Posted on 02/06/2018 12:22:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Just imagine this situation for a moment. You’ve checked your lottery tickets and discovered that you’ve won almost half a billion dollars. You’ve signed the ticket and are ready to go. What in the world would stop you at this point? That’s the issue facing one anonymous woman in New Hampshire right now. She’s got the valid winning ticket but wants the ability to receive her prize anonymously and not have her name announced for all to hear. (Washington Post)
The winning numbers triple-checked and the lottery ticket signed, the New Hampshire woman knew her life was about to change in a very positive way — except for one petrifying thing.
As the winner of last month’s $560 million Powerball, she would soon be the world’s newest owner of a nine-digit bank account.
But because of lottery rules, everyone in the world would know about it — neighbors, old high school friends, con artists, criminals.
Now the woman is asking a judge to let her keep the cash — and remain anonymous. In court documents obtained by NewHampshire.com, she is fittingly identified only as Jane Doe.
Jane Doe has a serious problem at this point because the law is not on her side. State laws require the names of lottery jackpot winners to be made public. Ms. Doe feels it violates her right to privacy and may endanger her life. This isn’t a unique problem for lottery winners. Unless you live in Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio or South Carolina, if you win the big prize, the state will publish your name.
My immediate, gut level reaction is to side with Jane Doe on this. Why shouldn’t people be allowed their privacy? It’s not illegal to win the lottery and how you handle your own finances (provided you’re not breaking the law) is your own business. If you land a new job with a great salary you’re not required to make that information public unless you work for the taxpayers. Also, as the WaPo article goes on to point out, there have actually been a significant number of jackpot winners who have been murdered in attempts to get their money. Others are blackmailed and virtually all of them are the targets of endless scammers and others seeking to separate them from their new riches.
The state has a definite, selfish motive for wanting to publicize the winners. It makes for great, free advertising to keep people playing. But they also make a case which is tough to argue with. If they never publish the names of the big winners and those people don’t come forward of their own accord, how does the public know that anyone is actually being paid and the whole thing isn’t a scam? Also, some of the people seeking anonymity may be doing so in order to hide out from debts which may be hanging over their heads.
This is one of those questions which may require a creative solution, assuming the states can be forced to accommodate the request. Perhaps some sort of independent commission which verifies the winners and keeps the names sealed but available if legal questions arise later? There’s definitely a public demand for such a solution. One poll conducted in New England a while back showed that the number one response to the question of what people would do if they won a massive jackpot was… keep it secret.
States should revoke those laws exposing winners to an avalanche of intrusive and unwanted attention from friends strangers, criminals, deadbeat brother-in-laws, you name it.
It seems people should get used to following terms to which they agreed at the outset.
Yes!
RE: What ever happened to, “Live Free Or Die!”
A huge chunk of folks from Massachusetts moved to NH and decided to choose “die” :)
Heres how I would do it. Change my name to something common. John Smith, john Jones etc before you claim. When you go in to claim. Wear a Burnham or some sort of disguise. Your “friends” and relatives would never know it’s you. And good luck finding me.
I have no objection to changing the rules for future contests. But she sounds like New Jersey Democrats.
It should default to anonymous, they should have to request, and be compensated for, publicity.
Without releasing the name we can't even be sure that the government officials actually gave the money to anyone and didn't split it up among themselves.
YES!
No, you agree to it, in effect, when you buy the ticket.
She wants to probably avoid some bill collectors.
PAY THEM you silly woman.
Unfortunately, I've never been in a position to be sure, but I have always believed I would have no problem at all saying "no" (and in very creative ways) to anybody and everybody that would approach me if I won the lotto.
I thought the first action was the IRS and State tax agencies contact the winner so that taxes are paid before the winner gets paid the net proceeds.
Your SS#, tax returns, income, bank accounts and other financial information is protected and confidential. A large monetary prize should be protected from all the usual suspects too.
No, you agree to it when you sign the ticket.
She doesn’t want to move and is well known locally. She signed it.
By law, they can disclose her name and would want to for publicity purposes. If she created a trust and had the ticket signed by the trust, that would not divulge her name.
Yes.
I'm sure that if someone kidnaps her children or grandchildren for a piece of her winnings, she'll be certain to just "suck it up."
ConservativeWarrior wrote: “I’ve read that if you ever win the lottery, you’re supposed to put the ticket in a safe deposit box, hire a lawyer, then listen to their advice.”
A bit of commonly given advice is to immediately sign the ticket since it is a bearer document.
About 20 years ago Rush talked a lot about lotteries. One caller claimed to have been a winner. Rush doesn’t often keep a caller online for long but he must have spent about 20 minutes with this caller. The caller explained that his lottery actually offered a two day class on what to do after winning the lottery.
The first rule was “Do not, under any circumstances, was go back home.”
- They said that by the time you get home, there will be a couple of hundred people on your front yard. Real estate agents, travel agents, car salesmen, people looking for a handout, etc.
-They warned him that if he went home to get anything, these people would follow him.
-They told the man to remember that there was nothing there he really needed. If there was a pet, call someone and have them take the pet to the kennel. If there were “priceless photographs” or such, make a list and hire someone to go get them.
-They said: “Your rich, you can buy new clothes, etc.”
-They told him that he needed to plan on moving and establishing a new life.
-They told him to hire a personal assistant to fend off people looking for a handout and handle his junk mail. (BTW, the guy said he got about a duffle bag of mail a week.
The guy also said that despite doing these things he still got calls that went something like this: 2AM, phone rings. Caller says I’m sure you don’t remember me but I was in your 7th grade class. My next door neighbor’s sister’s mailman’s daughter’s son was in a terrible car accident and he needs surgery immediately but the hospital won’t operate until we give them $5000. I know you’ll want to help...
Publish the gender, county, and age of the winner then.
Why not?
So, should the Publisher's Clearing House winner, the school cakewalk winner, the fundraiser raffle ticket winner, or the Bingo night winner all be anonymous? The woman knew going in that the winner is given a "hugh" cardboard check with flashbulbs and video cameras. She has a choice not to play if she does not want to be known. We all know that's not how it works.
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