YouTuber Spent $30,000 On Lottery Tickets…And…

How much would you be prepared to spend on lottery tickets in a bid to strike it lucky and win a huge jackpot? A few dollars a week? A hundred a month? What about $30,000? You might think that would be excessive in the extreme and many would think you’re right. However, that’s exactly what one YouTube vlogging celebrity has done in recent weeks and what’s more…he made a jackpot.

It’s an incredible story, so read on to find out about the YouTuber who spent $30,000 on lottery tickets and won.

Find out all you need to know about TheLotter in this TheLotter review

Popular YouTuber Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson

We live in a world where people become famous purely because of their social media and blogging presence. Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson is no different. In the last six years, he’s built up a solid online following of millions of young viewers who tune in to see what crazy stunts and antics he’s going to get up to next.

He created his YouTube channel in 2012 and started posting random videos. His fame rose when he began a video series titled ‘Worst Intros on YouTube.’ and further increased when he started posting video game-related videos, such as ‘Minecraft Factions: A Guy Sent His Home in Our Base’ and ‘Buried Round 50 Gameplay Black ops 2 Zombies.’

Beginnings of His Money Based Videos

After stopping posting gaming videos, he turned to pranks that involved spending money. He began to splurge thousands of dollars online and also came up with films such as ‘5$ For Hot Girls To Advertise Your YouTube Channel.’

However, he came to national prominence when he made a film called ‘Giving A Random Homeless Man $10,000.’ and began to give money to random Twitch streamers he liked. He always claimed that an app called Quidd sponsored the money he was giving away in plentiful amounts.

One of his videos titled ‘I Gave $500,000 To Random People,’ has garnered more than 1.9 million views. There’s another side to his character though and this time instead of giving money away, he decided he’d try and earn some serious cash for himself…so chanced his arm with the lottery.

Donaldson’s Lottery Win

What did he do to get the lottery win? He went out, and in a stunt that saw him try to win a big $10 million jackpot, he bought $30,000 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets to see if he could claim the prize.

In total, he spent $30 per ticket, meaning he’d bought 1000 tickets. He then, alongside his crew, and with the help of a lottery app, set about scratching the cards to see if they could claim any prizes. The whole process took a good few days to complete and he documented the story and outcome in a film that he shared with his viewers on YouTube.

Donaldson was the first to admit he’s spent an obscene amount of money on the project. He did reveal he’d had some help when he admitted that he’d been able to purchase the tickets through his sponsor, Honey. This is a browser add-on that searches the internet for coupon codes and applies them to users’ carts upon checkout at various websites when they shop and make purchases.

He said: “I know you guys are probably like, ‘Wow, you guys are super spoiled. In my last video, I spent $25,000 and it wasn’t even sponsored. $1,000 barely even covers a fraction of my videos.”

The tickets purchased promised cash sums of anything from $40 to $1,000. After checking all the tickets, he ended up cashing out $20,380. However, much this was a win, he did end up eventually losing over $9,500.

Criticism Over Possibly Irresponsible Spending

Whilst this stunt was a fun one, it’s not the first time Donaldson has ended up spending huge amounts of money on a YouTube film.

He once spent $10,000 on a two-thousand-mile trip through Uber. However, he has balanced this by donating similarly large sums to charities, the homeless, and even some of his favorite Twitch streamers.

To his credit, in his lottery stunt video, he actively discourages any of his followers from reckless gambling and was honest about the amount of money he stood to lose making the film. Whilst $9,500 is a lot of money to lose – in this instance, he could afford it because of his sponsors. The ordinary Joe on the street, would not be able to do that – so whilst this is a fun challenge, entertaining and amusing, people should be discouraged from trying to do the same.

Controversy Over Possibly Faked Videos..?

However, earlier this year, Donaldson encountered problems when another YouTuber called FlyyDoesYT said that he was sure James was faking his videos.

His film was taken seriously by a lot of people as it later emerged FlyyDoesYT had worked for MrBeast for a week as an editor.

In the film, he accuses Donaldson of mistreating his employees by asking them to film his videos. He claimed MrBeast pretends in front of the camera and does not reveal his true self.

In response, Donaldson said he had given away lots of money ‘for real’ and never faked anything for the camera. He also stated that as he suffers from Crohn’s disease, he is sometimes unwell, and, in those situations, he asks his employees to help complete the videos.

The story spilled over onto Twitter with some forthright views being put forward:

“If you think I fake my videos, go ask the streamers I have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to if they got it”

— MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) April 5, 2018

“Go ask anyone who received part of the $500,000 I’ve given away this year if they have gotten it. You won’t find one person who said I didn’t give them money”

— MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) April 5, 2018

To further his defense, he was interviewed on the popular entertainment news outlet called DramaAlert, hosted by Daniel ‘KEEMSTAR’ Keem. In the interview he speaks about his accuser: “He made a 25-minute “exposing” video on me but doesn’t mention I spent thousands of dollars getting him here, paid him $750 for like five days of work, which is really good pay. Doesn’t mention any of this. So I feel like he already lists his credibility because he doesn’t even mention anything; he’s so biased, it’s not even funny. My videos aren’t fake I counted to a hundred thousand. I gave streamers $30,000, it’s just slander on his part.”

Speaking of his illness, he also had this to say to his accuser’s point that he didn’t make his own films and left it to others: “I guess I kind of have to bring it up because it makes sense, I have Crohn’s and I really wasn’t feeling well. Basically, I have Crohn’s disease and it was really acting up, so I said, ‘Hey you guys go film the rest of the video, I want to go nap, I have to take it easy.’ and now he’s making the exposed video like ‘Oh MrBeast doesn’t film his own videos,’ like what are you going on about man. That’s the thing, if we would have just talked to me while he was here, I would have just told him this stuff. I’m not public about this type of stuff and it sucks that like he’s so  malicious that he won’t say these things to my face but wait until he gets home on a plane ticket that I paid for, with the money I paid for, and then just spew all this out online instead of just saying it to me because he’s trying to leech and honestly KEEM, you’re giving him what he wants, he wants attention.”

Donaldson also states this upset and annoyance that none of these grievances were raised whilst the other YouTuber was working with him and that instead, he’d waited till he’d got home and recorded a film about it rather than addressing the issue with Donaldson directly.

So far, nothing ‘fake’ has come to light about his lottery film, and many claims he is a very philanthropic person, certainly the acts of goodwill he appears to have carried out would testify to this and his legions of fans would no doubt argue that he’s doing nothing wrong, and is merely entertaining them.

What do you think about his lottery stunt? Was it shameful to waste so much money on tickets and end up winning (but losing at the same time) or is it just harmless entertainment that people should feel less hung up on and get a sense of humor about? Whatever your views, it does go to prove one thing – that winning a huge jackpot on the lottery really isn’t that easy and it does all come down to the luck of the draw at the end of the day. Donaldson lost out to prove an expensive point and ended up winning some money, but not a lot!