Prizes won by married couples during a marriage are marital property, regardless of which spouse purchased the ticket.

The ownership of winning tickets purchased during a DOD, a winning lottery ticket is marital property even when purchased during separation.

In most jurisdictions, equitable distribution does not necessarily mean equal. In the case of lotteries, however, equitable distribution of lottery winnings means equal, "no matter how large the winnings." And it does not matter which spouse purchased the ticket because the purchase of the ticket is viewed "as a fortuitous event to which the purchaser’s effort bears little relationship."

For obvious reasons, courts have brushed aside inventive arguments that lottery winnings are not marital property when the winning ticket was after the claim came in connection with a 1990 New York case where the husband asserted that "the winning ticket might have been purchased with a dollar he found in the street the day before while walking the dog.")

See DOS; DOD.