Lottery Winner’s Past Could Affect His Million Dollar Jackpot Future
Posted November 29, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Timothy Elliott is the luckiest man in the world – he just won $1 million from a lottery scratch ticket.
Timothy Elliott may also be the unluckiest man in the world – because the law says he might not be able to keep a dime of that money.
The 55-year-old Massachusetts man went into a supermarket and bought a scratch ticket for $10. He was stunned to find out he’d won the big prize and went to claim the first of twenty $50,000 cheques on Monday. But there’s a problem. Elliott is a convicted bank robber, whose parole requirements expressly forbid him from participating in any form of gambling – including playing the lottery.
He pled guilty to holding up a Cape Cod financial institution in January 2006, and was placed on five years probation. Among the rules allowing him his freedom was one that expressly stated that he “may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted, including restaurants where Keno may be played.”
The ex-con was supposed to undergo psychiatric treatment at a local hospital, but no one’s willing to say where he is now or what might happen to all that money. A court will now have to decide if his wages of sin are going to be given to him after all or forfeited to the state’s Revenue Department.
Meanwhile, lottery officials are doing their best to deal with the embarrassing winner. They’d briefly posted his picture on their website, showing the bearded recipient holding his first cheque (top left). But the photo was pulled down on Wednesday when the news of his past surfaced.
