People win lotteries every day – sometimes multi-millions. Women win the lotteries and men win the lotteries, but is there a difference in behavior and/or attitude when a woman wins a lottery, as opposed to a man? We looked at several winning stories of both men and women in order to determine gender differences in what men and women actually do with the win, how men and women react when they hear that they won, and what plans they have to spend the money.
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Cynthia Stafford Was Extremely Ecstatic
Cynthia Stafford from California was extremely ecstatic to win $112 million in the California Mega Millions jackpot, but she wasn’t surprised. Cynthia would play the lottery two or three times a month. She claims that she had been fixated on winning for so long that she more or less expected it to happen. She says that her trick was visualizing winning whenever she purchased a ticket and then she would pick whatever random numbers she thought of at the time.
Paul Hardware Immediately Quit His Job
Paul Hardware suddenly disclosed the fact that he won nearly £5 million. The 51 year old from Cardiff immediately quit his job. He had been recently told that he was going to be laid off as a chef and he was working opposite shifts to his wife so that they barely saw each other. He looked at his numbers and checked them several times and upon realizing that he was the winner of the £5 million lottery, he promptly quit his job.
Men and Women Show the Same Excitement
Of course this is only one example, but it would seem as though Cynthia was calmer about her winning as she has less going on in her life at the time. Paul, on the other hand, was a bit impulsive and frantic about his win. We have to take into consideration all he had going on at the time of the win, though. Out of the 10 or so male and female lottery winners we looked at, regardless of the prize amount, they all seemed surprised and none of them reacted impulsively. They all seemed pretty much excited about their newfound wealth. It’s what they did with the money that made all the difference.
Cynthia Stafford Spends Some of Her Fortune
The first thing Cynthia Stafford did when she won her $112 million was go house hunting. She ended up buying herself a beautiful 4,000 sq. ft. home with a pool in the Pacific Palisades. She still lives there today. Then Cynthia purchased herself a Mercedes Benz and a trip to Paris. She also donated some of her winnings to several charities.
Paul Hardware Takes a Mediterranean Cruise
Paul Hardware quit his job immediately and he and his wife went on Mediterranean cruise. When the cruise was over they ended up taking care of domestic issues, such as paying off their mortgage, buying their dream house in Somerset, and buying their son a used Vauxhall Astra. There was no mention of Paul donating to any charities, so perhaps women are a bit more philanthropic than men?
Matthew Evans Springs for Breakfast
Matthew Evans, a former postman, walked around with his £2.6 million winning ticket in his pocket for three days before realizing that he won. He only checked the lottery ticket after buying a new lottery ticket for the next drawing. The next day Matthew sprang for breakfast for his friends and then went to the Ashes (cricket matches). He ended up buying his father a new car and his sister (a mother of eight) a brand new kitchen. Again, no mention of charitable contributions.
Hilda Floyd Gives It All Away
Hilda Floyd won $1 million in Idaho’s Million Dollar Raffle. Hilda claims that as soon as she won the money she knew what she was going to do with it. She knew all along that the money would go to charity. But all of it? Yes! Floyd stuck to her promise and donated more than 90% of it among a number of charities, including her church. She wanted to make sure she could make a difference in someone else’s life. That she certainly did.
Basically, People are People
While we’re sure there are generous males out there who have donated some of their winnings to charity, it seems from the people we researched that female lottery players are more likely to give some of their winnings to charity than male lottery players. All in all, male or female, reactions to winning a large sum of money in a lottery are human, as opposed to gender specific. Also what was purchased with the winnings seems pretty much universal.