7 lotto winners who lost it all [Updated]

The story of a Chicago man allegedly poisoned to death for his winnings — and other tales of luck gone terribly wrong

Urooj Khan won $1 million — a month later, he was found dead.
(Image credit: CNN)

Suspicious circumstances: The future looked bright for India-born Illinois lottery winner Urooj Khan — an owner of several dry-cleaning operations in the Chicago area — when he scratched off $1 million on a lottery ticket he bought at a 7-Eleven. But on July 20, mere days before he was to collect his $425,000 lump sum of after-tax winnings, Khan suddenly died. Finding no initial signs of foul play, medical examiners at first ruled the death to be of natural causes. But after his family insisted his death be investigated further, a toxicology report found lethal levels of cyanide in his blood. While no one knows yet who may have poisoned Khan, an in-law who has had run-ins with the IRS has reportedly lawyered up.

Blowing money on blow: Want to know how to fritter away a multi-million lottery fortune? Ask Michael Carroll: The unemployed Brit has blown a £9.7 million jackpot he won in 2002 (approximately $15 million at the time) and as of 2010, was hoping to get his old job back as a garbageman. At first, Carroll lavished gifts on friends and family, but soon started spending on less admirable causes: Cocaine, parties, cars, and, at one point, up to four prostitutes a day. "The party has ended," he told the UK's Daily Mail, "and it's back to reality. That's the way I like it. I find it easier to live off £42 dole than a million."

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