Neal Wanless, a 23-year-old rancher whose family had bought and sold scrap metal to make ends meet in one of the poorest counties in the US, claimed a US$232 million Powerball jackpot in the 27 May 2009 drawing.

“They are all good, hardworking people,” said one of the family’s friends. A neighbour added: “They’ve been real short on finances for a long time. They are from real meagre means, I guess you’d say.”

Wanless elected to take a one-time cash pay-out of the Powerball prize which came to US$88.5 million after taxes. Wanless said he intended to continue ranching for his family. According to media reports, he told his horse, Eleanor: “It’d be nice if we go for a longer ride than usual on a bigger ranch of our own.”

When the war in Kosovo broke out in 1998, Q. was living in Pejë, a city completely burned down by the Serbs. Along with his wife and children, Q. fled to Belgium while other family members made their way to Germany and Australia. After a few years, Q. was recognized as a political refugee.

Q., a 50-year-old father of four who loves football, Robert De Niro films and cooking with fish, had been working for five years as a street sweeper in Schaerbeek, Belgium in a waste management service. Q. would regularly purchase EuroMillions tickets in the Chazallaan neighborhood where he worked.

Q.’s tickets for the EuroMillions Superdraw on 30 September 2016 turned his life around. He was the sole winner of the draw’s €168 million EuroMillions jackpot. According to media reports, Q. took a few months to travel and purchased a new home near Schaerbeek. Q.’s friends said that he remained humble, even after his big win.

Surprisingly, Wanczyk went public just one day after the draw, something most lottery winners don’t do. At a press conference staged by the Massachusetts Lottery, Wanczyk said the win was, for her, “a pipe dream come true.”

“It’s just a pipe dream I’ve always had,” she told reporters. “It’s just a chance I had to take.”

Wanczyk chose to take the lump sum cash payment of the prize. After taxes, her check will amount to $336,350,655.

After learning she had won the jackpot, Wanczyk immediately quit her job at the Chicopee Medical Centre where she had worked for 32 years. She said she had purchased five tickets for the draw. Two of them were quick picks, but on one of the tickets she used numbers relating to family birthdays as well as 4, which is her lucky number.

After the draw, one of Wanczyk’s colleagues told her to check the numbers, and that she had won the jackpot. Wanczyk, who still appeared stunned when talking to reporters, said, “I couldn’t drive anywhere, I couldn’t do anything.”

Wanczyk is the mother of a 31-year-old daughter and a 26-year-old son. Following the announcement of her incredible lottery win, police increased security around her home.

According to the 2012 study, entitled Gambling on the Lottery: Sociodemographic Correlates Across the Lifespan, “males gambled on the lottery more than females (18.3 days in the past year for males, versus 11.7 days for females). Comparing the datasets of surveys conducted six years apart in the early 2000s, the study found that “gender was highly significant in predicting the amount of gambling on the lottery; males had a 64% increase over females in the number of days they gambled on the lottery.”

The finding that “males have higher levels of lottery play than females is consistent with gender-related findings for gambling as a whole and for other correlated behaviours, namely, alcohol and other substance use,” the study said.

A September 2013 article written by Dan Fergusson at customer intelligence provider Vision Critical presented “4 surprising facts about lottery players’ behaviour, attitudes, and experiences in the United States”. One of the ‘surprising facts’ related to the difference between the sexes.

“In general, men are more likely to play the lottery (55% vs 42% of women), but we also found that men are more receptive to lottery online gaming,” the paper said. “18% of the lottery players we surveyed indicated that they are likely to buy lottery tickets online, whereas only 12% of women are likely to do so.”

In the United States, many surveys of lottery player demographics have been conducted on the state level and the results have not always been the same.

Florida Lottery’s Player Demographic Data for 2014 showed that players who had played any game were 51% male and 49% female. On the other hand, the California Lottery reported in 2015 that “lottery players are about evenly split between men and women” in the state.

Two studies, at least, have produced a different finding. A study conducted for the Vermont Lottery Commission showed that in 2008, 54.5% of the state’s lottery players were women. In 2012, the study reported that 51.8% of the players in Vermont were women.

An interesting finding was presented by the University of Houston in its Demographic Survey of Texas Lottery Players 2016. This survey* showed that while the participation rate in the state’s Lotto game was the same for men and women, in multi-state lotteries, it was much higher for men than women.

