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As hard as it will be to win the $1.1 billion first-prize in Friday night’s Mega Millions lottery drawing — with odds of acing it at 1 in 302,575,350 — holding onto the money will be a long shot in its own right.
The world of lottery winners is paved with former millionaires who’ve burned through fortunes and wound up broke.
Take Jay Sommers. In 1988, he won some $5 million in the Michigan state lottery. Only 20 at the time, he was the state’s youngest winner and a splashy poster boy for easy riches. These days? “There ain’t no money left,” Sommers, now 54, told The Post.
“I put money in a trust fund and the trustee embezzled $2 million from me. I went into NASCAR and that was fun but expensive — it cost me $200,000 per year. I raced in Daytona and finished fourth. I quit college, which was idiotic. I wound up suing the trustee and won [in excess of $1 million], but he threatened to go bankrupt. So I settled for $800,000. My lawyers got $380,000. I spent about $200,000 on the trial, which I did not know I would be responsible for.”
These days, Sommers said, “I work as a marine mechanic, fixing boats. I’m a normal guy, working 9 to 5.” Winning the lottery, he added, “ruined my life.”
But it could have been worse. At least Sommers is not dead or imprisoned.
Jeffrey Dampier won $20 million in the Illinois state lottery in 1996. He promptly divorced his wife, gave her half the winnings, remarried, had an affair with his new sister-in-law — and wound up shot to death by her.
Ronnie Music Jr.
