Man who won £235m on Powerball wished he ‘tore up ticket’ after life imploded | World | News

The world’s biggest lottery is landing in the UK this week — and a lucky Brit could soon find themselves more than £300million richer. Powerball is an American lottery game and winners get their hands on huge prizes that are paid out over three decades.

And today (July 23) the first UK draw will be made with an estimated prize of upwards of £300m — the largest ever jackpot offered in this country. Allwyn, the National Lottery operator, has made the game available to UK players, who will compete with people in the US.

There is one previous Powerball millionaire who knows exactly what it is like to scoop an insane amount of money – but it ended up being the worst thing that ever happened to him.

Andrew ‘Jack’ Whittaker wished he had torn up the ticket that led to tragic family deaths, a messy divorce, numerous thefts and a disturbing gambling addiction.

Below, we take a look at the chilling dark side Whittaker experienced from it.

Jack Whittaker

On Christmas Eve 2002, Whittaker purchased a ticket at a supermarket in his hometown of Hurricane, West Virginia, US, after stopping to put petrol in his car.

Despite not being a regular player, he struck gold, and it was the biggest ever single winning ticket in US lottery history — $315m (£235m).

However, this was not a rags to riches story, because Whittaker, an American businessman who ran a successful construction company, was already worth a cool $17m (£12.7m).

Despite having experience of being in control of significant wealth, the Powerball fortune ended up being too overwhelming, and it didn’t take long for his life to spiral.

Instead of breaking up the prize into several payments over time, he decided a lump sum was in his best interest, and he took home $113m (£84m) after tax.

He wasn’t selfish with his riches, and spent $15m building two churches, and he also launched the Jack Whittaker Foundation, where he would send people money to cover things like car payments and other expenses.

However, many regarded him as an unpopular winner, and Bob Rufus, a divorce accountant, spoke about witnessing a row between Whittaker and his wife’s divorce lawyer.

He remembered: “Jack was ready to start throwing punches. He was very volatile.”

The Powerball winner initially promised that the prize would not change him as a person — and he told Fox News that he was “doing God’s work with all this money” before adding: “I am helping a lot of people and I plan to help a lot more.”

However, after the windfall, he soon turned up to his local strip club, Pink Pony, where he put $50,000 (£37,500) in cash behind the bar.

At the time, the bar manager told the Washington Post: “My worst nightmare was waking up in the morning and reading in the paper that Jack Whittaker got rolled [robbed] at the Pink Pony. I said, ‘Please put that money away.’”

He later went back to Pink Pony and allegedly started to brag that he had over a million in cash inside his Lincoln outside the venue.

According to reports, two people then spiked him before breaking into the car to retrieve the cash. Both were charged but escaped prison and the money was later found by a rubbish bin.

Staggeringly, Whittaker failed to learn his lesson, and $200,000 (£150,000) was stolen from the same car outside the same strip club just five months later.

Whittaker became both famous and infamous in the area and after the lottery win he bought a Lamborghini and became known for throwing cash out of the window.

After so many thefts of large sums of cash that he carried around, he was asked why he kept doing it, and he replied: “Because I can.” Just two years after hitting the jackpot, Whittaker lost his granddaughter, Brandi Bragg, who was just 17.

Brandi meanwhile was found in a plastic trapline behind an abandoned van. Whittaker was reportedly giving his granddaughter $2,000 (£1.5k) per week before her death as well as buying her four cars.

Divorce accountant Bob Rufus said: “He gave a crazy stipend to his 17-year-old granddaughter and that attracted some bad characters: nothing good came of it.”

Although nothing can compare to the death of a loved one, Whittaker’s life continued to implode. This included being sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino after he bounced a check for $1.5m (£1.2m) to cover gambling losses.

And in 2008, after 42 years of marriage, Jewell Whittaker filed for divorce.

It was an ugly and lengthy process and, in 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that his ex-wife was allowed rights and access to some of her former husband’s company holdings.

Whittaker also lost his daughter, 42-year-old Ginger Whittaker Bragg, who was Brandi’s mother, in 2009.

He told ABC News that he had major regrets about winning Powerball and he said: “I pretty much lost everything I had and held dear in my life.

“Money has never meant anything to me. You have to have money to exist in this world, but money doesn’t rule the world. Money is not what makes people happy.”

Whittaker, whose house was also burned down in 2016, added: “My wife said she wished she’d torn the ticket up and I wish I had torn the ticket up too. I just don’t like what I’ve become.”

According to The Washington Post, he once loudly offered a female bartender cash for sex, while also offering another woman behind the bar $10,000 (£7,500) to pose in her underwear.

He was also once accused of sexual assault in a case that was settled before he claimed in 2007 that he was too broke to pay out.

Whittaker once told the Associated Press: “I’m only going to be remembered as the lunatic who won the lottery.”

He died of natural causes at the age of 72 in June of 2020.