Lottery	Participation Men	Participation Women
Lotto Texas	65.1%	65.8%
Mega Millions	68.6%	60.6%
Powerball	68.3%	56.6%

The annual Health Survey for England (HES)* found that in the year 2012, participation in the National Lottery accounted for the majority of total gambling activity in the UK and participation rates were higher for men than women.

Activity	Participation Men	Participation Women
National Lottery	56%	49%
Scratchcards	19%	20%
Other lotteries	14%	14%

Perhaps the most exhaustive study on the subject was published by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation in Australia, published in November 2014. The conclusion of “A comparative study of men and women gamblers in Victoria” (the study can be downloaded here), was that “males tended to gamble more frequently than females on most gambling forms, including … lottery-type games …  although they were less likely than women to gamble on raffle/sweeps/competitions and bingo.”

Some of the findings of the study showed that the behavioural attitudes toward gambling were exactly the same for men and women. The highest gambling participation for both genders was in lottery-type games.

The top three gambling activities were the same for males and females according to the Victorian study. In first place was Lotto, Powerball, and the Pools (males 46.31%, females 47.47%), followed by raffles, sweeps, and other competitions, and race betting.

The Victorian study concluded that men play the lottery (draw games) more than women, however, a different conclusion was reached regarding scratchcards (instant lottery games). Women were more likely than men to participate in scratchcards, bingo, and raffles, according to the study.

“Younger women were more likely than older women to participate in … scratch tickets [and] older women were more likely than younger women to take part in lottery-type games,” the study said. The same conclusion was reached when comparing younger men to older men.

The study also considered the nature of the differences between the sexes, stating that in general, “men prefer strategic forms of gambling (blackjack, cards, sports betting, race wagering), whereas women prefer non-strategic forms such as slot machines, video poker, and bingo.”

According to another Australian survey, conducted by the Queensland Government in 2012, “female gamblers preferred lottery and bingo more than male gamblers, although men were more likely than females to prefer all other forms of gambling.”

Another survey worth mentioning is the national prevalence survey conducted in the UK in the early 2000s, which found differences in gambling expenditure by gender. Men were seen as losing more on the lottery (£1.81 vs. £1.33) and women were found to be winning more on bingo (£2.75 win vs. £3.32 loss).

The Victorian comparative study of men and women gamblers determined that “men were significantly more likely than women to gamble for social reasons or for general entertainment, while women were more likely to gamble for charity or because gambling relieved stress, loneliness, and boredom.”

These differences are apparent in online gaming habits. Men seem to be drawn to gambling websites that offer sports betting and poker, while online bingo appears to be more popular with women.

While it’s possible that personality traits traditionally associated with masculinity such as courage, independence, and assertiveness may account for some of these differences, it’s hard to reconcile them in the modern world where traditional masculine mannerisms and attributes can now be associated with women, and vice versa.

It is interesting to note that the majority of surveys show that men play the lottery more than women, however the differences are not that great. This finding seems to be correct not only for the surveys conducted in the United States, but also for those conducted in South Africa, Canada, and the UK. It will be interesting to see if there are any changes in behavioural differences between the sexes in future surveys.

Statistics aside, whenever lotteries offer incredible prizes we all, regardless of gender, age, and financial standing, rush to buy lottery tickets. Participation in the lottery is open to everyone and when it’s possible to play online, purchasing tickets to the biggest lottery in the world it’s just a click away.

When lottery jackpots are huge, many of us play the game and fantasize about winning. We play the lottery with hopes that our dreams will soon come true and these dreams are shared by everyone, men and women alike.

Lottery players enjoy reading about successful lottery wins along with statistics and popular play methods. Here you’ll find 4 sets of recent statistical data, 3 of which are from official lottery operators. These include the United Kingdom National Lottery, the National Lottery of Ireland, and Veikkaus Oy, operated by the Finnish Government. The 4th data source is based on the results of a survey conducted by TheLotter.

Keep in mind, it isn’t only about numbers. We’ve included cases of lottery winners who have a unique story behind the wheels they bought. So fasten your seatbelts – it’s about to get crazy!

The United Kingdom National Lottery

There’s nothing better than a little statistical data to fully understand what cars are most frequently bought by lottery winners. The UK National Lottery surveyed 3,000 British citizens who won US US$1 million or more. They wanted to know how many luxury cars were purchased by these lottery winners and which models they bought.

According to the stats, these winners purchased more than 17,000 cars at an average price of US$73,000! The most frequently purchased cars are Land Rovers, followed by Audi cars in second place. German cars appear to be the most popular choice of lotter winners as you can see in the list.

