Lottery Winner Must Pay Child Support Before Collecting Winnings!

Irresponsible fathers need to pay the child support owing to their kids before being allowed to collect their lottery winnings. There is no excuse for an able-bodied individual, who is gainfully employed, for not paying their child support payments. Anyone who brings children into the world must accept responsibility for supporting, nurturing, and raising them. For example, Ohio has the right idea by forcing a lottery winner to pay $50,569.00 child support before he gets his winnings. According to court records, Kelvin D. Bostelman failed to pay the child support owing to his children even though he was gainfully employed as an electrician and drywaller. The records show that Bostelman has a history of being in trouble with the law from 1999 to 2004 for not making child support payments. Bostelman, who won $7.5 million in the Ohio Lottery’s Ohio Millionaire instant game, must pay his four children, ages 13-19, from two women, the monies owing them in unpaid child support before he receives any of the 30 annual payments of $250,000.00. Actually the payments are $172,500.00 per year after the mandatory 31 percent federal and state withholding tax. The money owing will be deducted off Bostelman’s first annual installment and forwarded to the Lucas County Child Support Agency and distributed to his children. It’s a good thing lottery winners must declare overdue child support and unpaid taxes when they claim prizes. Hats off to the Lucas County prosecutor, the Ohio Lottery Corporation and to Ohio state law for setting things right by making sure the children are taken care of. This should be standard practice for any lottery winnings, that is, pay child support before collecting any lottery winnings. I’ll bet it was definitely a learning experience for at least one lottery player.