Unless you are dead, you have bought at least one lottery ticket. When you did you had a fantasy of what you would do if you won. Pay bills, provide for your kids and grandkids, support your church etc etc etc.
What really happens is different. People who have won a lot of money in the lottery have not always enjoyed the windfall. This is sad but real. Oh, don't get me wrong a portion of Lottery winners have learned to get help quickly in how to manage their money. They listen and survive.
But many do not. These didn't. They were blown over by the windfall.
¢ William "Bud" Post, who won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery in 1988, had a brother who tried to have him killed for the inheritance. Post lost and spent all his winnings. He was living off Social Security when he died in January.
¢ Two years after winning a $31 million Texas Lottery in 1997, Billie Bob Harrell Jr. committed suicide. He had bought cars, real estate, gave money to his family, church and friends. After his death it was not clear whether there was money left for estate taxes.
¢ Victoria Zell, who shared an $11 million Powerball jackpot with her husband in 2001, is serving time in a Minnesota prison, her money gone. Zell was convicted in March 2005 in a drug- and alcohol-induced collision that killed one person and paralyzed another.
¢ Evelyn Adams, who won the New Jersey Lottery twice, in 1985 and 1986, for a total $5.4 million, gambled and gave away all of her money. She was poor by 2001, and living in a trailer.
This comes from a USA today article from yesterday. I read it for free on the newstand and then put it back. I'm cheap. I'd do that even if I won the lottery.
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