Lottery win-work colleague

[shootingstar]

And for same lottery, a young couple won $600,000 cash.

Probably the best prize situation was the above couple and my colleague who did the right thing. (I mean to have taken the BMW and try to sell it later at original value price...very tough.)

Apparently the tax law at least in Alberta if it's earned from a charity lottery, it's tax-free. A major accounting firm was there to witness on behalf for hospital foundation.

[indysteel]

Wow; I'm gonna move to Canada and start playing the lottery! U.S. Tax laws are not nearly as generous.

I hate the lotteries here. Everytime I go into a convenience store, I'm behind 10 people who are each buying at least ten tickets. At the risk of sounding judgmental, most of them appear to have better ways to spend that money. It's a sad reflection of their priorities, and an even sadder reflection of our state government. They'd rather tempt the poor than tax the rich.

[Crankin]

Yep. And I live in the state that has the highest proportion of lottery players.
It's disgusting.
This past year two of my clients came from families that won the lottery twice. They each won about 100K the first time and 30K the second. One is pretty much living in poverty now and the other one, well, it didn't help the alcoholism and other problems going on.
When I was teaching, the parents association used to have a teacher appreciation luncheon for us near the end of the year. Their "gift" to us was a couple of lottery tickets. I thought this was horrible and I always refused to accept them, just saying "no thanks." This caused quite a few raised eyebrows.
What I didn't tell them is my grandfather pretty much lost a million dollars gambling in the thirties and forties. He had money when no one else did and just gambled it away. He didn't need to, he had a successful shoe factory and was the designer of some of the first low cost women's shoes in the US.
So, my attitude toward this is kind of skewed.