Not to sound callous but its mine. Nobody should assume they are getting a chunk. Many lotto winners have gone straight into bankruptcy for miss management or being too generous. No one in my family will automatically get anything.
That being said depending on how much the prize was I would be very generous. Most likely I would set up college funds for all the neices and nephews (many) and be very generous with gifts. If you are a relative I haven’t seen in 20 years, go screw yourself.
My mother and I were the sole beneficiaries on my deceased sisters life insurance policy. I gave half my share to my brother.
I’m going to endow my university with parking ramp. A free one. Right in the middle of campus.
In California, I believe the retailer gets a commission equal to 1% of a major payout, so if you win in excess of 100M, she’d be well on the way, assuming she owns the establishment.
If I won a massive prize, it would be far more than my family or I would ever be able to spend. So after making some major donations to some cultural institutions and nonprofit organizations, I’d probably want to invest the rest of it, to be given away later on to various enterprises. Perhaps I’d organize a foundation and make a career of it.
If I hit the big time…
Pay off my sister’s mortgage, car, etc. Likewise to other relatives, though a lot of them might not need it.
Siphon a sizable chunk to my dad to get him all the mobility and services he needs. A scooter would be only the beginning–how about a chauffered limo on call?
Donate to assorted causes I support. Maybe to Sheridan College as well.
After that, it’s travel, art, personal training (exercise and social), a hotel-condominium in Sapphire Tower (so much classier than that Trump Tower place, a cottage/studio up north, apartments in various cities, etc, etc.
Yet, aside from the residences, I’m just not that interested in a lot of what is promoted as the rich lifestyle. There would be a lot of sharing.
Since I have never in my life bought a lottery ticket, none of my plans will ever be necessary. Unless I find the winning one on the ground, or something.
Most of my family is doing quite well enough, although I have a branch of hippie cousins who produce and perform in environmentally themed musicals, and I would endow their company, and maybe set up trust funds for college educations for any grandkids they might have. (Their children are already postcollege).
I’d also (as others have mentioned) take everyone I’m related to to some really nice place for a weeklong reunion.
And, not discussing sharing, just discussing cool things to do with a lot of money, I’d buy myself a Bionic Dolphin
Based on your name, I’m sure you realize that the odds of finding the winning lotto ticket stuck to your shoe are not, practically, all that much worse than the odds of buying the winning ticket! 
For me,
(1) Education trust funds for daughter, son, nieces and nephews.
(2) Home repairs. (I’ll keep the mortgage, as I suppose the tax write off will still come in handy. Depending on relative interest rates, I guess.)
(3) The Shelbo Foundation, home of the Shelbo Prize. A full college scholarship (public schools only – hey, I’m just rich, not wealthy!) given to the best original short story written by a high school student (means tested – I don’t want to subsidize Bill Gate’s kid).
(4) Probably lots of travel.
My family is doing okay, but I’d probably give them something. I have a suspicion that my youngest brother would take my gift only to turn around a year later and ask for more, me being rich and all. Hell, he asks for money all the time now and I’m not exactly rolling in the stuff!
Despite all my best intentions, I have a feeling I’d be one of those that ends up giving away way too much. I wouldn’t feel that way if I’d earned the money. However, with lottery winnings, I would feel a bit guilty about being so much better off than my friends and family.
If I ever win the lottery, I’d probably need to lock up my winnings fast. Of course, I don’t really buy tickets anyway. So why am I even thinking about this?
That’s my plan too. I figure the odds aren’t that much worse.
Hmmm.
I would buy a house for my younger brother and the equivalent for my older brother (he already has a house). I’d probably do the house in the form of a phony mortgage to avoid a gift tax, although I’d check with an accountant first to make sure that the amount of tax I’d have to pay on the “interest” I would supposedly be earning wasn’t more than the gift tax would be.
My parents would be tricky because, like a lot of parents, I would have a hard time getting them to accept anything. I would come up with something, though!
