They Won Millions for Life. Until They Didn't...

Approximately 20,000 ​seafarers have been stranded, many since late February, because they can’t get through the Strait of Hormuz. WSJ’s Drew Hinshaw spoke with sailors trapped in the strait and reports on their worsening conditions. And WSJ’s Jared Malsin explains why it is so h ...  Show more

Sometimes, actor Riz Ahmed says, his life feels like a spy thriller. He made his new show, “Bait,” about that feeling, and sat down with Jessica Mendoza at our Journal Live show in Los Angeles to talk about it. The actor, known for blockbusters like “Star Wars: Rogue One” and his ...  Show more

Americans spend more on scratch lottery tickets per year than on pizza. More than all Coca-Cola products. Yet the scratch ticket as a consumer item has only existed for fifty years. Not so long ago, the idea of an instant lottery, of gambling with a little sheet of paper, was str ...  Show more

Last week Carrie Edwards of Midlothian won $150,000 from the Virginia lottery because she matched four of the first five numbers plus the Powerball number on her lottery ticket on the Sept. 8 drawing. This week Edwards took that money and gave it all to three charities. The Assoc ...  Show more

In 1999, Tonda Dickerson, a waitress at a Waffle House in Grand Bay, Alabama, received a Florida lottery ticket as a tip from a regular customer, Edward Seward. To her astonishment, the ticket turned out to be a $10 million winner. Dickerson's windfall quickly became a leg ...

In 2010, a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket was sold at a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, no one showed up to claim the prize. And then, a series of lawyers tried to claim the money on behalf of a client they would not name. Things got stranger, and eventually investigat ...  Show more