Winner is still doing financially well even though she was tempted to splurge

By Kate Northrop

While many hopeful lottery players dream about the cars they'd drive, the places they'd vacation to, and the mansions they'd buy if they ever won big, a single mother stepped forward seven years after her $6 million win to talk about what makes winning millions in the lottery so tricky.

When a single mother won $6 million in her state lottery, she didn't expect the sudden changes that were about to come her way. Seven years later, she's opening up about the win to shed light on how she dealt with them and made good use of her fortune.

In 2016, Gloria Easly won a $6 million prize on a scratch-off ticket, instantly putting her on a path that she'd have to navigate with caution.

The moment Easly saw she had won big, she knew she wanted to stay under the radar, she told Insider in an interview. In fact, she encountered her first test immediately upon winning the prize.

She had grabbed a claim form from the scratch-off machine in the retailer she bought the winning ticket at, but she left the store without letting the cashier behind the counter take a selfie with her and the winning ticket she purchased there.

"He said, 'Let me take a picture,'" Easly recounted to Insider. "No, thank you,' I said."

Accompanied by a friend, she made her way to the Lottery's headquarters to file a claim. The state in which she won was not named in order to accommodate Easly's concerns about privacy.

When she arrived, a Lottery official brought her into a private room, and he confirmed her $6 million win. She had a choice to make — accept the prize as an annuity for the full amount, or a one-time, lump sum payment of a smaller amount.

She took the $3 million lump sum and immediately deposited it into an account she had set up the same day she won.

The official had also asked her whether she'd like to publicly disclose her name, which she turned down.

"You don't want to put it all over the place," she explained. "I thought, 'I have two children. I have a family.' Maybe I watched a little too many movies, but I was thinking of ransom and stuff like that."

While she declined to appear in the Lottery's media, word did travel around her neighborhood that she had won a lottery prize of some kind.

"My friend was telling people I'd won $30,000 but she didn't have the amount right," Easly said. That was when she started to feel "worried about [her] safety."

The first person she told about the prize after her friend was her daughter, who was working at a fast-food restaurant at the time of the win. With people "coming out of the woodwork," even those who had been unreliable in the past, Easly had her priorities in check.

"I knew that, first and foremost, the best thing was to get my kids out," the single mother said. "People were calling me during the second day, and I remember thinking, 'Where were you when I was having a hard time?'"

Within ten days of the win, Easly had moved her son, now 13, her daughter, now 29, and her grandson, now 13, into a hotel in a neighboring state. She and her family started looking at new homes in a new state, ultimately deciding on two houses "just around the corner from each other on a cul-de-sac."

Easly bought both three-bedroom, two-bathroom houses for $200,000 in cash, each.

"Mine was a ranch because I didn't want any steps," Easly added. "I'd been walking up steps a lot of years."

The 44-year-old winner was setting her and her family up for success, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel the temptation to splurge.

"I know I could have blown through the money and gotten into difficulties," she admitted.

Rather than leave it to chance, she started working with financial advisor Eszylfie Taylor, who was introduced to her by Easly's cousin.

Taylor has advised several professional athletes and celebrities, as well as business owners and high net worth families. He founded Taylor Insurance and Financial Services, which is based in Pasadena, California. At the start of his professional relationship with Easly, he told Insider, he pulled no punches.

"I made it clear to Gloria that she needed to act wisely if she wanted to live on this money for the rest of her life," Taylor said.

Easly was tuned into the reality of her win and understood that the newfound wealth "could vanish in the blink of an eye," so she followed Taylor's advice and invested in stocks.

"We basically put the money into different buckets, each with a different pro and con," Taylor explained. "It was about balance and diversification."

Easly still receives requests for money from friends and family years after the win, but she is careful to recognize when someone might be taking advantage of her and is mindful of to whom she lends an ear.

"I gave them little pieces when it first happened, but it's not a revolving door when you keep coming back," she said. "You get a lot of requests, but you can't be picking up the phone every five minutes. It's hard to say 'no,' but you have to realize that people sometimes see us as dollar signs."

It's not just important to pay attention to who is requesting money, but what they are requesting money for. Easly said she still reviews person's request on a case-by-case basis.

"It's one thing if someone is saying, 'I want to buy shoes, go to a show and get my hair done,'" she clarified. "It's another if my mom's sister, my great-aunts, or my cousins need it for other reasons."

Today, the lottery winner is in a good place financially, and she hasn't allowed the win to change who she is.

"The biggest thing is relief for my kids and their future," she said. "I wouldn't say the money made me happy. If it takes money to make you happy, then you won't ever be happy."

"I still shop in the places I shopped before," she continued. "I'm not the kind of person who spends $100,000 on a car. The only thing that's changed about me is moving to a new state and the area-code change."

Easly said she did find herself "gambling more" after the win, frequenting the casino and slot machines, but she "had to pull [herself] back off."

If there's one luxury she'll allow herself to enjoy, it's designer shoes and handbags, but there's still nothing more satisfying than a good deal. She recently found a Gucci purse that normally goes for $10,000 at full retail value that she got for $3,500.

She's also treated her family to trips to Disney World and Universal Studios, and they regularly vacation in California. She has no interest in traveling overseas, however, and does not have a passport.

"It's not something I've thought about just because the money is there," she elaborated. "I'm not going to book a flight to Paris or Italy, stay over, and spend a bunch of money to have to come back."

Lastly, Easly has no interest in romance, having remained single and saying she "can take it or leave it."

"You never know the motive," she stated. "I've been on my own for a long time. I'm not buying anybody. I'm OK as I am."

Thanks to Win$500quick for the tip.