Full college tuition for my niece and nephew, but only if they kept their grades up to a decent level. Also, I would pay $150/month each toward cell phones for them, and help out with their car insurance as long as they didn’t make a habit out of ramming into things. I would try very hard to steel myself against going too overboard on gifts to them. I’m sure I’d help them out with housing when they got old enough, but I’m not sure to what extent. I’m not cheap. I just don’t want to ruin their lives by throwing too much money at them.
I’d give around $250,000. each (taxes paid by me) to two of my co-workers who bust their butts but never seem to get ahead on their debts.
If I won a SUPER big prize, I would start an organization which would pay veterinary bills for people who can’t afford them. I would set up another organization which would keep an online database of animals in all the pounds on Long Island, updated daily, to help people find their pets. I would give free spay/neuter clinics for pets at least twice per month. And (in case you think I don’t care about people at ALL), I would help fund schools in Africa and Afghanistan. At the very least, I would keep them supplied with pencils, paper and books.
The odds are statistically indistinguishable from the odds of winning without buying any ticket at all.
I have bought exactly one lottery ticket in my life. I fully understand the odds of the lottery, which indeed make it a tax on stupid people. I even went so far as to calculate how long you need to play to amass an aggregate 1% chance of winning. One full ticket (with 5 entires) per drawing, two drawings per week, 52 weeks in a year, you need to play twice a week for fifteen hundred years to get your odds up to 1% chance to win. Thus I see absolutely no difference between playing every drawing, and playing once. You can’t win if you don’t play, so I played once.
That said, I’ve daydreamed about what I’d do with the money. I would give double the following amounts, in order to eliminate the “Oprah Tax”, to the following people:
1 million to parents - 2 mil total
1 million to sister & her family (husband and daughter) - 2 mil total
100 grand to each of Mom’s three sisters - 600 grand total
100 grand each to every cousin with kids - 200 grand total right now
50 grand each for every childless cousin - 500 grand total
100 grand each to both closest friends - 400 grand total
50 grand each to six other friends - 600 grand total
This is a total of 6.3 million, after taxes, so I’m assuming a jackpot of at least 20 million, giving me 3.7 million after I removed all possible “lend me money” headaches. That’s not the primary motivation for the generosity, but it would go a long way toward alleviating awkwardness in continuing those relationships.
Under 20 million, and I’d slash all the donations in half. Under ten million, well, that’s a pretty cheap-ass lottery, and my state would not offer such paltry lottery winnings.
I could probably live off a cool million for the rest of my life; I have modest wants. With 2 million I could do it easily. If I hoarded 10 million all for myself, and my friends and family were still struggling, I could not live with myself. And I would hate to be in a position where my loved ones had to ask me for money they needed while I sat on my throne of gold. Better to just hook them up right away and curtail any issues before they started.
Conceivably, they might compare notes and wonder why I gave whomever more or less. I could easily justify the scales to any detractors.
Somebody mentioned giving money to coworkers. This I don’t understand at all. If they are friends, then sure, but then I call them friends, not coworkers.
I would pay off my parents’ house, car, and all their debts. I’d pay off my own debts and perhaps get a house of my own.
I would live in fear of the day that my aunts found out I’d won the lotto and started phoning me up and asking for money. Luckily I’m unlisted, but it would only be a matter of time. 
My children would have trust funds set up, but wouldn’t be able to access the majority of their money until they turned 30 or so. My husband and I have always said that we would each get a set amount to distribute to our families. If we hit one of the mega lotteries, let’s say 5 million each to give away to friends and family. Te bulk of my money is going to mom and sis. My nephews would also have trust funds established.
My husband has several siblings, parents, and a step-parent. He would also have several friends he would want to help out. There are probably only 3 friends I would help out, but I would give them some major dough.
