Whittaker is in the news FAR more than most winners.. I have not heard ANYTHING about the Wests, the Lerners, or Rebecca Jemison, or most other big winners after they initially won. Jack's been in the news regulary for almost four years now. I don't think "Windfall" (the show) will get past 1 year. You're not going to read many stories about people who "did good" with their winnings because it's not newsworthy enough. Lerners gave a big donation to Seton Hall and that's the last I heard. Probably that time he got robbed at the Pony made him a target for a lot of unwanted attention and led to much of the other problems he's had.

Also.. bear in mind that, he had a better chance of winning than I did because he bought 115 tickets for that drawing and I only got about 10 or 15 - including some in West Virginia! Imagine me hearing the news the next day that a winner was sold in WV! That's why I follow it so much.. that could have been me!

Well I think that it wont take long for him to be broke ... now I am not saying that its gonna be in the next year  BUT it will be with in the next 5

From what I've read about Jack Whittaker, as a millionaire contractor before he won the PowerBall jackpot he was no stranger to local news coverage but winning the PB jackpot create a national interest in him.  Jack probably always acted the same way but before his PB win nobody outside West Virgina cared.  One of the reason "America Most Wanted" show has caught so many criminals is it takes local crimes and give them national coverage.  Most people don't know what's happening two hundred miles away from them unless it has national coverage.  Winners who never made the news before they won probably won't make the news much after they win.

I do recall that there was another winner of a large jackpot (from Florida, I think) who tried to donate to Salvation Army, and that donation was refused.

Yes, Uff Da.  He lives on Marco Island about 35 miles south of me. The Salvation Army will not accept charitable donations if the person won the money gambling. Too bad, because they could have fed a lot of hurricane victims with that money.  It's true what RJOh wrote - nobody has ever heard anything about this winner again. At least I haven't and I read the Naples Daily News.  He was a successful investment broker and really didn't "need" the money, but anyone can play and anyone can win.  He probably found a local soup kitchen or another way to be generous.  Jack Whittaker is big news where he lives. $14 million on Marco Island is a year's income for some people.

justxploring wrote:

The Salvation Army will not accept charitable donations if the person won the money gambling.

I read elsewhere that that was a local decision, and that the same decison might not be reached elsewhere.  I can't say how accurate that statement is, as I don't recall the source now.  But realistically, unless someone makes a big thing of it in a news conference, most organizations aren't going to check on what the source of all their large donations is.  Therefore, no doubt, some charitable organizations might accept "gambling money" unknowingly.

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Here is a link to some articles which lead me to believe the churches did accept JW's donations, for better or worse.

http://www.generousgiving.org/page.asp?sec=28&page=264

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Edited to add:  Here is a link to an article I just found which includes information about the Salvation Army's position :

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/119/story_11937_1.html

The article includes this statement:

The Salvation Army has no standing policy on accepting money from any source.

Uff Da, I have no idea what churches, synogogues or charitable groups will accept. I guess I was only assuming that the Salvation Army had that policy since it was in our local paper that they gave back the money to that lottery winner. Who knows what happened and why? I realize that many people look at the lottery as evil or sinful as a form of gambling, but I can't believe that a loving God would refuse hungry people the opportunity to eat or find shelter through those donations. After all, winning the lottery isn't the same as robbing a bank, selling drugs or working for the Mob. The first picture on the Florida website's winners section is a woman who started many charitable foundations with her prize. She passed away just a few years after she won (from natural causes) and was able to accomplish a lot of good with her money. Money is only evil when it is used to cheat, degrade or hurt people in other ways. I'll never begin a religious debate with anyone (I'll lose) since I'm not an expert on the Bible, but so many people misquote Timothy  "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. "

I just used the link and read that the man in FL only gave $100,000.  I was wrong and thought it was much more because he won over $14 million.  Here's a story about it:

6/12/2006

"DD"....you know I have great faith in you My Friend......your  day will come.....

Someone needs to learn how to "check" his bank balance!!!!!!!!!!!!

6/12/2006

It's all extremely interesting to me. I never knew that....But, I totally concurr w/you. When you stop and look at all the Hardships across the US in the last year...starting w/Hurricane Katrina....well I can tell you the Catholic Church would accept Lottery donations...and that's wonderful......