A committee of the North Carolina legislature recent rejected a proposal that would have allowed lottery winners to remain anonymous from the public, although obviously the state would know their names.
Currently the 44 states that offer lotteries release the names of lottery winners as a matter of course. Although the attraction of playing the lottery is the possibility of a “life changing” jackpot, other life changes are sometimes not so wonderful. Such as the fact that lottery winners are considered fair game by anyone who wants to hit them up for cash.
Many lottery officials argue that anonymity would actually make the games less popular because the public would trust the games’ fairness less. But others say the opposite.
Patrick Nowlin, who won a $41 million Powerball jackpot seven years ago recently told the New York Times, “I think it’s the curse of the lottery that your name is out there forever. You’ve always got to keep looking out for a scam. Even after seven years, every once in a while I get a suspicious phone call.”
Alice Garland, executive director of the North Carolina lottery, insists that full disclosure keeps the games honest. “If you don’t provide the winners’ names, then I think it becomes suspicious as to whether there really are winners or not,” she said.
Some lotteries give winners the option to stay anonymous. Some allow the money to be collected by a trust, rather than an individual.
Attorney Andrew Stoltmann says lotteries take advantage of winners and do nothing to protect them once they are paid. He told the Times, “Lottery officials are just more than willing to sell these people out and throw them to the wolves by the publicizing of their faces and their names so they can sell more lottery tickets the next time around.”
Lottery officials say that without transparency there is no way to guarantee that a lottery official isn’t the winner of the jackpot or someone who made a big contribution to a political campaign.
Those who want some sort of anonymity don’t agree on solutions to achieve that. One proposal in Georgia would allow winners to remain anonymous, but only if they agreed to donate a large chunk to fund scholarships. Another proposal, this one in Arizona, would postpone announcing the winners for 90 days, presumably to give them time to organize how best to respond to the sudden fame. A bill in New York would prevent the lottery from forcing winners from performing the sorts of publicity appearances and photo ops that are normally associated with being a winner.
