Man who won $208 million lottery dies at 43

"his life became hell after he won, with people constantly after him for money."

I can just imagine that. Every hard luck story pressed upon him. Every sad-eyed kid looking for a handout. I suspect that successful lottery winners have to pretty well give up on acquaintances and limit access by relatives. They probably live in obscurity and direct all pleas to a decision-maker other than themselves. At least that's what I would do. I don't play the lottery so it is a moot issue for me but what a headache.

A few years ago a case was decided in California over lottery winnings between a divorced couple. Seems the wife won it through her work lottery pool and because the marriage was breaking apart and the winnings were somewhat paltry (along the lines of $75K a year payout), she wanted to keep it all. She consulted the lottery people who advised her to defer taking the payment until she filed for divorce. The payments were also sent to her mother's home. The divorce went through and a few years later the ex-mister received an inquiry from a company which specializes in lottery loans. This was his first hint that something was amiss. He took her to court and the court determined that she had fraudulently concealed the asset in her Asset & Debt Declaration, especially since she won it while married so it was community property. As penalty for the concealment, the court awarded the ex all the future payments, which was probably 75% of the entire payout. Ouch! Don't take divorce advice from lottery people.

Hey, at least he made it to the store and back when he bought the ticket...

Durango Bill's Applied Mathematics http://www.durangobill.com/MegaMillionsOdds.html

Government statistics (http://hazmat.dot.gov/riskmgmt/riskcompare.htm) show there are about 1.7 automobile caused fatalities for every 100,000,000 vehicle-miles. If you drive one mile to the store to buy your Mega Millions ticket and then return home, you have driven two miles. Thus the probability that you will join this statistical group is 2 x 1.7 / 100,000,000 = 0.000000034. This can also be stated as "One in 29,411,765-". Thus, if you drive to the store to buy your Mega Million ticket, your chance of being killed (or killing someone else) is nearly 6 times greater than the chance that you will win the Mega Millions Jackpot.

I just had a 33 year old, strong, and healthy nephew die of a heart attack.

My condolences. One of my co-workers died last year at age 39 of a heart attack although he had let himself go quite a bit. He was already graying so I thought he was older.

Nonetheless, if I'm the medical examiner for this case, I'm going through this autopsy with a fine-toothed comb.

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