Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Winners Are Often Losers

Not surprisingly, many people who win large amounts of lottery money do not often fare well because the average person does not know how to cope with sudden wealth. There are numerous documented stories of winners who wish they had never seen the money. They endure misery, sadness, broken relationships and alienation from friends and family for a wide variety of reasons. Some even go bankrupt within a few years of winning.

Somehow that knowledge is supposed to make losers feel better, but every week more than 9,000,000 Canadians opt for a chance to win, confident that they could handle a big windfall. Why do they do it? Experts claim that there may be a variety of reasons – to escape from problems, depression, or negative feelings. Some may be bored or lonely. For others it’s a form of stimulation and excitement. It may also be just entertainment and an opportunity to indulge in the fantasy of getting rich quickly. Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us have periodically succumbed to the temptation to try our luck. Sadly, I have an unenviable gambling record. Whenever I check my lottery tickets at the automatic kiosk counter the read-out is always the same: Not A Winning Ticket. But just think of all the animosity, jealousy, hurt feelings, and resentment that I would avoid by not winning the 70,000,000!

Unlike shady characters in dark overcoats selling Irish Sweeps to gullible dreamers in rural Glengarry 75 years ago, modern ticket buyers are just as gullible, and do not fare much better. If they bought a 649 ticket each week for life, chances are they could expect to win once every 269,00 years.

But whenever the Lotto Max jackpot hits $70,000,000 again, I may just try my luck. I may be the one in 33,000,000 singled out for instant fortune and fame. It’s the only way for me to get rich. And think of my enviable status among relatives after making them all extremely wealthy. I am pretty certain that I know what their answer would be if I asked each one, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”