Everything mentioned so far is the least of the problems. I don't do lottery, but I have always wondered if it is mandatory for the lottery commission to divulge the identity of the winner.
Why?
Because the biggest threat to the winner, unless he spends all his winnings in bodyguard protection are the miscreants who would kidnap and hold for ramsom,
His wife.
His kids.
His parents.
Brothers and sisters.
Dog, cat or canary...
Burn his house down,
etc.
Actually, I was reading an article about the mis-fortunes of BIG winners ...
One was kidnapped by his sister-in-law and her boyfriend, held for ransom, then murdered when the ransom was not paid ...
I listened to a talk radio interview with someone who used to be on the Texas Lottery Commission ...
She said that if you win, you can go to a lawyer and incorporate yourself into an LLC BEFORE claiming your prize ...
Then, you send the lawyer [as your representative] to claim it for you ...
This just happened in either the NY or NJ Lottery about 2 months ago, where 3 guys went to claim the prize. All they would divulge was that they represented the LLC ...
That way, the winner's name DID NOT come out ...
One of the most famous crimes in Australian history is the Graeme Thorne Kidnapping - it was one of two crimes in the 1960s that are generally credited with making Australians fearful for their children’s safety and starting to keep them inside at home rather than letting them roam free.
Graeme was eight years old and was abducted on his way to school in 1960 after his father won £100,000 in a lottery that was held to raise money for the building of the Sydney Opera House (the equivalent would be about $5 million or so in modern terms). Back then, the names and addresses of lottery winners were published in the press. The kidnapper demanded a £25,000 ransom for the boy - the parents were quite prepared to pay but it later emerged that the boy had died - whether by deliberate act or accident - within 24 hours of the kidnapping. And attempts to pay the ransom failed in any event.
The kidnapper was caught and convicted of murder and sentenced to life - unfortunately the state of New South Wales had abandoned capital punishment. He didn’t do his time easily - he was constantly beaten by other prisoners until he died ‘of a heart attack’ eight years later.