EXCLUSIVE Why so many Lotto millionaires die tragic and lonely deaths - from the £9m-winner who drank himself to death in 5 years to the man who ended his days in a Blackpool B&B and was buried in an unmarked grave

Daily Mail​

21 hours ago

'It could be you' was the alluring advertising hook when the National Lottery was launched in the UK back in 1994 - teasing seemingly untold fortunes and happiness to follow for the cost of just £1 a ticket.
Lady Luck might have pointed her finger weekly at winners - yet the decades since have been littered with losses, pain and tragedies starkly suggesting the drawbacks that can come with hitting the jackpot.
Information has newly emerged about the lonely death of a young AU$22million (£10.5million) Powerball winner in Australia, 22-year-old Joshua Winslet.
And while there will be hordes of people continuing to play each week - including when the latest £208million Euromillions draw rolls over to this Friday night - there have been plenty of cautionary tales among British winners and their experiences.
Experts have been warning of the potential pitfalls, with men seeming especially at risk when succumbing after such sudden apparent good fortune.
Psychologist Dr Joanna Silver told MailOnline: 'While winning the lottery sounds like the ultimate dream, sudden wealth can be emotionally destabilising - it can remove familiar structures and routines and can leave people unsure of who they are or what to do next.
'The loss of purpose, sudden pressure to "be happy", real or perceived changes in how others treat them can leave people feeling disoriented, confused and isolated.'
She described how people already experiencing mental health issues such as anxiety or depression could have even such a 'positive' major life event make such feelings 'more intense'.
Dr Silver said: 'Lottery wins can really increase pre existing feelings. If someone already feels unworthy, for example, sudden wealth might not bring happiness - it might deepen their sense of loneliness, guilt, or emotional disconnection.'
And there can be knock-on difficulties when dealing with others, even close and loved ones, with Dr Silver adding: 'Relationships are often built around shared experience and a sudden lottery win can change those dynamics quickly.
'Winners may struggle with trust, wondering whether people like them for who they are or because of their money.
'Loved ones might also articulate expectations that the winner should now support or "fix" everything.
'Such imagined or real expectations can can lead to tension, resentment, or guilt on both sides.'
She also warned how men might tend towards more such struggles, adding: 'Some men are socialised to deal with emotional issues privately, or not at all.
'They may be less likely to seek support or talk openly when they're struggling, especially if they feel they "should" be happy.
'The pressure to be in control, to provide, or to appear successful may also make it harder for some men to process the emotional side of sudden change.
'This does not mean men are intrinsically less resilient but that societal expectations can sometimes limit the ways that they cope.'
New details emerging this week revealed how struggling plumber Mr Winslet, 22, dipped into the last $19 (£11) in his bank account to buy a ticket for a AU$100million (£48million) draw in 2022.
He became the sole claimant of a division prize worth AU$22million.
But the young man who had endured bullying at school while suffering from two incurable conditions from birth - Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome - plunged into a life of hedonism, lavishing his new-found cash on drugs such as MDMA, cocaine and marijuana.
In 2020, police raided his home in New Port, Adelaide, and found 27.3g of MDMA, some stored in a bowl in his fridge near a box of Red Bull, as well 2.27g of cocaine plus a Mauser handgun and ammunition in his bathroom.
He pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence, and in August 2022 was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail - suspended for two years on a good behaviour bond.
Mr Winslet was then found dead at home in December that year, with an autopsy later confirming the cause as health complications from excessive drug use - but it was only this week that details of his death were outlined.
British lottery winners have also struggled in the aftermath of their jackpot wins.
Keith Gough, £9million - National Lottery
Father-of-two Keith Gough landed £9million on the Lottery - only to become so 'bored' after giving up his job as a baker that he drank himself to death, it was said.
Mr Gough, 58, of Bridgnorth in Shropshire, was thought to be penniless when he died in March 2010 after suffering a heart attack brought on by drinking and stress - though it later emerged he had actually left almost £800,000 in his will.
Mr Gough and his wife Louise won £9million in 2005 and splashed out on a top-of-the-range BMW, racehorses and an executive box at Aston Villa.
But the couple, wed for 27 years, separated two years later after Mr Gough quit his job and began drinking heavily out of 'boredom'.
He moved to Cheshire where he rented a £1million home and hired a chauffeur and a gardener on annual salaries of £25,000 and £15,000 respectively.
But he blew a fortune on gambling and was duped out of more than £700,000 by a conman persuading him to invest in bogus business schemes.
The pair met when Mr Gough was being treated for alcohol dependency in the Priory rehabilitation clinic in Birmingham.
Mr Gough told in a 2009 interview how his life had been 'ruined' by winning the lottery, saying: 'Without routine in my life I started to spend, spend, spend - In the end I was just bored.
'Before the win all I would drink was some wine with a meal. I used to be popular but I've driven away all my friends. I don't trust anyone any more.
'When I see someone going in to a newsagent, I advise them not to buy a lottery ticket.'
Paul Maddison, £11million - National Lottery
Double glazing salesman Paul Maddison, from Hastings in East Sussex, scooped half of a £22.6million National Lottery win in 1995 with business partner Mark Gardiner.
Yet it was later revealed how the four-times married man ended his days as a 'miser' living alone in a modest £100,000 flat, dying aged of 73 in November 2023 - just months after his 62-year-old wife Evelyn passed away.
At the time his lotto windfall was one of the biggest ever in this country - and he initially marked his stroke of luck with a lavish romantic wedding on Valentine's Day on a beach in Mauritius.
Mr Maddison later bought a 'fairytale' 16th century castle set in 37 acres of grounds - Robgill Tower, near Scottish town Dumfries - to share with his fourth wife Evelyn.
