Should Lottery Jackpot Winners Be Anonymous? In some U.S. states, the jackpot winners can be anonymous. Should the jackpot winners of Canadian Lotteries be anonymous?
absolutely - I think it is disgusting that they throw you to the wolves. Oh we give them counseling, oh we recommend this and that - why oh why would you force the reveal. Even if you have a law firm try to redeem the ticket they will not pay.
We've had examples of stolen tickets being turned in to claim the prize and of ticket sellers conning the system.
Don't make it anonymous, keep it transparent.
I agree with the anonimity. If you win a jackpot, your life easily become a living hell. The big winners are always anonymous in lots of european country. You need the prize, not tons of problem. Lost friends, lost or kidnapped family members, killed winners...etc. It's just a really bad rule.
This is a case of needing to be careful of what you wish for. I don't like the thought of my mug being splashed on every newspaper and screen, but I appreciate the necessity for openness and transparency. Furthermore, would your faith in the honesty of the lottery stay the same if, time after time, all you were allowed to know was that the big prize was won by someone who refused to identify themselves? The other benefit of publicizing is that it becomes much easier for the rest of us to imagine ourselves as the winner, and that motivates us to keep buying tickets.
Winning a big lotto does bring some unpleasant side effects, but if you think the negatives would outweigh the positives, then don't buy any more tickets.
How many problems do you hear about now? We've had several big jackpot winners in southern Ontario and other than the immediate press, nothing is ever heard about them again. Other than the guy who invested in a potato farm and lost it all, and the guy who tried to screw his wife out of her share by hiding the ticket while leaving her in the mean time.
If I was a big jackpot winner, I would put the ticket away, you have up to a year to cash it. Then I would rent a small house in a town a long way from home where I would "come and go from my travelling sales job". Then when I cashed in the ticket, I would be DanJ from hicktown and I would be gone from there shortly thereafter. There's a million people with my real name around, and by the time it inevitably came out that I was that winner, not many people would care by then.