The biggest problem facing lottery players is not what you think

Not everyone loses. Angela Williams won $250,000 and invested it into 8 houses and a 10-acre block of land in rural New Zealand, along with this hangover product. 

It's been well documented. Many large jackpot winners seem to lose all their winnings within two to five years. Some go back to work, broke and disillusioned. About one in three lotto winners have problems, according to the Consumerist.

And yet it needn't be this way. I've written articles about money management on this blog for years in the hope that it will change winner's attitudes and help them grow their win into a life-enhancing money machine.

The root of the problem is that many winners have been deprived for much of their lives. It seems now their massive win is the opportunity to have everything they've ever wanted. The money never seems to run out.

Until one day, it does. And it's easy to do. You'll be amazed at how many high-end cars will take out more than a million in a single purchase.

This Mercedes 540 K Special Roadster sold for $11,770,000 in 2012.

How can winners stop losing their winnings?

Can we show them how to curb these desires? Unfortunately telling people how to handle money never works. It's impossible to deprive someone of their dreams once they have the potential to realise them.

Another way is to force them to save. Ask them to deposit the jackpot in a bank account and never touch it for the first six months. Could you do this? I doubt whether anyone could... the temptation to spend some of it would be too great.

To find an answer to this problem, it's important to identify what kind of spender or saver the winners are. Are they a compulsive spender? They will probably not change, so the answer is to adapt the win to their spending habits.

Ideally they should divide the total up into spending and investment. The percentage is flexible, because every consultant and advisor will have different answers.

But they can safely split it 80/20 on a big win of over $50 million without much problem.

The spending value of 20% is enough to buy houses, cars and soothe the relatives. The 80% balance, when invested will bring in an enormous income, even after taxes, to keep any winner living grandly for the rest of their lives - and have enough over to pass on to their families.