History Main / NeverWinTheLottery

* The premise of the book ''One In A Million''. The main character [[spoiler: wins the lottery, but before she gets a chance to tell her husband, he announces that he is leaving her for another woman.]]

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", Captain Stottlemeyer appears to win half of a $212 million jackpot. However, he's ruled ineligible because he knew Natalie, who was serving as lottery ball girl. Not only that, [[spoiler:the winning ticket was planted to frame him and Natalie in a plot to rig the lottery. The perp (a cameraman) had replaced some of the balls with versions using metallic paint and hidden an electromagnet in the microphone. He then got fired for unrelated reasons, meaning he had no way to turn the magnet off, someone would have noticed the same numbers hitting again and again, and he would've been the first and only suspect... hence the framing.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In one episode, Richard's [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp childhood bully]], Harold, is tricked into thinking he's got a winning ticket . He ends up [[TakeThisJobandShoveIt quitting his job,]] [[CoolCar buying a golden car and helicopter]], [[TrophyWife leaving his wife for a younger and prettier woman]] and [[KarmicButtMonkey blowing up his house with dynamite.]]

* ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' had an episode that dealt with people stealing scratchcards in order to decode the formula that would allow them to predict the appearance of the jackpot winner. It turns out that most of the crew were former lottery winners who'd blown through their wins and were desperate to recover some money to prevent their lives falling apart.

* ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' had an episode that dealt with people using math to predict the appearance of winning scratchcards (due to a printing error, one batch of cards were not randomized properly and yielded a much higher likely hood of winning).

* ''Series/ColdCase'' has a depressing variant. A humble garage mechanic named Ed wins big in the lottery. [[spoiler: He's eventually murdered by his own family, who are in financial distress, and hope Ed's lotto money will pass to them when his estate is dissolved.]] Turns out Ed managed to spend the entire $8 million in just six months, and they end up with nothing.

** Kel wins the Illinois Lottery and $64 million. The ticket is legit, and all arguing is avoided when Kel generously agrees to split the money down the middle with his best friend Kenan. Just before Kenan and Kel head out to cash the ticket, a customer enters the grocery store where Kenan works and insists to be served. In their haste to fill the woman's grocery bags, the duo accidentally places the lottery ticket in the woman's grocery bag, and HilarityEnsues as they try to get it back from her house. [[StatusQuoIsGod They fail]].

* ''Manga/RockLeesSpringtimeOfYouth'': In Episode 27, Tsunade hits the jackpot in the lottery and promises to take Team Guy to a five-star sushi bar. She finds out that she actually had the wrong number when she goes to collect her winnings. To make matters worse, Lee invites Manga/{{Naruto}}, Sakura and Konohamaru to join them, making it almost impossible for her to back out.

** In yet another episode Homer finds a winning scratcher ticket at the Kwik-E-Mart while Apu is asleep on duty, but he only has enough money for the ticket '''or''' the candy he also wants to buy. He disappointedly opts for the candy.

* In ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'', there are betting pools that try to predict when or how a given person will die, and those characters with a reputation for always losing when they gamble will bet against others surviving in the hope that their record of failure in guessing right will confound the cosmic dice of Fate and Chance into keeping the outcome of their outings positive.

* Zig-zagged in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable''. Josuke, Okayasu, and Shigechi manage to acquire a legitimate jackpot lottery ticket that [[GrailInTheGarbage was thrown away]]. They have to jump through a lot of hoops to get the money, though; they almost get arrested for fraud because they didn't buy the ticket. And then Shigechi gets greedy at the last seconds and tries to abscond with the money, but Josuke forces him to split it as they agreed. In the end, everyone receives their fair share... but Josuke's mother quickly impounds his share because it's too much money for him to handle, and uses it for his college fund.

* When the title character of ''Manga/SquidGirl'' discovers a lottery ticket worth 100 million yen, first response is to rattle off a list of reasons why it's fake. Upon discovering it isn't, she still has difficulty accepting it - particularly the fact that she gave Ika that ticket. The two bicker about it so much that Chizuru burns it to settle things. [[spoiler:Or at least she pretends to.]]

* Averted in Wally West's early years as ''Comicbook/TheFlash''. He ''did'' win the lottery, and spent the money foolishly. (e.g., the fastest man alive bought an Italian sports car.) Poor planning and an economic downturn caused him to lose the money not too much later.

* Bibbo Bibbowski from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comics actually did win the lottery. Although in his case the ticket was one he found on the street. The ticket was lost by Jimmy Olsen, who was going through a ChewToy phase.

* Spanish show ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'' had an episode in which a lottery ticket, won by the whole building, (a Christmas tradition) won the (third) price. The community president's wife attempts to convince her husband to keep the money, and HilarityEnsues. One of the rare examples where the ticket is legit and it does get cashed.
* ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'', the episode "Goodbye Mr Grainger". Old Mr Grainger resigns after a bad depression, but the depression lifts when he discovers that he won a First Drawing tin the football pools. He buys the entire staff farewell gifts, and they discover that he didn't win anything. So they just club the money together that the gifts cost, tell him he just won that much, and manage to intercept his resignation before the Boss reads it.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', the characters buy a large number of tickets for a big lottery - and nearly come to blows over what they'd do ''if'' they won. Phoebe manages to find a ticket with the power ball, which wins them a grand total of $3. The others immediately give up their share so she can have everything. As they're commiserating in Central Perk they learn that while nobody won the whole jackpot somebody won $10,000 with one of the tickets the gang lost in the street.

