When people win a big lottery or sweepstakes it is usually paid out in annual payments. For example, a $1 million dollar winner might get $50,000/yr for 20 yrs. What happens if the winner dies during this time before they got all the money? Does the money still get paid to their family (the estate)? Or is the money not paid?
I’m wondering if old people should bother buying lottery tickets. Or think of a sad case where the winner is so shocked when they hear the news, they die of a heart attack! Talk about good luck turning bad! Would their survivors inherit all the payments?
Typically, the lottery money is paid to their estate.
You might find that it varies by state. I think that the original state lotteries went with a “We’ll pay for 20 years or until you die whichever comes first.” policy.
Several people tried to beat that by forming trusts to “hold” the lottery ticket. A couple of states fought the trusts in court–and lost. As a result, I think that Bricker is right for the majority of cases (the states figured the bad press they were getting would not cover the “savings” of cutting widows off), but you may have to check each state, individually, to be sure.
Ohio allows you to take the million over 20 years or take a smaller lump sum equivalent to what they claim they would invest in order to provide the annuity for the payments. This allows the winner to do the investing, rather than the state, but it means that a million dollar winner does not actually receive one million dollars.
Tom~
For the actual information, rent the video “Waking Ned Devine.” 
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman
Waking Ned Devine is just a movie based in Ireland. Sounds like a good movie, but I am still wondering about actual lotteries in the USA.