These 14 celebrities astonishingly admit they play the lottery despite their wealth
/A little while ago we reported on billionaire Tom Crist who won a $40 million lottery jackpot - and astoundingly gave it all away.
But it's not only the super-rich who have tried their luck and played lotto.
These 14 celebrities will be familiar faces to most of the world. Their dirty secret? They all confess to have played the lottery at some time.
Matt Kemp, the baseball star who plays in the NBL has an annual salary of $21 million, as well as the millions he has earned in his previous years.
So when he posted pictures on his Twitter account holding dozens of Mega Millions tickets, he drew a fair amount of criticism.
TV show "X Factor" boss Simon Cowell says that he still plays the National Lottery despite his reported £420 million (US$550 million) showbiz fortune.
"I still buy lottery tickets. I still play," said the music mogul recently.
Celeb Paris Hilton bought 1500 entries in Italy’s national Superenalotto game in 2008.
It’s not the first time Paris has played this game. She justified herself by saying: "If I won, I would donate 10 percent to charity benefits."
Actor heartthrob George Clooney made a block purchase of 1,000 SuperEnaLotto tickets, hoping to hit the jackpot so he could donate the entire sum to the people of Haiti for earthquake relief.
Actress Elizabeth Hurley, a good friend of George Clooney, also bought 500 SuperEnaLotto tickets to help the Haiti earthquake relief.
Madonna was one of the SuperEnalotto lottery’s big winners in 2012.
She donated her prize money, €120,000 in secondary prizes, to the construction of schools in Malawi, Africa.
TV comedian Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report tweeted "Just bought a Mega Millions ticket at the deli. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win, so I also bought 363 million bucks worth of yogurt."
Actress Kirstie Alley (Cheers) said, "If I win the Cali lottery, I'd get 500 million, less 250 million off the top for the IRS, minus 100 mil to charities, minus..."
Rob Dyrdek of MTV's Rob & Big spent $700 on Mega Millions tickets.
According to friends, Dyrdek, 37, purchased the money on quick picks at his local AM/PM in Hollywood, paying cash.
Actor Adam Baldwin (no relation to Alec Baldwin) has said: "If I win, I'm buying @keder. RT @mpoppel." What that means we don't know.
Washington Wizards and 6' 9" basketball player Chris Singleton tweeted that he will spend $10,000 on lottery tickets, and he did.
Star Trek and Lost writer Damon Lindelof bought tickets for the Mega Millions, and said, "I'd be kicking myself for the rest of my life if they [the Numbers] came in and I hadn't played them because I'm greedy like that."
When Australian actor Hugh Jackman was filming Real Steel in Michigan in 2011, he bought 500 lottery tickets for every member of the film crew, every week. He explained, "It’s my way of paying taxes."
