Woman accuses son of taking $51 million lottery ticket

Totally agree. You have developed your "character" throughout your entire life by the decisions, and morality stands you affirm.

The money just pushes all that under a microscope for all to see. It may or may not be a pretty sight.     

Seasoned lottery players who would know step by step exactly what to do are the ones that rarely win!

It would be nice to see one of the L.P. members win a large sum....Then maybe announce the win on here. Have Todd do an indepth interview from start to present on their plans just after finding out the won - versus - actual actions taken. While I do support anonymity, I would enjoy reading that kind of story. These kind of stories just reiterate the lack of intelligence and morality that runs amuck in this country......A fool and their money are soon departed

That would be wonderful - having Todd do the interview here at Lottery Post.

Winning a lottery jackpot worth millions of dollars is a once in a life time experience even for seasoned lottery players.  The only thing a seasoned player might know more about is cashing in tickets.  The rest would be common sense and there's no indication that season lottery players have more of that than anyone else.

I do it all the time. That way I eliminate the stress for the recepient of having to decide whether they are going to be a decent person and share some of the winnings with me after I bought them a ticket that made them wealthy and also the almost suicidal thoughts that would be going through my head thinking I bought a ticket worth millions of dollars and then gave it away. 

If you have a problem with splitting millions of dollars with me for the low low cost of nothing on your part, then feel free to hand me back the ticket I purchased and we can part ways. That just shows me what kind of greedy individual you are and that I was right to sign my name on the ticket. And if you are wondering, if someone gives me a ticket I insist they sign their name on it also or I sign it for them. Keeps everone honest and no one can say I am a hypocrite. 

If a son can screw over his old mother than anyone is capable of anything.

Not necessarily!

Geez, VenomV12, we STILL think it is time for you to buy people gifts that have NOTHING to do with the lottery or raffles!

Etta May was shaking badly and was overcome with emotions.Wow.Etta could have at least signed the back of that lottery ticket with a big " X ",witnessed by the lottery officials.

She was busy signing AUTOGRAPHS! She delegated that menial task to her son.

Perhaps Etta has mid-level Alzheimers or Dementia.

If a lottery winner of several $M, net, wants to share their fortune, they should sign their own name and invite 2-5 additional people (or create a corporation, LLC, charity, foundation, etc.to sign the ticket).  Even if it takes one month to decide the names, and how to fit on the tiny space at the back of the lottery ticket and the official claim form!

It is selfish (and ultimately mean spirited) for winning jackpot lottery ticket holders to pull people into the 'peak psychology' by inviting them to rush to check, verify, and/or claim the winning lottery ticket 'holding their hand;' yet infer that they are not worthy to share any of the monies officially -- by not inviting them to add their own name to the back of the lottery ticket and the official Claim Form.  It's not as if the lottery ticket holder has to assign their loved ones/teammates the same percentage $ amount, every name could be assigned a different amount, for example.  After all the signing is done, all of the signers can have their last look at the forms that show ALL OF THEIR NAMES present!  In fact, someone take a picture with everybody holding a pen around the signed ticket back ... for posterity.

I hope that Etta is simply an ill woman, rather than a rude, mean, selfish, or stupid one!  Didn't she know that she wouldn't be able to "gift" more than $1M net (this limit can be raised and it can be lowered by our senators without much notice) within her lifetime?  That gifting limit that isn't much money at a max of $13K allowed per person per year!

I don't think that the amount Etta and her husband are complaining to receive is the correct amount ... because they failed to deduct the 25%+ Income Taxes that her son Ronnie has already paid to the Federal Government.  That was a hefty tax!

Remember the first time I held a billion dollars worth of checks in my hand at one time.

I was completely terrified. No these were not my checks but the idea of holding that much money in my hand was an extremely overwhelming event.

I remember laying the checks down on my desk, getting up and going on a one hour break to get my anxiety under control.

My hands were shaking.

I had double vision.

I felt like I was gonna hurl.

My heart was racing.

My knees were wobbly.

I had shortness of breath.

So yes I can understand how the Mrs. felt at that moment once it was official in her head that her ticket was the winning ticket.

What I don't understand is the lottery officials witnessed this and didn't say ok let's take a break and give you time to absorb the impact of being a jackpot winner.

If they witnessed her telling her son to sign her name on the ticket, then why did they process the ticket into his name?

All of my questions are "Why did?" and "Why didn't?" because I really want to understand the logic of the decisions made that led up to this nightmare, not judge the decision makers in this pitiful drama.

I know the feeling.  I got it once when I mistakenly thought I had matched all 6 numbers in the Ohio Lottery for an $18M jackpot. 

Some how when I updated my data file I also added the winning numbers to my play file and when I checked the play file and saw a line of red numbers I almost fainted.(numbers that match the numbers in the data file turn high lite red and if the date matches it turns yellow).

I rechecked everything three times before actually checking the tickets, that when I found out the winning numbers were everywhere except on a single line of one of the tickets.  It took a while for me to settle down but had it been for real I would have made sure I had settle down before leaving for the the nearest lottery office, no checking a jackpot winning ticket at the local gas station for me.

Yes it would be nice to see one of our LP family member win a large jackpot

Family members are suppose to help each others, right? 

Since we all are just one big family, we could drop in any time and ask a favor, right?

I don't I would care to have members of LP knowing that I had ever won a large jackpot.

Who is WE? I did not realize that everyone here gave you authority to speak on their behalf as a collective. If so then I  am impressed with your power and authority, you must truly be a great and powerful person.

If you have an issue with what I do then clearly you are one of the people that I am speaking of that would screw over the person who bought you a ticket, or perhaps their own mother. 

I am not buying you anything so I am not so sure why you are so concerned about it anyway. It is my money and my business what I do with it and no one elses. I am sure if I buy anyone a ticket and they have to share millions of dollars, there will be no complaints on their end. 

You stupid little gif below your comment showing fighting over a stick would not exist because of what I do. My signature is on it, the recipient's signature is on it, the lottery commission cuts two checks, end of story.