Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

msn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 230 posts

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

#71

Post by dantillberg »

make3 wrote: post #54
Pharylon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I believe the issue with state's auditing their own lotteries is that it still leaves a fair bit of room for public corruption. By declaring winners openly, it avails anyone among the public to research potential corrupt connections between lottery winners and lottery operators.

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

#72

Post by baddox »

jonlucc wrote: post #9
tlb wrote: post #4

I understand why people don't want everyone to know they're rich. I'm rich (not $560M, but some) and you can figure that out from various news stories, and it does affect relationships somewhat. More so outside Silicon Valley. On the other hand, I understand why lotteries want to publicize winners in their marketing. A fair deal might be, that the publicity value is defined to be X% (say 10%) of the prize, and you ca…

If I'm not mistaken, it's about more than just publicity; it's also about avoiding fraud. As someone put it before "come spend money on a chance to win a very large pot of money; don't worry, we have given some out before, but you just have to believe us".

But in this case she would have been allowed to accept the ticket under an anonymous trust. The only problem is that she signed the ticket, and there is an incredibly stupid legal technicality which prevents you from changing the signature.

It is ludicrous that it would take a judge more than a few hours to review the law and make a decision to allow her to change the ticket to an anonymous trust.

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

#73

Post by kodablah »

baddox wrote: post #63
kodablah wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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, a…

I don’t see the value in sticking to this legal technicality. She could have accepted the ticket using an anonymous trust, but since she signed it with her own name instead, she’s not allowed to change it. Since anonymous trusts are already legal there, there’s no threat of “losing openness.” I mean come on, that’s such a petty technicality for such a massive life event. Just let her set up the anonymous trust and mo…

I don't really appreciate skirting "technicalities", especially in a precedent-setting legal decision. If the law is wrong (or even if the spirit/intent of the law does not apply here), she should win and the law should change or be struck down. I wouldn't mind if the judge decided "it's illegal to make someone who signed a lottery ticket with their real name not change to a trust and keep their name hidden." But I would mind if the judge decided "I feel sorry for her, in this one instance she can remain anonymous."

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

#74

Post by PaulRobinson »

jonlucc wrote: post #9
tlb wrote: post #4

I understand why people don't want everyone to know they're rich. I'm rich (not $560M, but some) and you can figure that out from various news stories, and it does affect relationships somewhat. More so outside Silicon Valley. On the other hand, I understand why lotteries want to publicize winners in their marketing. A fair deal might be, that the publicity value is defined to be X% (say 10%) of the prize, and you ca…

If I'm not mistaken, it's about more than just publicity; it's also about avoiding fraud. As someone put it before "come spend money on a chance to win a very large pot of money; don't worry, we have given some out before, but you just have to believe us".

In the UK, lotteries are well regulated and audited by commissions who confirm payouts, etc.

It's OK to stay anonymous, particularly in the largest lotteries (National Lottery and Euromillions, both operated in the UK by Camelot Plc), and you can not be publicly named without opting into it.

It's my understanding that every person who gets a prize over £500k on the national/euro lotteries gets a visit from a Camelot employee to ensure they're prepared to handle the money and are speaking to suitable people who are not going to destroy their good fortune.

I don't see why other lotteries in other countries can't do the same without the risk of fraud increasing.

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

#75

Post by joezydeco »

throw7 wrote: post #60
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."

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."

A lot of people are cheated out of their winning each year by sales clerks that check the ticket, tell the buyer "nope, it's a loser", then pull the ticket out of the trash once the buyer has left.

Signing the back upon purchase is a strong defense against this fraud. So it's not as black-and-white as it seems.

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

#76

Post by astura »

root_axis wrote: post #24
jonlucc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm not mistaken, it's about more than just publicity; it's also about avoiding fraud. As someone put it before "come spend money on a chance to win a very large pot of money; don't worry, we have given some out before, but you just have to believe us".

Indeed, and we know people with privileged access have successfully abused the system in the past. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/programmer-pleads-guilt...

Don't forget about the infamous McDonald's Monopoly fraud!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Fraud

>In 2000, the U.S. promotion was halted after fraud was uncovered. A subcontracting company called Simon Marketing (a then-subsidiary of Cyrk), which had been hired by McDonald's to organize and promote the game, failed to recognize a flaw in its procedures. Chief of security Jerome P. Jacobson[3] was able to remove the most expensive game pieces, which he then passed to associates who would redeem them and share the proceeds. The associates won almost all of the top prizes between 1995 and 2000, including McDonald's giveaways that did not have the Monopoly theme. The associates netted over $24 million.

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

#78

Post by ynniv »

wahern wrote: post #61
wyldfire wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> She can't do that either. But, why? Because she accidentally signed the ticket before realizing that it invalidated that option? She holds the winning ticket, just let her redact her signature from it legitimately and claim her winnings.

The question is whether the law establishing the lottery permits that, and if so what clear limits the court can put into place so that the agency operating the lottery doesn't have to contend with too many complex scenarios that could ultimately result. Money attracts litigation, especially when the rules aren't crystal clear. It sucks for this woman, but technically she could always forgo the winnings altogether. N…

You would think the legislature would lend a kind ear to their next great donor.

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

#79

Post by AngeloAnolin »

I will bookmark this, and hopefully someone updates the story of what happened when the case has been settled.

On one side, you can see why the lady was asking for anonymity - exposing her could really endanger her life. She would be a target for anyone, who would want a piece of that $500 million dollars of reason. On the other side, you see that the state wants to advertise and use this as a marketing ploy to entice other people to play.

Post reply on HN