Winners' Tales of Loss

This one is a little depressing. Winning the lottery is supposed to make everything better. Sadly, it seems to have little effect on the liklihood that not very bright people will stop making not very bright decisions. That, coupled with the propensity for friends, family and well-wishers to turn ravenous in the presence of potential easy money can lead to a giant sucking sound and a return to skid-row.

I find it curious that someone can't secure a large enough piece of a $16.2 million or an $18 million jackpot to avoid having to live on food stamps a few short years later, but then I do know the meaning of guaranteed investments and as a Canadian, none of my close relatives have easy access to hand-guns.

William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his Social Security.

"I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare," says Post.

A former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings. It wasn't his only lawsuit. A brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him, hoping to inherit a share of the winnings.

I pity this guy, as well as the victimes of the other stories of lottery woe, but that doesn't mean I believe that it could happen to anyone. If you're not able to hold onto to even a small part of that much money, you probably shouldn't have had it in the first place.

8 lottery winners who lost their millions [MSN]

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