In the UK, the National Lottery allows anonymous retrieval of the winnings and yet there is still a very large amount of trust that there is no fraudulent activity.
The anonymity means you do not get financial advice from the lottery trust which seems like a pretty fair trade off.
Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
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Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#32Given the size of the prize involved, it seems like she could have had a duplicate "winning ticket" made, sans signature on the back. This would have had to have been done before all the publicity about the signed ticket though.
Even with watermarks, etc., the cost to manufacture an exact replica ticket couldn't be more than a few thousand dollars. Even if it were $100K to buy some specialized equipment, it would still seem like a worthwhile investment.
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#33I honestly don't see the issue. The only reason the lotto works is because people know you can win and it's not rigged, and the only way you can know that is by making the winners public. Finally, the only reason said lottery was $XXXM is because of the people who tried and failed, funding it. I doubt lotteries would pay such large amounts long term if anonymous lotteries were standard as fraud is inevitable. Being a…
The only reason the lotto works is because people know you can win and it's not rigged, and the only way you can know that is by making the winners public
You have seen The Running Man, right?
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#34I hope she wins. There's a pretty funny (or sad, I suppose) reddit comment about winning the lottery that seems pretty true: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vzgl/you_just_... Winning the lottery (publicly, at least) seems to be a real monkey's paw wish.
The follow up is pretty good advice too and is the advice I have been given by lawyers I know that are familiar with these problems... also they have all advised getting the hell out the country for awhile. Congrats, you are taking a two-week vacation in London or Paris. Long enough to get paperwork dealt with and short enough that it does not need explanation to family, friends or colleagues.
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#35If you don't happen to read the article and think to mention the anonymous trust way of accepting the winnings. She can't do that either. "The state allows people to form an anonymous trust, NewHampshire.com reported, but it’s a moot point for the woman — she signed her name on the back of the ticket shortly after winning, and altering the signature would nullify the ticket." Oh and an excellent tidbit out of the sto…
So moral of the story is to never sign your ticket.
Looks like some lucky person was smart enough to do that.
"In 2016, the last winner of the Powerball followed that advice. The $487 million prize claimed through the Robin Egg 2016 Nominee Trust, which was created by Shaheen, and he serves as its trustee."
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? She knew what she was getting into. No one is forcing her to play the lottery.
I don't think she did know what she was getting into or else she wouldn't have signed the back with her name. I didn't know you basically had to get outed or setup an anonymous trust etc. If nothing else, this story and court-case will make this information more commonly-known. Before/when you win millions, setup a trust and let the trust do the winning.
She still has the choice to refuse the money. She can't have both in this case. Sometimes the world isn't fair. I really wish to hear other people talk about the "threats to liberty this entails" because I'm being down-voted to oblivion.
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#37My understanding is that the lotto wants free advertising at the cost of the winners being made very public. It seems like this individual is doing a tremendous public service by taking this to court. I think most of us would balk at the risk of somehow losing the millions of dollars.
The point of it is to avoid fraud.
The point of oversight is to avoid fraud. The point of releasing a name is for publicity and nothing else.
How does releasing someone's name and location even avoid fraud within itself? It only works if people invade that individual's privacy (e.g. job, associations, etc).
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#38I understand the desire to be anonymous, but things like this get out. While taking this route might benefit future winners, it will likely make her own situation worse via the "Streisand effect": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
The Streisand Effect would apply if her name was being bandied about because she was trying to suppress the news. That's not the case.
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point of it is to avoid fraud.
But how does making the winner's name public avoid fraud? I assume the government needs to look at something and say "looks legit". So couldn't they do that in private? Have some judge or gov't official put their stamp on it and say "yes, the winner was a real person not affiliated with the lottery" or whatever needs to happen.
I think it's more unofficial than that. As other people have said in this thread, identifying the people publicly allows others to see their face, and see that they are real people. If it were simply "A judge has declared the winner legit" every time, people would get suspicious.
Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous
#40What a great problem to have!