One of the first things that lottery winners learn is that they suddenly discover all sorts of friends and family members that they never knew they had.
I’m not one of those people. In the event that I were to win a lottery, I know exactly who my close friends and family members are (they number fewer than twenty), and if there were any money that was available to be shared, they’d get 80% of it (after my off-the-top 20%, depending on the size of the pot — the smaller the pot, the larger my percentage). But even that’s not the end of it. Because — and this is made quite clear in all the rules and literature about this kind of thing — any lottery winnings are the sole possession of the individual whose name is on the winning ticket. Nobody else is “owed” anything.
And here’s the little tale of avarice and entitlement that made me think about this in the first place:
Alex Robertson was one of a dozen bus drivers from Corby, Northants., to scoop a share of £38million on the EuroMillions. Mr Robertson’s share, which he won a decade ago, was worth £3.1million – but it sparked a feud between him and his sons, who claimed he refused to share any of the cash with them.
…which was his right. £3.1million was back then the equivalent of about $4.7 million — hardly what we would call “screw you” money — so apart from the legal issue, he was perfectly within his rights not to share the money with anyone else. Just to make the point even clearer: his sons were in their early 30s when he won the lottery, and so not his dependent children, by any stretch.
And here’s where the fun begins. His bratty kids started to go after him:
Alex Jnr admitted: “We ended up taking hammers to his two new 4x4s. We walked up his driveway at 11 o’clock at night and put two claw hammers through the windows of the car. We then reported ourselves to the police.”
William was later charged with harassing his Lotto-winning dad by sending him threatening text messages.
And the whining:
Alex Jr. told The Sun at the time: “This lottery win was the worst thing that ever happened to us — it ripped our families apart.”
No, you self-entitled, unspeakable little shit: you ripped the families apart by somehow thinking that your hardworking bus driver of a dad had to share his good fortune with you. Did you ever buy your own lottery tickets? (Doubt it, and even so, it’s irrelevant.)
Anyway, all’s well that ends well. Robinson Sr. lives in Spain, far away from his toxic offspring, and I just hope that he’s willed the remainder of his estate to a worthwhile charity, and not to the Fuckhead Twins.
When the mega millions got up over $1 Billion, I let everyone around me know that if I hit it, first thing I’m doing is disconnecting my phone and cutting all ties.
I loved Shaq’s quote about his kids …
https://youtube.com/shorts/AC6Q2yojqZo?feature=share
Two months or more before turning in the ticket and thus revealing my identity, I would set up a task group – lawyer, tax accountant, investment counsellor – that would determine where – and how – the money would go. And in every case, the distribution would be built on the principle that an absolute minimum of tax revenue would be generated. Every one in the task group would be a gun owner and would be an active member of a local range club.
Every single dollar won in a lottery was contributed by people who already paid tax on it.
.
I had a shirt-tail acquaintance with a PowerBall winner bitd. For something like 70 mil.
We ended up with her old residence phone number and for weeks we kept getting solicitation calls for donations, or Scottish castles or whatever.
This winner elected to take the 20 year payout which ended up being like 3 mil per year after .gov theft.
Her life didnt particularly spiral out of control, but the times she tried being a nice person, ended up blowing up in her face, if the stories I heard second-hand are anything to go by.
“This winner elected to take the 20 year payout which ended up being like 3 mil per year after .gov theft.”
Ah, you see we don’t pay any tax on a Lotto win … it’s called a “windfall”. You only pay tax on any money your win makes for you.
Key word: Australia.
Interesting choice of pic, Kim. He followed through.
When I worked in another state, a guy hit powerball for screw you money. He won just under $1million a year according to the rumor mill. He bought a house with a squash court and such. There was a brand new Mitsubishi 3000GT in the driveway. I knew the fire marshal that inspected his house. On the way out, the fire marshal gave him an envelope for a donation to the local FD. Several years later I moved back to the state and told the story. the person I was telling the story called another co worker over and asked the other co worker to relate the story of his cousin or something that hit the lotter. After three years or so the guy was broke so each year the check was given to the local bank, they paid his bills then gave him his yearly payment was less than $40k.
the financial and legal team would be needed and then one of the first things I’d do is by some fairly remote land with my own range etc.
JQ
I am totally unsure of the circumstances surround this particular family drama but am reminded of an old saying “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.
In other words, what was dad like before the winning ticket?