Why Buying Valentine’s Day Lottery Tickets for Your Significant Other Might Not Be Smart

Posted on: February 14, 2025, 12:35h. 

Last updated on: February 14, 2025, 12:36h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Lottery tickets are popular gifts for Valentine’s Day
  • Some lottery winners admit they’d end a relationship if they win big
  • The Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots continue to climb

Flowers and chocolate might be the quintessential Valentine’s Day gifts but many lovers will give their significant other lottery tickets today, too. That might not be a good idea for relationship longevity, a new study reports.

Valentine's Day lottery tickets
The Illinois Lottery has special scratch-off tickets for Valentine’s Day. Buying a gift, however, could lead to a breakup, a new survey finds. (Image: Illinois Lottery)

The folks at Jackpocket, an online courier service that allows players to purchase lottery plays online in certain states where gameplays can only be bought in retail stores, tell Casino.org that it recently surveyed 2K people to get their thoughts on how a major lottery win would alter their lives. Among the approximately 1K men aged 18 to 65 who responded to the survey, almost 40, or 3.7%, said they would ditch their partner as a result.

3.7% of men would celebrate winning the lottery by ending a relationship,” the survey said.

Another 8% admitted they would not tell their significant other about the newfound fortune. Slightly more men (8.1%) than women (7.9%) would keep their lottery win a secret. Only 44% said they would immediately tell their partner if they had won the lottery.

Lottery Jackpots

The Mega Millions jackpot for tonight’s Valentine’s Day drawing is an estimated $129 million, with the one-time cash option at $59 million. Tomorrow’s Powerball drawing has an advertised 30-year annuitized jackpot of $172 million and a lump sum of $79.4 million.

Both amounts are before federal and possibly state income taxes. However, each award would be life-altering for most winners.

Should both Cupid’s arrow and Lady Luck strike at the same time, some Valentine’s Day lottery winners concede that they would use the newly acquired funds to bankroll his or her parting ways with their girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, or husband. There have certainly been such examples.

In one infamous case, in 2007, a Florida man who won a $450K lottery prize chose to disappear into the sunset instead of telling his wife. He eventually emerged to file for divorce, but a state judge ordered him to split the financial windfall on grounds that they did not have a prenuptial arrangement and therefore all “marital assets and liabilities” are divided equally.

It isn’t only the men who try to do the tricking when it comes to lottery gains. In 2023, a California woman was court-ordered to give half of her $1.3 million lottery prize to her husband. She filed for divorce 11 days after winning but tried to conceal the prize. It was uncovered during the divorce proceedings.

Valentine’s Day Happy Ending

Lottery wins are mostly stories, and that includes big wins on Valentine’s Day.

Last year, after his girlfriend broke up with him, an Illinois man chose to improve his V-Day spirits by purchasing a lottery ticket. The $10 Monopoly 50x scratcher provided him with a $1 million prize.

I don’t have a special someone to share my big news with because my girlfriend and I broke up three days before I bought the winning ticket,” the winner, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Illinois Lottery a year ago. “You can say I haven’t had much luck in the love department, but that’s alright because now I really hit the jackpot.”

A survey conducted by the Illinois Lottery for this year’s Valentine’s found that lottery tickets are popular gifts. The poll found that 99% of men and 92% of women who gave scratch-off tickets as gifts “reported that their partner appreciated the gift.”