Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous • Hacker News Board

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#51

Post by kodablah » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

wgerard wrote: post #6

I 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.

> I hope she wins

I'm not sure I do. She opted into a transparent system and gets the down side that comes with it (or opts out). If this was thrust upon her, I might feel different. I fear the precedent this would set for redacting names from Forbes lists and the like. It's one of those unfortunate occurrences where openness and privacy are in conflict and when it's government actions like this, arresting someone, awarding some other monies to someone, etc I think openness should prevail.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#52

Post by oldcynic » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:13 PM UTC

xnet wrote: post #31

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.

That is simply not true.

Any UK winner can opt for anonymity when collecting their prize. The National Lottery give financial and legal advice regardless of your choice. Only around 20% opt for publicity.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#53

Post by eesmith » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:13 PM UTC

keketi wrote: post #15

Aren't court proceedings public record? Her name would come out that way even if she wins. Can she grant another person the authority to sue on her behalf and remain anonymous?

The article points out "In court documents obtained by NewHampshire.com, the plaintiff is fittingly identified only as Jane Doe."

See also https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/filing-a-laws... or use your search engine of choice for '"anonymous plaintiff" lawsuit'.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#54

Post by make3 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

Pharylon wrote: post #16

Waterluvian wrote: post #5

My 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.

there are plenty of ways to avoid fraud without having to recall the identity to the public, the main being state auditing of all lotteries, which should probably happen anyways

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#55

Post by giarc » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

IntronExon wrote: post #49

giarc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Who cares if people are suspicious? People believe in chem trails and all kinds of crap, no one has to take a publicity hit to calm them.

Because if people are suspicious they stop buying tickets.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#56

Post by jsymolon » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #42

Giving the winnings in a cryptocurrency would both preserve anonymity (pseudonymity?) and permit audit of the winnings.

Given all the issues in regards to exchanges i.e. fraud, theft and relative difficulty in getting out, I wouldn't trust cryptocurrency at all.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#57

Post by eesmith » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

bachmeier wrote: post #22

_m8fo wrote: post #12

I 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…

If the only way to prove the lottery is legit is to make the names of winners public, why not just make up a name?

Because, and I'll quote from article, "she signed her name on the back of the ticket shortly after winning, and altering the signature would nullify the ticket." That is, she could have formed an anonymous trust, but now it's too late.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#58

Post by giarc » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:16 PM UTC

donald123 wrote: post #48

giarc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Not exactly, it is advised by the lottery office to immediately sign your ticket. Otherwise it may create a lot of unnecessary troubles, like your ticket is lost, robbed, or some friend claims you had verbal agreement on splitting the rewards, etc.

On the extremely rare chance that you do win, avoiding the troubles of a newly minted public millionaire, not signing it seems like a good trade off.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#59

Post by jonbarker » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:16 PM UTC

Related: I wonder if any analysis on the life outcomes of another jackpot system, "sold company for a windfall", have been done. I appreciate the bad lotto result stories because they confirm my correct bias that lotto should not be played because it is a tax on not understanding probability (except at about 350M for powerball, in which case your enemy is not expected value but variance). However, no such analysis seems to have been done on the startup ecosystem, which generally relies on big exit stories for 'free marketing'.

Re: Lottery winner asking a judge to let her keep the cash and remain anonymous

#60

Post by throw7 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

giarc wrote: post #35

sosuke wrote: post #3

If 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."

I think the moral is... do not talk/sign/call/anything, walk, no run, to a good lawyer well versed in the area of: "I've just won the lottery, please help."