The most satisfying gift would be setting up one of my best friends with enough money to leave her husband. (long story - but financially, she feels she must stay with him for the sake of her kids)
Just have to respond to this one. If I answered a year ago I would have been like most of the others responding, sharing with my siblings, mother and neice/nephews…but not now. A year ago I was made sole heir to my grandparents estate by virtue of being the only family member who was actually a part of their life thruout. More specifically though, since the passing of my grandfather, and thus, when the only other family abandoned my grandmother because her alzheimers was too much (they didnt just step down, but completely cut ties and abandoned her with no care arranged) I had to leave school, my home in Chicago and spend 9 months in Detroit assisting her daily, planning her much dreaded move to assisted living (the death of all she once knew as her life) which was pushed along by a heart attack and increased dementia. My family did what I never even imagined they would do and showed up after all was “settled”. At this point they mercilessly manipulated her delusional fears of being abused in her trust of me, took her to the attorney to change her estate plan, which prompted HER attorney to seek protections of his client, putting us in probate court and creating a confused total lie in grandma’s waning mind that I had done something wrong, all the while planning, plotting and scheming behind my back, making statements that “they deserved their cut by birthright” and even saying straight to my face that it would be done and I could not stop them. The sad thing was that my husband, best friend, and grandmothers friends all heard me say I felt it was family money and planned to divide it after investigating taxes, investment advice, etc, but they decided they didnt like it going thru me or the process.
Money is just a tool, but greed is an illness and I have learned first hand what it can do to destroy relationships, before I even came into it. It is not even a fortune, not even half a million, but now, as I am saying loud and clear…ITS ALL MINE!!! (the estate was secured and no changes will be allowed by the courts since my family pushed my grandmother into probate court and an order of dementia was placed upon her) I did not create her will, I did not do anything except love and care for her thruout the years, and if I were to win any money not only would I not share with them, (and not out of spite, but just pure karmic balance), instead I would invest money in the legal pursuit of clarifying the laws that “protect” the elderly in cases like this. Right now they really stink and way too many caregivers are being harmed in the process over greed. It is naive to think everyone would be gracious, and I was indeed just that naive, but in that I am thankful I learned this lesson before the money came into my possession because I have a total different game plan as a result!!!
So a bit of a hijack here, cuz not the lotto, but… imagine if you and your family knew ahead of time that you WERE going to win and they believed that had some way of securing a cut of their own against your will…you would learn some really interesting things about their character and integrity.
I have personal reasons why I would give NOTHING! to my relatives except for maybe a educational trust fund for my niece, but I would prob buy some cool stuff for a select few friends. But I would keep most of the money and spend it wisely.
You’re preaching to the choir over here. My brother died in a tragic car accident. So his wife sued my parents for wrongful death, simply because he was in my father’s car. Years of divisive bitterness ensued, drived an irrevocable wedge between my family and hers, which includes my brother’s son.
Shit happens, some people are scumbags. Didn’t turn me off to generosity, although you may note that “sister-in-law” and “nephew” do not appear on my list of people I’d give money to.
I think the main point of emphasis in my post was to try to avoid unpleasantness with immediate generosity. Your mileage clearly varies.
My mother and sisters will profit handsomely.
My wife’s sisters can all suck eggs. My wife will back me up on that.
I’d help out a lot of people.
Both sets of parents would get all their debts paid off, be bought a reasonable house and car, be sent on a dream vacation, and get $100,000 or so to spend with as they please.
Everyone else in my family would probably get $50,000 to do with as they please in addition to all their debts paid off as well. The kids will all get a college fund.
Friends would get around $10,000 apiece and, if they’re in serious financial trouble, have their debts paid off as well.
The rest is mine though. And it’ll go to building a life size replica of the USS Enterprise. Or something.
To demonstrate that RickJay is a real optimist, I actually have this all worked out.
Canadian lotteries are tax free, so planning is relatively easy, since you actually get a cheque for the exact amount of the lottery. My plan is to give 25% of he take to my father and 25% to my father in law (her stepdad). They’re responsible for helping out the other relatives - my father is smart enough to ensure the deadbeats on his side (and he’s pretty much the only non-deadbeat among his siblings.)
Mrs. RickJay’s step father’ 25% should be well taken care of because he has no deadbeats to worry about. Mrs. RickJay’s biological father gets nothing.
Ours would be invested and a new house purchased.