The lunacy is that you can blow your entire estate in Las Vegas on hookers, booze and gambling without the feds getting involved, but if you live right and leave it to your kids the vultures will pounce.
So....
Perhaps the family needs to go to Vegas, and have a "freindly" poker game, in which the patriarch unexpectedly loses all the accumulated wealth to the kids?
Would the tax rate on gambling proceeds be less or more than the estate tax?