Man who gained £165m on lottery grew to become billionaire after realising previous winners’ ‘errors’

A Powerball winning personal trainer went from millionaire to billionaire after refusing to spend his winnings on luxuries. Brad Duke won a massive $220million (£165million) in 2005.

But it was to prove to be just the start of his fortune. In the initial aftermath of his win, he didn’t splurge his money on fancy items like sports cars or a mansion. Instead, he decided to hold off with frivolities in order to make his money work for him.

He said in 2007 that he was planning to invest his cash, putting $45million into low-risk ventures, $35million into high-risk assets, and another $1.3million in the Duke Family Foundation.

The PT, of Star, Idaho in the US, said: “If you accept that cheque, you accept an amazing responsibility to yourself and whomever you decide to include in it. I was quiet about winning for a month before I decided to come out.

“During that time, I was getting as much research as I could on existing lottery winners and what their stories were.” He added that he found that most winners “lose all the money within a short amount of time”. Instead, he, “wanted to be worth about 10 times as much”.

So instead of going on a huge shopping spree and splashing the cash on luxury items, he decided to build a team of trustworthy financial advisors. They helped him reach his $1billion (£750million) within 12 years.

But he didn’t completely rule out a few big purchases, as he bankrolled a trip to Tahiti for 17 lucky friends. The longtime manager and cycling instructor at Gold’s Gym, where he continued to teach for more than a year after winning, also bought himself more than a dozen new bikes.

He said he still looks back on his days working at the gym fondly. “I really didn’t think things could get better for me (at the time),” he told KTVB in 2022. “I remember thinking that and within that week, this happened.”

Duke said he was far from a mindless gambler, and had developed an intricate mathematical system for picking his numbers, before winning the jackpot. In the run-up to his big win, Duke had already begun taking home smaller amounts like $150 or $500.

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