Can You Remain Anonymous After Winning A Lottery?
If you walk home with a grand lottery jackpot, would you like to reveal your identity?
That’s probably a No!
Because with great windfall comes a history of winners for whom the “winning money” has not fared well!
For almost every one of us, winning a lottery game is a life-changing experience. Not only does it make us a millionaire, but also throws a great amount of limelight with your name flashing in the news headlines across the country or across the globe.
While it may sound all exciting and glitzy, but this span of attention and the newfound wealth has its own set of cons, especially when you don’t have a choice in this matter.
When we think of winning a game, we often determine to remain anonymous unknowingly of the rules prevailing in the state in which we reside. But this actually can’t happen. Anonymity for lottery winners is completely determined by the state in which the winning ticket is sold. While it seems a kind of a headbanger, but certainly this is true, and you need to abide by the laws.
Which U.S. States Allow You To Remain Anonymous?
In the USA, there aren’t many states that allow their lottery winners to remain anonymous. In total there are 48 jurisdictions: 45 states plus the District of Columbia, Peurto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, that run lotteries in the United States.
Currently, there are 11 states that allow their winners to remain anonymous, if the winning ticket was purchased in their state, namely,
Arizona
Delaware
Georgia
Kansas
Maryland
New Jersey
North Dakota
Ohio
South Carolina
Virginia
Texas
Winners residing in any of these states do not have to collect their prize money in person or disclose their identity after bagging a grand jackpot.
Why Do Lottery Winners Have To Go Public?
Many lotteries require the basic information about the winners, to be released in public, including their name, city, and the amount they won for all the prizes and not just the jackpot. But why do they need so? The lotteries have been constantly working to maintain transparency in their operations. They want the public to know that how ordinary people can and actually do win lottery prizes, grand jackpots, which in turn increases the public trust in the fairness of lottery draws, and their zeal for participation and win. The publicity does generate interest among the public and increases ticket sales which actually benefits the general public as the proceeds from the state lotteries are allocated to public funds benefitting the public at large.
Reasons You Should Remain Anonymous After Winning A Lottery
Subject To Potential Lottery Scams
Getting a major chunk of the limelight after winning a grand jackpot and not remaining anonymous will make you subject to a number of lottery scams. All trying to scoop money out of your newfound wealth. Lottery scammers are on the hunt for such winners all the time, so sharing your personal details or identity can be quite a gamble in its own way.
Contract Killing or A Lawsuit
Lottery winners should always watch their back. While it’s super exciting to have huge money in your hands, it can be equally dangerous. In November 2015, Craigory Burch Jr. bagged a Georgia Lottery jackpot worth $434,272. Two months later, the grand jackpot winner was killed in his home by “seven masked men”. According to the statement given out by his family members, it was the winnings that made him a target.
Marie Holmes, the $188 million Powerball jackpot winner, defied the odds of 1 in 175 million, is now subject to a lawsuit filed by her former fiance, who claims that she used most of the money to buy lavish gifts, and gave them all away, while he was in the prison serving for drug trafficking conviction. There are a number of cases like these after filed just after a family member or an acquaintance bags a lotto jackpot.
Not Researching Well About The Hired Financial Advisor
After winning a jackpot, it is important to hire a financial advisor, but an important thing to consider here is that a great financial planner can protect your winnings with the right investments, but a not well researched one with faulty history can turn out a disaster. So, it is best to well research your financial planner, before picking the right one!
Matching all the winning digits can be a crazy moment, and enjoying this enormous amount of money, that you luckily won can be overwhelming, but at the same time it is important to keep the privacy and strike a balance between the two. Though the selection of the winning numbers may require, some help from really proficient tools from The Lottery Lab, the rest you can assure by making some smart decisions.
