Most lottery winners go broke within a few years
| Most lottery winners go broke within a few years | |
|---|---|
| UNSUPPORTED | |
| "About 70 percent of lottery winners go bankrupt within a few years of winning." | |
| Domain | Economy & Labor |
| Tactic | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2000s |
| Origin | A statistic widely attributed to the National Endowment for Financial Education and repeated in news stories and personal-finance content |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Economy & Labor | |
The statistic that 70 percent of lottery winners go broke is often credited to the National Endowment for Financial Education. NEFE has said the figure did not come from its research. Studies of lottery winners give a more mixed picture: modest winners do not escape financial trouble, while large winners generally end up wealthier.
The claim
The figure appears in countless articles warning about sudden wealth.
What the evidence shows
- No source. The 70 percent figure cannot be traced to a published study.
- Florida study. Economists Scott Hankins, Mark Hoekstra and Paige Marie Skiba found that Florida winners of $50,000 to $150,000 were less likely to file for bankruptcy right after winning but caught up with smaller winners within a few years.
- Swedish studies. Research on Swedish lottery winners found that large prizes produced lasting gains in wealth.
Why it persists
Stories of ruined winners are dramatic, while the many who manage well rarely make the news.
Sources
- Scott Hankins, Mark Hoekstra and Paige Marie Skiba, "The Ticket to Easy Street? The Financial Consequences of Winning the Lottery," Review of Economics and Statistics 93, no. 3 (2011).
- David Cesarini, Erik Lindqvist, Matthew J. Notowidigdo and Robert Östling, "The Effect of Wealth on Individual and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Swedish Lotteries," American Economic Review 107, no. 12 (2017).