Lotto Winner Who Stayed on Food Stamps Dies

Drug overdose suspected in death of Amanda Clayton
Posted Sep 30, 2012 7:37 AM CDT
Lotto Winner Who Stayed on Food Stamps Dies
In this March 8, 2012 file photo, Amanda Clayton holds her $1 million lottery check. Clayton, who continued to get food stamps after her win, has died of a suspected overdose.   (AP Photo/courtesy Michigan Lottery via Detroit Free Press)

Amanda Clayton, the Michigan woman who inspired mass derision and a fraud conviction for continuing to take public assistance after winning $1 million on a state lottery-run game show, has died. She was found dead yesterday, reports the Free Press, and a drug overdose is suspected. No further details on her death were available.

Clayton was earlier this year sentenced to nine months' probation and ordered to repay some $5,500 in food stamps after it was discovered she had failed to inform public assistance authorities of her September 2011 win. "I feel that it's OK because, I mean, I have no income, and I have bills to pay," she said at the time she was charged. "I have two houses." Michigan, apparently unconvinced, responded with a law requiring lotto officials to report winners to DHS. (More Amanda Clayton stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X