This is the final list of the top 10 most popular cars purchased by the winning millionaires in the UK according to the results of the National Lottery survey.

One surprising fact is that Ferrari – one of the most popular manufacturers in the luxury vehicle market – didn’t even make the list! Instead, British winners chose to support national brands like Land Rover, Jaguar, and Vauxhall. However, the facts also show that nothing can really argue against personal taste, since Porsche, a German brand, was one of the top 10, as well.

Veikkaus Oy

What cars do lottery winners buy in Finland? The Helsinki-based lottery operator Veikkaus organized its own survey among lottery millionaires in Finland. Veikkaus surveyed players who won a minimum of €500,000 between 2007-2017. The survey began on 8 December 2017 and was completed in January 2018. A total of 155 winners were surveyed. The responses were completely anonymous and the responses were received in a manner that would not reveal the winners’ identities.

The results of the survey included one critical piece of data: just 66% of the respondents bought a new car after their lottery win. This was surprising because of how many winners usually make this kind of purchase. It would be hard to imagine a lottery winner buying a secondhand Nissan versus a top-of-the-line luxury car.

What’s interesting about the Finnish survey is that Porsche, Land Rover, and Jaguar didn’t make it into the top 10. They were on the UK list, but maybe Finnish lottery players think (and spend money) differently.

Interestingly enough, famous luxury brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini didn’t make either list!

The National Lottery of Ireland

In 2016, The National Lottery of Ireland surveyed lottery winners from this same year to study their consumer purchasing behavior. The results showed that 7 in 10 winners were male and aged 45 or older at the time of their winnings. The Irish survey included Ferrari, with some different results and a few interesting facts:

• 27.5% said that their first purchase with their lottery winnings would be their dream car
• E32.5% of respondents said that Ferrari is their dream car. 27.5% preferred Mercedes-Benz, and 15% chose Audi
• Only 5% said they would quit their jobs
• Speaking of their winning numbers, 42% won with randomly chosen numbers, while 37.5% used birthdays

The results of the 3 national lotteries’ surveys showed no favorite car manufacturer among lottery winners, but a clear preference for German automakers as a whole. We may just have to add the phrase “If I win the lottery, I’m buying a Ferrari” to the list of lottery myths.

As you can see from the surveys we’ve reviewed, the country of residence can affect a lottery winner’s car-buying decisions. The table below lists the car purchasing data of some well-known lottery winners and can be compared to the survey results.

Multi-Million Dollar Lessons in Politeness

Each lottery winner has their own unique story about how they chose their numbers, why they chose their payout options, and of course, how they spent their winnings. What would you do with yours?

• Adrian and Gillian Bayford of Haverhill, Suffolk, became Britain’s second-largest jackpot winners in 2012 when they claimed the £148 Million EuroMillions jackpot. They used a portion of their massive winnings on a small fleet of 5 Audi cars and a 6-car garage to store them in.
• Lottery winners are not all alike. In 2007, Petra L. won €15.28 million in the German National Lottery, but instead of indulging in a luxury vehicle, Petra purchased a small compact car. She bought a Fiat Panda, reportedly worth just US$10,000. Commenting on the purchase, she said she wanted a simple car with an airbag instead of spending her money on luxuries.Would you have done the same?
• The massive US$587.5 Million Powerball jackpot in November 2012 was won by 2 players. Mark and Cindy Hall took home their share of the winnings, which amounted to US$136.5 Million, after taxes. Mark famously told reports of his plans to buy a new Camaro. In the end, he did something people had a hard time believing. Like Petra L., he bought something simpler, a Yamaha Rhino 700 UTV. It may sound like a racing machine, but in reality, it’s a small 2-seater often used for transporting goods.Well, there’s no accounting for personal taste.
• Simon Fagan from Castlebellingham, Ireland, won big in the Ireland Lotto back in May 2013. He won £3.6 million and used a small bit of the money to buy a secondhand Kia. The car had 150,000 km on it at the time of the purchase. Simon told reporters he had no plans to move out of his parents’ house, either.
• Derry Ryan Magee won £6.4 million in the EuroMillions lottery. His first purchase was a £170,000 Ferrari. Soon after, Derry’s life changed drastically. First he got divorced, then he received 13 traffic tickets, then he crashed the Ferrari, had his driving license confiscated, and was given a court sentence of 200 hours of community service. Derry just might need another lottery win to rebuild his life after all this!
• Can you imagine driving a different car each day of the week? That’s exactly what 1 lucky UK Lotto winner did. Tom Naylor scooped up a £15.5 million jackpot back in 2001. The self-proclaimed car lover bought 7 cars, one of every day! On Mondays, he drives a V8 Mustang, on Tuesdays, it’s a Jaguar XJR, on Wednesdays, he hops in a Jaguar XJ220, a Jaguar F-Type is for Thursdays, a limited edition Aston Martin DB9 for Fridays (James Bond would be so proud), another Aston Martin DB9 for Saturdays and a Land Rover Discovery for Sundays or for shopping. Who could keep up?

