Winning the lottery only acted to afford them the means to destroy themselves in a much more efficient manner. In what would have been a life long pursuit of death through drugs, poor decisions, alchohol, etc, the $34M gave them the ability to buy the tools of their destruction so easily and quickly, that what would have been a 25 to 30 year affair was cut to just 4 years. Sad.
Here's an old clip just Googled from the Orlando Weekly, dated 10/12/2000. It wasn't just the money that did him in:
The money didn't change him
According to news reports in July and August, the dismal life of Mack W. Metcalf, 42, of Florence, Ky., has included frequent drinking binges, charges of DUI and other traffic violations, drug selling, eviction for failure to pay rent, and a debt of $31,000 in back child support. In July, Metcalf won a $34 million lump-sum jackpot in the Kentucky Lottery. Shortly after he was paid, he handed a woman $500,000 as a gift, only to later realize that he had been drunk when he offered the charity. Metcalf has sued to get the money back.
You hit the nail right on the head.
This is the real root of the matter, IMO.
A sudden windfall, for people with issues, is not a blessing. It's a death sentence, unless they use it to get their lives together.
Addiction is a horrible thing. Feeding it, in a case like this, only allows it to kill you faster.
As a recovering gambler, I have no doubt where a win like that would send me. I'd burn through it in no time, end up on the street, or dead, like these folks.
The man died three years after winning the lottery, due to a life of drinking. What's to say he wouldn't have died that early, even if he hadn't won the lottery?