The unlucky lottery winner

Here is the sad case of Donald Peters:

• Donald and Charlotte were married for 59 years.
• For twenty years, they had a practice of purchasing Connecticut lottery tickets.
• On November 1, 2008, Donald purchased two tickets.
• Later that same day, Donald was working in his yard and suffered a fatal heart attack.
• The drawing of the winning numbers was held on December 2, 2008.
• After almost tossing the tickets, Charlotte checked the numbers and discovered that she won $10 million.
• She will now need to decide whether to take a $6 million (pre-tax) lump sum distribution or opt for 21 annual payments of $477,300.

See AP, Man’s final lotto ticket wins widow $10 million, MSNBC.com, Jan. 3, 2009.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.