Lotto winner survey: Would you share your lotto winnings?

Have you ever just sat at home or at the office, daydreaming about what you would do if you won millions? How you would spend it? On what you would spend it? Would you buy a fancy car, or a big house? Travel the world with your friends? Donate to charity? Or will you keep it all to yourself?

In 2018, a survey was done where 1,000 people from England were asked what they would do if they won £10 million (about R187 million).

How would they distribute their winnings between family, friends and charities?

According to Lottoland’s lotto winner survey, most participants were willing to share part of their winnings (between R18 million and R93 million) with family. However, 22% of the respondents said that they wouldn’t share the news with their friends. And overall, everyone thought that a donation of R1.8 million to charities was enough.

Source: Lottoland

Another interesting outcome of the survey was that people over 55 years of age were more generous than younger generations.

They would share more or less R93 million of their winnings with their families, whereas the age group between 18 and 34 would share around R56 million, and the those between 35 and 54 years would only share around R18 million of their winnings.

But in contrast to this, the youngest age group were more generous towards their friends, and would share between R112 million and R187 million.

South Africans sharing their millions

According to our research on Lotto winners over the past four years, we’ve seen that South Africans are definitely a generous group of people.

Here is a list of winners who stated that they would share their fortune with others:

R232 million Powerball winner on the 19^th of February 2019 – his children’s education was his main concern.

R114 million Powerball winner on the 26^th of November 2019 – to invest his winnings for his family’s future, and assist his relatives to have a better life.

R79 million Lotto winner on the 4^th of May 2019 – wanted to give R2 million to a petrol attendant that always assisted her, and pay for her daughter’s studies.

R87 million Powerball winner on the 22^nd of July 2016 – wanted to use the money to help others in need.

R61 million Lotto winner on the 27^th of July 2019 – wanted to invest his winnings so that his family will never suffer again.

R29 million Lotto Plus 1 winner on the 24^th of November 2018 – the owner and manager of two non-profit organisations would use this money to fund his charities.

R6 million Lotto Plus 1 winner on the 30^th of October 2019 – stated that he will donate some of his winnings to a homeless shelter in his community.

Will everyone know if you’ve won the lotto?

According to the survey, 9.3% of the participants said that they would go public if they won the lotto, and 90.7% said that they would remain anonymous. Younger people are more likely to share the news with the public, with 16% of the age group 18-34 years saying they would not remain anonymous. 10% of the 35 to 54 year age group would go public, and only 4% of the age group 55+ years would announce it publicly.

South Africa doesn’t even need a survey to answer whether South Africans would share the news about winning the lotto. A quick Google search reveals that the only winners who revealed their names did so years after winning.

Most winners choose to stay anonymous to keep their identity safe. Some people, like a father of three who won R8 million, wasn’t even planning on sharing the news with his children because he was afraid that they would tell others in the community.

What would you do? Would you share your big news or winnings, or keep it all to yourself?

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