There is plenty of ways a smart lotto winner can protect themselves both financially and physically even if their name is revealed.
But if someones dumb with money no law is going to protect them from themselves. You can’t legislate against stupidity.
Most of the (legit sounding) advice I read in the numerous articles leading up the recent huge Power Ball recommended not telling anyone, including family. It would be very easy for me to never tell anyone.
I think its fine to tell people AFTER you’ve engaged a law fim, hired security, a financial adviser who specialises in high net worth individuals, a personal assistant and moved into either a gated community or a penthouse with concierge / security. There are plenty of rich people who are famous and survive quite well. They don’t get constantly pestered by people for money because they hire staff whose job is to deflect any such requests and firmly shut them down.
The people selling the tickets have the right to dictate that, if you win we get to use your photo and name, (possibly at least once), I should think. It’s their lottery, after all. And if it’s clearly stated on the ticket I don’t see how you get to complain about it.
Don’t like it? Don’t buy a ticket. Go bet the ponies.
I’m not seeing this as the government or state’s business in any way, shape or form.
I think in the interest of the safety of the winners, they should allow them to remain anonymous. I’m afraid what it will take is some big winner having a family member kidnapped and later murdered for this to happen.
A more sensible reaction would be for the lotto organisation to offer advice to the winners on security and wealth management. If the winner chooses to disregard the advice then like I said, you can’t legislate against stupidity.
So every victim of kidnapping is stupid? The president’s family doesn’t get victimized because they have Secret Service details. Big lottery winners may be rich, but they can’t afford what it would cost to make sure that a kidnapping doesn’t happen.
You can seriously reduce the chances. How many children of celebrities get kidnapped? everyone knows they are rich? Hint, almost none, because they hire security and live in good neighbourhoods. Anyone who earns a lotto prize higher than $10 million can afford that easily.
Or we can let them stay anonymous and let them decide how they spend their money. It’s called freedom.
The lottery has being going on in some form for decades with thousands of big winners. How often has this occurred?
I don’t know if it has but why put the winners in the public eye if they don’t want to be?
Because those are the rules they agree to follow when they buy a ticket. Why have those rules? It prevents the perception of fraud and is good for marketing.
I believe Texas has a rule that says that you must claim the prize in person, but they don’t really define “you”. So what the smarter winners have done is claim that the lottery was won by some sort of anonymous trust, and then have the lawyers that sets up the trust claim the prize in the trust’s name. Meanwhile, the actual winners maintain full control over all the money via the mechanism of having full control of the trust.
Yes exactly, there are already plenty of ways that smart winners can protect themselves, and no law will effectively protect dumb winners. They might be able to claim their prize anonymously but if they immediately buy a Ferrari and go to a strip club with $ 50,000 cash then people are going to figure it out pretty quickly.
Very few people want to be in the public eye. Some become successful and end up there anyway. Should people like Donald Trump and Bill Gates receive government assistance in staying anonymous, too? After all, why put them in the public eye if they don’t want to be?
The freedom of the press is more important than a penny-wise-pound-foolish lottery winner who doesn’t feel like paying for security.
Tax is tax. What difference does it make where it’s taxed. The amount the winner gets to keep is about the same,
More government double-speak. It’s a tax. What’s more, it’s a tax on the mathematically inept. (Over here in the U.S., the “C” in “F.I.C.A.” stands for “Contribution”, but it’s still a tax).
But on topic: Since I’m so critical of government, I really have doubts that 100% of those anonymous winners really were lottery purchasers. So if you don’t want your name published, don’t buy a ticket.
Probably one of the most notorious cases in Australia was the Graeme ThorneKidnapping.
Quick summary. Couple win lottery - come home one day - 8 year old son has been kidnapped. You can guess the rest.
“Sense” and “Sensibliity” are not synonyms.
It would probably make a good book title though…
It happened in 1960. Not exactly relevant to a situation nowadays.
“Duty” is a subset of “tax”.
Besides, they don’t go for duties in the US. That’s pretty much why the country exists, now that I think of it.