Key Points
- The rate of divorce is higher in the two years after a woman wins lotto, Swedish researchers have found.
- For married men, a lotto win appeared to reduce the risk of divorce.
- The likelihood of marriage increased in the decade after a man won lotto compared to the general population.
“If I win lotto, I’m outta here.” It’s a hopeful catch-cry familiar to many.
While it usually refers to the idea that if someone wins the lottery they may quit their job or buy a new house, results from a recent study reveal the words could ring true for women who win big for a whole different reason.
Swedish researchers have found that when a woman has a big lotto win, they are more likely to get a divorce soon afterwards.
The working paper titled was released by Sweden’s National Bureau of Economic Research this month.
Among married women, a sudden influx of wealth was found to produce a large spike in short-run divorce risk. Source: Getty / Flavio Coelho
“Married women who win the lottery are more likely to get divorced in the short run,” the research paper stated.
Winning wives were twice as likely to get divorced within two years of their lotto luck, according to the research.
One interpretation of this pattern was that unearned wealth "accelerated the termination of marriages whose dissolution were already underway.”
The paper stated that while a “lottery win may give a discontent wife economic opportunity to leave the marriage” male lottery winners more often than not have a very different experience.
Those winning husbands who were surveyed were less likely to get divorced within the 10 years after their win.
“According to our estimates, the risk of a divorce event in the ten years following the lottery falls by 6.0 percentage points in this sample, a 40 per cent reduction,” the paper read.
For men, a lotto win appeared to not only reduce the risk of divorce for those already married but it increased the likelihood of unwed men to marry.
The report states this suggests “wealth increases men’s attractiveness as prospective and current partners".
Statistics within the report showed that a large lotto win increased the probability of an unmarried man tying the knot by 30 per cent (within five years of the win).
Those men surveyed were also 13.5 percent more likely to father a child within 10 years of a lottery win compared to those who had not experienced a large monetary windfall.
The authors of the research pointed out that given divorce settlements in Sweden often favour the richer spouse, their results were likely specific to such circumstances.