What Car Would You Buy with Your Lottery Win? Would You Get More Than One?

As you can see, where a person lives can greatly influence their car-buying decisions. When it comes to winning the lottery, the most popular cars bought by winners aren’t always the kinds of luxury cars that most people dream about. As shown by multiple surveys, German automakers were consistently in the top 10, as their different makes and models were chosen by multiple lotto winners.

Those who buy lottery tickets online with TheLotter have told us about their favourite cars. Their picks include top brands like Ferrari, Tesla, and Mercedes Benz.

Will your dream car become a reality? We certainly hope so, but for a chance to win, you first have to play! Don’t want to be glued to your desktop? Play on mobile with versions for iOS, or Android, so you can take your shot at huge jackpots on-the-go.

In 2003, 110 tickets matched numbers drawn to win the second-highest Powerball prize division. Normally the number of winners in a Powerball draw to is none to four, so in this case, the organizers suspected fraud.

What they found was much more interesting than a case of lottery tampering – a lucky fortune cookie had been making the rounds in Chinese restaurants across the country and people played the cookie’s lucky numbers. 89 ticket holders won US$100,000 and 21 won US$500,000 because they chose the Power Play which multiplied their winnings. An important lesson learned… cookies are good for you!

Whilst helping out their grandson with a school project, Nicole Pedneault and Roger Larocque came upon an extremely rewarding surprise from their research. Hidden in a nearly-forgotten book about Japan was a C$1 million (US$750,000) winning Loto Quebec ticket from an 15 April, 2018 draw. “If my grandson hadn’t asked me to give him some things for his presentation, I wouldn’t have ever found the ticket,” Pedneault said.

As it was already April 2019, a whole year since the ticket had been purchased, the couple immediately checked the Loto Quebec website to see if the ticket had already expired. Fortunately, they had found the ticket just in time, as they had just two days left to claim their impressive prize. “It’s all just by chance that we found it at the last minute like that,” the winner said as she claimed her check. Want to try your hand at Canadian lotteries? Play Canada Lotto 6/49 but don’t forget where you put your ticket!

James Bozeman Jr., won the Florida Lotto twice with tickets purchased at the same 7-Eleven convenience store; his total winnings are US$13 million. A couple in Virginia won the lottery three times in one month; they won US$1 million with a Powerball ticket on 12 March 2014, then won US$50,000 on 26 March with a Virginia Lottery Pick 4 ticket, and yet another US$1 million with a Virginia Lottery Scratcher ticket the very next day! In Norway, three members of the Oksnes family won the lottery three times in six years. Some lottery players have enjoyed quite a bit of lottery luck, and this shows that anyone, if really lucky could win the lottery more than once!

New York City police detective Robert Cunningham frequented his favourite restaurant for eight years. Detective Cunningham was just about to leave a tip for Phyllis Penzo, who had been a waitress at the restaurant for 24 years, when instead he offered her the following deal: split whatever the lottery ticket in his pocket might win them. She agreed, and the rest is history – the two won US$6 million together. The lucky cop and waitress split the prize after electing to receive annual payments of US$285,715.

Nicholas Cage starred in a movie based on the event, called It Could Happen to You. Check it out!

Andrew Clark from Lincolnshire, is a very lucky man indeed. At the urging of his wife and niece, he combed through his much-laughed-at stockpile of old lottery tickets on the dashboard of his van, after lottery operators posted an unclaimed EuroMillions jackpot weeks earlier. The ticket he found there was a winner – worth £76 million! When asked about finding the lucky EuroMillions lottery ticket, the self-employed builder told reporters “It almost feels like some magical Christmas story – the man who nearly lost £76 million!” This EuroMillions jackpot was, at the time, the 12th biggest jackpot win ever in the UK.

In the late 90’s, Bill Morgan, an Australian truck driver, suffered a fatal heart attack after being crushed in an accident. He was clinically dead for 14 minutes, a span of time from which most people rarely recover without significant neurological or brain damage. However, he refused to be a statistic and woke up from a medically induced coma after 12 days with all of his faculties perfectly intact!

