'Seriously unlucky' lottery player shares gut-wrenching near-win after last minute decision lost them £6.1m fortune

You'd be lying if the thought of winning the lottery hasn't crossed your mind at least once.

The idea of retiring your parents, buying a dream home and booking an amazing holiday is always nice to think about.

Mind you, it doesn't help if you never actually buy a ticket.

But one lottery player, who was moments away from becoming 'set for life', has opened up about how a split one-minute decision took it all away.

The lottery player was left devastated. (Getty Stock Image)

With a whopping $8.75m (£6.1m) fortune up for grabs, the 'almost millionaire' was outed by one little move.

Taking to Reddit, the user admitted 'it’s been rough' and they 'had to leave work because I felt so sick that morning'.

On what happened exactly, they wrote: "I just started playing the lottery around the 1 billion dollar Powerball last week and found the odds on this game to be better.

"I used quick pick to pick my numbers in the app and decided to change them.

"I went back and forth between 25 and 34, and thought 25 would be the better choice. I would have been set for life."

So close. (Reddit)

While there was some sympathy in the comments section, many users spoke about their own near 'millionaire' misses over the years.

"I had a dream as a kid that I picked the numbers. (like pick 4 or 5, $250k prize. but this was the 80s so it was a lot)," one person revealed.

"Gave my dad the numbers. They came up, I freaked out cause we won.

"Dad never bought the ticket. Have not repeated it since."

A second person added: "Back in 2005, in my high school class, we were learning about stock trading. One of our assignment was to research a few company and to 'invest these $5,000 into that company'.

"I did extensive research and found that iPods were a high selling and listening to Steve Job’s speech convinced me that this guy is going to take this far.

"I told my mom all about my 'project' at school but my mom still invested everything in Dell.

"I ended up investing all the $5,000 fake project money into Apple.

"I keep thinking about it still today and wished that my 13 year old self had the actual money and ability to invest back then."

As they say, if you don't buy a ticket you won't win the raffle.

I mean, you probably won't win it if that makes you feel any better.