Powerball Winner • KY • 2001
Jackpot (2024$)
$131,000,000
lump sum
Age at Win
46
Unemployed
David Lee Edwards won a quarter-share of $295M Powerball in August 2001, taking home $27M after taxes. Within 5 years, the 46-year-old ex-convict had lost everything to crack cocaine addiction. He died penniless in a Kentucky hospice on November 30, 2013.
"I didn't want to accept this money by saying I'm going to get mansions and I'm going to get cars. I would like to accept it with humility. I want this money to last, for me, for my future wife, for my daughter and future generations."
"He told everyone and me included, he put $1 million in a trust fund... He blew it all."
Edwards borrowed money from a friend to pay his water bill and used the remaining change to buy $7 worth of Powerball tickets at Clark's Pump-N-Shop. He was living in a basement, unemployed, less than 4 years out of prison. The $295M jackpot was split 4 ways (Maine, Minnesota, Delaware, Kentucky).