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The winner takes it all

Every week 90 million pounds is spent on lottery tickets in the UK. So for this week's podcastsinenglish.com, our second podcast on the lottery, we're going to be looking at the winners.
Jun 27,2015
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Richard: Every week 90 million pounds is spent on lottery tickets in the UK. So for this week's podcastsinenglish.com, our second podcast on the lottery, we're going to be looking at the winners. So Jackie, you've done a little bit of research on the winners, haven't you?

 

Jackie: Yes and what's interesting, Richard, is that it's very easy to find horror stories of people who have won lots of money on the lottery and very difficult to find stories about people whose lives are better after winning a lot of money.

 

Richard: Yes, so does that mean if you win the lottery, your life is going to be horrible? [laughs]

 

Jackie: No, I think it's because the newspapers, they much prefer a bad story than a good story.

 

Richard: Yes, a good story is a bit boring, I suppose.

 

Jackie: And the favourite bad story in the newspapers is um... a winner called Michael Carroll.

 

Richard: What happened to him?

 

Jackie: Well, um... when he won the lottery he was nineteen, he was unemployed and he didn't have a bank account. In 2002 he won 9.7 million pounds.

 

Richard: Wow. I can see where this is going: spend, spend, spend.

 

Jackie: He bought four houses, plus a holiday villa in Spain, two BMWs, two Mercedes. Plus he spent loads of money on drugs and gold jewellery. So, come 2006, four years after winning all the money, it was gone.

 

Richard: The lot?

 

Jackie: He spent all the money.

Richard: Wow

Jackie: So, you can imagine, the newspapers loved the story. This guy winning all this money, spending it all and then being unemployed and penniless again.

 

Richard: But did you find any good stories? Well, not good stories, but stories of er... people who won the lottery who benefitted.

 

Jackie: Well, one example is a woman called Elaine Thompson. Um... before winning the lottery she had a part-time job and her husband had a full time job. They won 2.7 million pounds.

 

Richard: Right

 

Jackie: And they now run a restaurant together.

Richard: Okay, so they invested the money in a business.

Jackie: Yes. And so they're both still working and she had an interesting point to make. She said that if you're happy before winning the lottery you'll be happy afterwards. If you were miserable before you'll be miserable afterwards.

 

Richard: Mmm, interesting.

 

Jackie: And another success story was a woman called Julie Jeffrey. Both her and her husband had full time jobs but they were quite low paid jobs. They won just over a million pounds and, would you believe it, they live in the same house, and they have the same job.

 

Richard: These are, I'd say, small amounts, one million, two million pounds. Is that the key is it to win... not have… not win a huge amount?

 

Jackie: Maybe... maybe because that kind of money can improve their lives. Julie spent some of the money on her house. Both Julie and Elaine put money aside for their children's education. So I think they were sensible with the money. It wasn't too much money that would change their lives around in a very drastic way. But they carried on working so they carried on having a point to their lives.

 

Richard: Mmm

 

Jackie: One of the things that Elaine and Julie complained about was that the newspapers made up stories, made up horrible stories about them that just weren't true. Julie said that the bad stories were in the newspapers because they didn't believe that they could be happy after winning the money. So, Richard, if we won a million pounds on the lottery, we would continue with podcastsinenglish.com?

 

Richard: If it was only a million, probably yes. Any more than that and I'm not so sure. [Jackie laughs]


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