20 big lottery winners whose money and luck ran out

Rich with debt

Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the Virginia Lottery in 1993. After she split the money with her family and taxes ate away some of the prize, her 20 annual payments of less than $50,000 weren’t remotely enough to lead a millionaire’s lifestyle.

In financial straits only five years later, she took out a loan of nearly $200,000 from the People’s Lottery Foundation, using her winnings as collateral. When lottery rules changed after that, she chose to receive a lump-sum payment.

According to multiple media reports, Mullins was sued in 2004 when she still owed the foundation more than $150,000 from the loan.