* The Ur-example is probably the classic episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'' where they win a prize for the serial number of a dollar bill, but Lucy leaves the bill in the clothes that go to the laundry. After they pay off the traffic tickets and everything else, they have nothing to show for their efforts.. except what happened to Lucy while chasing the clothing on a conveyor belt...

* Inverted in ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Hurley, having won a very large pot in the lottery, quits his [=McJob=] after his boss mistreats him, and his friend and co-worker Johnny - not aware of the lottery win - quits as well in a gesture of solidarity. Hurley's inability to come clean to Johnny about his newly-acquired riches has more to do with the ruin of their friendship than the riches themselves.

* One season premiere of ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' had Larry and Balki play the lottery. Balki hides his ticket because he was afraid of losing it, but wrote down the numbers. Larry is shocked to discover he won. After a mad search for the ticket (which makes a mess of their apartment), it turns out Balki gave it to Jennifer and Mary Ann for safekeeping. After they give it back to him, they try to cash it in. They then discover that Balki wrote one of the numbers down wrong and they only won $100.

* On ''Series/SuddenlySusan'', Todd tricks Vicki into thinking she has won the lottery. She quits ''The Gate'' after telling everyone in the office what she really thinks of them, and must beg for forgiveness when she learns of the ruse.

* Poor Glen Elg of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations''. He wins the lottery. The ticket isn't fake, it's not a prank, he won big... and then he gets killed because of it. And not even for the money. [[spoiler: He owed $100,000 to a loan shark and had offered a computer virus he created (which would actually be worth millions) as collateral. The loan shark happened to be $1M in debt to the mafia, and was counting on selling the virus to pay it off... but then Elg won the lottery and just paid the debt normally, leaving the loan shark short of the money he needed. So the loan shark had to kill him to get the virus Elg would've given him if he ''hadn't'' won the lottery.]]

** In this story, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8k06LThBp8 Yuri]] learns that her parents won the lottery and were using the money to refurbish the house. This led to Akamatsu, her classmate from middle school who she has been distant since graduation, to ask her out for her parent's money. When she rejects him, he didn't take it well and it escalates into harassment until her boyfriend threatens him.

** Another episode features a computerized mailman program delivering Jon's mail so that the real mailman will no longer be pestered by Garfield. However, due to an accident, the program ends up delivering mail from the next day, including the newspaper. Jon takes advantage of this by using the knowledge of the winning lottery numbers to amass a fortune. However, he loses everything when a crooked investor steals his money and the cyber mailman machine explodes.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', Mordecai and Rigby decide to get back at Muscle Man's pranks by giving him a fake lottery ticket. Seemed harmless enough until Skips tells them of what happened to the ''last'' person who pulled a prank on him. Fearing his wrath, the two try to tell him what happened but get dragged into Muscle Man's spending spree before he even cashes the ticket, becoming more reluctant to do so. It isn't until when Muscle Man does go to cash it, the ticket is denied and he goes on a rampage against an army of guards do they ''finally'' tell him. Surprisingly he takes it in stride despite now being in debt (at most, he just gets an apology from the company that makes the fake tickets) and is impressed at Mordecai and Rigby for getting back at him. Though he promises that he'll have [[OhCrap to top their prank in the future]].
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': In "With Friends Like These", Rocko accidentally wins two tickets to a big wrestling match, and Heffer and Filburt drive him up the wall trying to curry his favor so he'll take one of them. When the day of the match arrives, the two have handcuffed themselves to Rocko and literally dragged him to the stadium where they intend to force him to pick one of them to share with. Instead, Rocko finally snaps, tears the tickets into tiny pieces, and tosses them into the air declaring "Tickets for everyone!". In a bitter irony, Rocko doesn't even ''like'' wrestling and probably would have given up ''both'' tickets if they'd just asked nicely.

** In another episode Homer goes to buy a ticket instead of appearing at a wedding reception with Marge, for which they practiced a song. He claims he was in an auto accident to cover, but when he wins the jackpot he has to pretend to "find" stuff he buys for the family.

* In the short story "Even a Loser Can Win," the narrator [[spoiler:is SecretlyWealthy]] as a result of attempting to avoid this trope. It comes back to bite him, though, as his PrettyFreeloader turned girlfriend [[spoiler:knew about his winnings all along and is actually a very subtle GoldDigger]].

For example, one character is mistakenly convinced they've won the lottery (or some other big prize, like tickets to a big concert or sporting event) and make an ass of themselves before learning it was a practical joke.

Or, other characters may start lavishing fake love and attention on the lotto winner hoping for a share of the prize, with the exact same humiliating outcome when the ticket turns out to be a loser, or worth far less than previously thought (sometimes because the millions or billions in the region's lottery's currency [[RidiculousExchangeRates is worth nothing when converted to the local rate]], or on some cases because [[TaxmanTakesTheWinnings once all taxes have been taken off, the remaining amount of prize money is way too small]]).

* ''WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt'': ** In this story, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8k06LThBp8 Yuri]] learns that her parents won the lottery and were using the money to refurbish the house. This led to Akamatsu, her classmate from middle school who she has been distant since graduation, to ask her out for her parent's money. When she rejects him, he didn't take it well and it escalates into harassment until her boyfriend threatens him.