent their gambling winnings below.
A theme park
Pretty much everyone has a childhood memory of visiting a theme or water park. In Oz we have Warner Brother Movie Studios on the Gold Coast plus Jamberoo Recreation Park in the South Coast region of New South Wales. As we get older though, our trips to these places become less and less frequent, unless of course we’re taking our wee ones.
One bloke in the US though apparently never grew up, spending $200K to build a water park in New York. Called Spray Park, this water park features slides, large pools and an abundance of aquatic activities. Perfect for when you want to get in touch with your inner child… or you’ve got a cool $28 million in lottery winnings just burning a hole in your back pocket.
Charitable causes
Another one of the more popular ways to spend one’s gambling winnings is by not actually spending them, but rather donating a portion. This is truly the mark of a selfless individual and we’re all for people that choose to give to charity. But just which charities to people actually donate to?
Well, there’s of course charities that help those less fortunate. Donations to animal rescue shelters and such also seem to be a common theme. One cause that we consider to be a bit left of centre though is 420 Day – the special day for marijuana smokers everywhere and an annual event in countries such as Canada and the US.
This is exactly where Canadian pot activist, and we’re not joking about his name here, Bob Erb decided to donate some of his winnings. After buying tickets for 43 years, Mr Erb became $25 million richer and donated $1 million to the fight to legalise cannabis. Perhaps this means that marijuana smokers in the US should give thanks to Mr Erb and not just ‘the herb’ for its recently revised legal status.
A backyard BBQ setup
Australians love a good barbie and as such you’ll find a gas-powered grill and hotplate or a Webber sitting on the back patio in just about every Aussie home. But sometimes your standard grill just doesn’t cut it.
Maybe you like your meat dinosaur-sized or perhaps you just have a massive number of mouths to feed. In the case of a recent Fair Go winner, his reason for super-sizing the backyard BBQ came down to the fact that he had some cash to burn… literally.
While they choose to remain anonymous, they’ve also gone on to tell our team about their newly installed backyard BBQ setup that includes an industrial sized smoker, 2x2m firepit grill and more hotplates than us mere mortals could ever hope to manage – to the tune of $50K.
Now that summer is here, we’d wager that this backyard BBQ area is going to get a real workout. So even though we’ve kept this winner’s identity hidden, that gigantic plume of smoke coming from their backyard is a dead giveaway.
An oversized truck
Like we mentioned earlier, buying a new vehicle for yourself or for a loved one is a common theme when it comes to the ways that people spend their gambling winnings. But spending your lottery winnings on a monster truck? Well that’s definitely not something that we see often… especially from a lady in her 60s.
The story goes that an older lady from a small village in the south of Austria won big on a European-wide lottery. After playing the same lottery for over 49 years and never winning as much as €20, her win was cause for celebration amongst the local residents. What she did with her winnings though shocked everyone and nearly got her kicked out of the town. That’s because her first purchase was an oversized hummer complete with off-road tyres and a massive exhaust.
The fact that she could hardly see over the steering wheel aside, the sheer noise that came from her truck made it sound like a plane was taking off in the main street every time she went for a drive. Needless to say she only owned the truck for a few months before she got it wedged between buildings in a tiny little alleyway on her way back from church. Wonder if it’s still there?
Property on the moon
Buying a mega-mansion is nearly a jackpot winner rite of passage for some folks, to the point that everyone expects the new rich to splurge on a 25-bedroom manor home with a butler and 20 acres of land. For those that aren’t too keen on wasting money on a large property that they’ll only use about 2% of, the good news is that there are other options. For example… why don’t you buy property on the moon?
That’s precisely what David Copeland from the UK did when he won £1 million in the UK Lottery way back in 2000. Instead of purchasing a vacant block of land in the tropics or upgrading his current abode, Copeland opted to secure an acre of land on the moon.
Now bear with us because this may not be so crazy given how fast technology is advancing. With some large leaps in space-age gadgets and equipment, it could only be a matter of a few years before he’s perched on his lunar lawn in a space suit enjoying the best view in, or out of, this world.
A sporting league
Sports and the Aussie way of life go hand in hand. There’s almost nothing more satisfying than watching the footy, listening to the cricket over the Chrissy holidays or seeing the mighty Wallabies get one over the All Blacks. But imagine how good it would be if you had enough money to start your own sporting league?
You could pick the team, designate the rules and otherwise create your dream sport. What that sport would be, however, is an entirely different story. For a guy in (yep… you guessed it) the US who won over $30 million in the Powerball in 2008, starting a sporting league was the first thing that he did with his winnings. But this wasn’t just any ordinary sporting league…
The league that winner Jonathan Vargas started was a wrestling league, more specifically, a women’s wresting league called ‘Wrestlicious TakeDown’. Needless to say this league, which featured scantily dressed women wrestling each other in a sketch comedy format, was a big hit… for approximately one season.
After that it was cancelled by the TV network that it aired on and the hoopla around Vargas died down. Recently though he surfaced once again to pitch a reality TV show about his failed league, but we’re going out on a limb here in saying that network executives body slammed that idea too.
More gambling
Finally, one of the other wild ways that people spend their gambling winnings is by gambling even more. This means purchasing a truck load of tickets, putting millions of dollars on a single colour in roulette and otherwise risking nearly everything to get rich quick… for a second time.
We can’t blame these people. When you suddenly come into tens of millions of dollars, it’s difficult to see those numbers in your bank account as real cash. What we can do though is learn from the people who spent their money on outlandish items and perhaps try to manage our own winnings a little bit more wisely.
So if you’ve recently won here at Fair Go casino or you’ve got lucky on any other type of betting platform, this article should serve as a sobering reminder that money won is still money earned. Enjoy it, share it and spend it on experiences, not just things. Or simply top up your Fair Go account and go big on one of our lucrative progressive jackpot titles.
Try your luck at today Fair Go Casino today.