It wasn’t long after this bizarre chain of events that Bill Morgan decided to buy a scratch-off ticket at a lottery stall, and ended winning a car worth US$17,000! A local TV station asked him to re-enact the win for a story, which was when Moran scratched off a ticket that won him another US$170,000! We don’t think even a psychic could predict a win like this! Some people have asked him to try his luck a third time, but Bill has so far refused.

Delivery man Joseph Cobbs III from North Carolina heard that his local shop had issued a winning lottery ticket for nearly US$650,000. He’d bought one, too, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember where he’d put it. He searched every corner of his house, but he couldn’t find it. He then got his fiancee, Kendra Batts, to help searching. They finally found Joseph’s ticket in the trash on top of some smelly food remains. Joseph split his winnings with a beaming Kendra.

A similar story is that of Joemel Panisa from Oregon. This is a very amusing Mega Millions anecdote! On a snowy day in January 2017, he spent time cleaning out his office. He found an envelope that he had put away one year previous and totally forgotten about. Inside the envelope was a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket! Luckily Panisa was able to claim his US$1 million prize just in time before the ticket expired. Either he should start thinking about cleaning his office more often or play it safe by playing online!

We’re taught to always be polite and respectful, especially to our elders. Mindy Crandall took this lesson to heart and let 84-year-old Gloria Mackenzie cut in line at a supermarket in Zephyrhills, Florida. One of the things on both ladies’ shopping list was a Powerball ticket. “Another lottery player was kind enough to let me go ahead of them in line to purchase the winning Quick Pick ticket,” Mackenzie said. Because of the line jump, Mackenzie won US$590 million in the draw on 18 May 2013. The lucky winner donated US$2 million of her winnings to her old high school, which was in dire need of financial help. She also started a foundation dedicated to providing grants to programs aimed at improving the quality of life for the residents of Maine. Many winners share their winnings by giving back through charities and by establishing foundations!

A very lucky New Jersey man experienced a similar act of kindness from a stranger that helped him win a Mega Millions jackpot worth US$273 million on 8 March 2019. Michael J. Weirsky had forgotten his tickets on the counter of a Phillipsburg QuickChek convenience store while checking something on his phone. A good Samaritan saw Michael’s forgotten tickets and turned them over to the store clerk. After searching for hours, Michael contacted the store and was told that someone had turned them in earlier. “I was very thankful there was an honest person out there because I thought it was gone,” he said.

In Spain and Latin America, it’s Tuesday the 13th which is the day of misfortune. There’s even a saying that goes “En martes, ni te cases, ni te embarques, ni de tu casa te apartes.” (On Tuesday, do not marry, nor embark, nor leave your home).

So why is Tuesday unlucky? A historical event that coincides with Tuesday the 13th, and one of the primary reasons it’s considered unlucky is the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire, which happened on Tuesday, 13 April 1204. Tuesday is also said to be ruled by Mars, the god of war and bloodshed.

In Italy, it’s Friday the 17th that stresses people out. On this day, also called “un giorno nero” (a black day), many Italians avoid leaving home for fear of bad luck. Important meetings, celebrations, and major decisions are also postponed.

Like other western countries, Italians fear Friday due to the connection to Jesus’s death. However, the number 17 has been considered unlucky since the days of the Roman empire when it was written as the roman numeral XVII. This could be changed anagrammatically to VIXI, reminding Italians of the Latin language phrase that translates to “I have lived“, which can also be understood as, “My life is over“. With this explanation in mind, we think it’s totally understandable why some would refrain from testing their luck!

If we head east, it’s the number 4 that causes worry when scheduling big events like celebrations or business openings. In Chinese and Japanese, the number 4 is considered unlucky because the sound of the word is very similar to the word for death.

We’re happy to say that there’s actually no concrete evidence pointing to bad lottery luck on Friday the 13th. While many players may refrain from entering a draw on this day, some actually believe the opposite; that it boosts your odds of winning!

In fact, US Mega Millions has awarded 7 jackpots on Friday the 13ths, the most noteworthy of which was the US$1.348 billion top prize won on 13 January 2023 – one of the biggest prizes in lottery history!

Another lottery to put your Friday the 13th fears to rest is France Loto! This European lottery combats bad luck with a special draw where players who dare buy to a ticket get a chance at winning a boosted €13 million jackpot and participate in a raffle with 50 guaranteed winners!