But he chose to rent it out at a vast rate before selling it at a huge profit while living out his final years in his more humdrum apartment in Perth, central Scotland - 500 miles from his original hometown of Hastings.
A friend who knew him for years told MailOnline in 2023: 'Paul was the tightest person I've ever known. He never bought a round in all the years I've known him. It wouldn't surprise me if he still had the whole Camelot payout in a box under his bed.'
It was suggested that Mr Maddison's only financial extravagances in his final years were generous donations to the Jehovah's Witness movement he had lately joined.
Mr Gardiner, who decided not to retire after sharing the £22.6million lottery win and kept running a double glazing firm, said after his former friend's death: 'It's a shame we lost touch. I tried to stay in touch with him and I would leave messages for him on his phone but he had moved on.'
Mr Gardiner himself has told of splashing out on buying his own football club as well as a Barbados home - only to run out of money amid a series of failed investments and return to working out of a van as a glazier.
And he has spoken of still buying tickets with the same numbers he used in 1995, saying: 'Don't get me wrong, if I won the lottery now at 61 - I'd have done so many different things.'
Margaret Loughrey, £27million - EuroMillions
A Euromllions prize winner who described her £27million jackpot as 'destroying' her life was found dead by police at her £125,000 home eight years after the windfall.
Margaret Loughrey, 56, scooped the EuroMillions top prize in 2013 after buying a ticket when walking back from the Job Centre, living on benefits of just £58 a week.
Her good fortune saw Ms Loughrey, from Northern irish capital Belfast, dubbed 'Maggie Millions' and allowed her to buy a property empire including a £125,000 bungalow, a pub and a former mill turned leisure centre.
She also pledged to give at least half of the money away to good causes, but she was sectioned four months after the draw and later described life as a multi-millionaire by declaring: 'If there is a hell, I have been in it. It has been that bad.'
She bought Herdman's Mill in Sion Mills, Northern Ireland, in 2014, but it was targeted by fires and vandalism - and Ms Loughrey was also ordered to do 150 hours of community service in 2015 after being convicted of assaulting a taxi driver.
Ms Loughrey accused people of having 'stolen millions' from her, adding: 'I regret winning the lottery, of course I do. I was a happy person before - I am a human being and all it has done is destroy my life.'
At the last count she said she had £5million left, saying: 'You can't take your money with you. There is no shroud with pockets.'
Police said her sudden death was not treated as suspicious. She was not thought to have ever married but was survived by her four brothers and sister.
One of her brothers, Paul Loughrey, later told the Mail: 'The lottery win done none of us any good, let me tell you. The day that she won it, I said, "Life is never going to be the same, this is going to destroy some of us here".
'It was too much for Margaret to deal with. It was a lot of money. I couldn't have dealt with it - personally I wouldn't have wanted it. We all tried to help Margaret over the years, but she just didn't want to know, that's the bottom line.'
Among her post-lottery prize purchases was Herdman's Mill (pictured) in Sion Mills in 2014, though it was later hit by fires and vandalism
Helen Ford, £500,000 - scratchcard
Former ballet dancer Helen Ford, 54, died in a collision with a train after years of struggling to cope with a £500,000 scratchcard bonus, an inquest heard.
The win meant she could buy an apartment in seaside town Penarth, near Cardiff - but friends later branded the windfall 'the worst thing that could ever happen to her'.
An inquest into her death at Cardiff Coroner's Court was told she had struggled to manage her finances after the lottery win in September 2003 and was living with bipolar personality disorder.
Miss Ford had won the jackpot as part of a hat-trick of wins in one day, garnering £45 on her first scratchcard then the big prize and a further £50 on the National Lottery.
Weeks later she told of being diagnosed with manic depression at the age of 25.
She said: 'People seem to think I should be happy all the time because of the lottery. But money doesn't buy you health and happiness.
'The lottery helps as it's given me financial security and the opportunity to explore other avenues, like holidays that I wouldn't normally afford.
'But it doesn't buy health or solve problems. People who think if they win £30million it will solve their problems - it won't.
'If I had won £30million, it wouldn't have made me better. Money isn't what's important in life and people should remember that.'
Speaking after Ms Ford's death, her friend Tracey Alexander said: 'When she won the lottery it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to her. She was unable to cope with being responsible for the money. It didn't do much good for her.'
Friends described Ms Ford's (pictured) windfall 'the worst thing that could ever happen to her'
Mukhtar Mohidin, £17.9million - National Lottery
There was a media frenzy when the National Lottery's first rollover jackpot was finally claimed in December 1994 - having hit a top value of £17.9million.
Winning ticket holder Mukhtar Mohidin initially ticked the 'no publicity' box with lotto organisers Camelot - but a judge's injunction ruled his identity could be revealed.
At the time he was a 42-year-old chemical factory shift worker living with his wife and three young children in a redbrick terraced house in Blackburn.
But his life went into a downward spiral after that abrupt change in fortunes, including being shunned by his local Muslim community as he pursued a gambling addiction.
Mr Mohidin donated £320,000 to develop a new meeting hall, but mosque elders returned the money and it stood unfinished for years before being demolished.
He and his wife went on to divorce and he spent thousands on escorts and lavish living, before dying aged 64 while living in a £35-a-night B&B in Blackpool.
His ex-wife had obtained a court injunction preventing their children from being identified - while it was also revealed he had a 'love child' by an escort he dated.
Ex-lover Charlotte Doyle told the Mail in 2017: 'He went from being a casino and party-loving playboy into the man I suspect he had been before he won the money.'
Mr Mohidin is now buried in an unmarked grave in a Berkshire cemetery, afte dying on August 23 2017 in a nearby hospital.
His official cause of death was given as complications from a urinary tract infection, though his also listed ancillary ailments including kidney failure, liver cirrhosis and heart disease.
One family member told the Mail at the time: 'He died from good living.'