Pennsylvania Man Won $16M Lottery — Bought A Plane, A Mansion, Then Went Bankrupt: 'I Was Happier Broke'

William 'Bud' Post III said he was 'much happier' when he was broke. He died in 2006, aged 66, with roughly $1 million in debt. (Credit: YT/ True Lottery Stories)

William 'Bud' Post III had exactly $2.46 (£1.82) in his bank account when he claimed a $16.2 million (£12 million) share of the Pennsylvania Lottery in February 1988. Three months later, he owed creditors $500,000 (£370,000).

Nearly four decades on, his collapse remains one of the most extreme cases of sudden wealth gone wrong, and the story has resurfaced in a video, tracing how quickly the fortune unravelled.