What Happens To Lottery Winners (Stay Anonymous)!

Stay anonymous lottery winners

Ever wondered what happens to lottery winners who choose the publicity option?

Here’s a few reminders as to why you should not get too carried away sharing the excitement of your big win…

Winning Syndicate Visited by Crime Gang

A group of 30 factory workers and craftmen from Avellino in Italy won 33 Million Euros on Italy’s SuperEnaLotto in January 2008.

Now winners are normally anonymous in Italy anyway. But this SuperEnaLotto syndicate were obviously very happy with their win and were not quiet about it.

Unfortunately their good fortune reached the ears of the local Camorra crime clan. Who simply asked around to find out the identities of the lucky winners. And then paid them each a visit..! Not surprisingly they were successful in extracting 40,000 Euros out of a good number of them, presumably to help with ‘their protection’.

Avellino prosecutor Rosario Cantelmo said that police learnt of the pay-outs while investigating extortion rackets against other local businesses. Five suspects were arrested.

The Darkest Side of Winning the Lottery

Abraham Shakespeare of Lakeland, Florida, had his life turned upside down in 2006 when he won $17 million from the Florida Lottery. By 2008, he’d already given away or loaned most of his windfall.

Dorice “Dee Dee” Moore saw an opportunity. After befriending Shakespeare, her true intentions became clear when she took control of his remaining finances. As Shakespeare grew suspicious of Moore’s actions, tragedy struck. Prosecutors revealed that Moore went to the extreme of murder..!

The mystery of Shakespeare’s disappearance lingered until January 2010, when investigators found his body. It was buried behind a house in Plant City, a property owned by Moore. In 2012, the law caught up with her. Moore was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Scammers Pretend To Be Known Iowa Jackpot Winner

Lerynne West from Iowa won a big Powerball jackpot back in 2018. She shared the jackpot with one other winner, each share being $343.9 million. Lerynne took the lump sum option and got paid out $198.1 million.

She then set up a charitable foundation in memory of her grandson. The foundation was so she could make grants available to help people in poverty and also to promote education, animal welfare and to help out veterans. All great stuff.

She even made an appearance on the Ellen show to talk about the foundation:-

Then the scammers arrived. Claiming to be Lerynne herself they offered people “$50,000 from my giveaway program…”. It looked genuine to some people. So even when they were asked for money for ‘processing fees’ people went along with it. Because when they Googled up came stories about Lerynne winning and the foundation etc.

Of course it was a scam and nothing to do with Lerynne at all. She had to put out official statements warning people. The foundation has now closed down.

Big Indian Lottery Winner Wishes He Never Won

Anoop won the Kerala lottery for a big $3.06m payout (250 million rupees) in 2022. It was the biggest lottery prize ever for the state – so Anoop was all over the news headlines.

At first he was thrilled (of course!). It was even exciting having the news crews all over him and his family. But before he had even been paid any prize money, people started turning up at his house to beg money from him. Every day. “I can’t leave the house, I can’t go anywhere. My child is ill and I can’t take him to the doctor. I wish I hadn’t won.”

So What Can You Do?

So when the day of your big win arrives, and the lottery company asks you to do a press conference, appear on TV or in a newspaper advert… say no and stay anonymous (if you can – many lottery companies do not even allow it!). Have a small party to celebrate, but don’t announce to the world ‘why’. Your life as a big winner will be a lot smoother as a result.

Otherwise you too may find out what happens to (some) lottery winners…

See also: States That Allow Lottery Winners To Remain Anonymous

27 Comments so far ↓

  • Harvey

    What I want is to win a lottery so I can be just like Bill Gates – throw away all my chairs and just sit on my wallet. Ba-da-bing!

  • Harvey

    Here’s the rule from the OLG Site:

    7. Must all winners have their names published?
    The publishing of winners is important in demonstrating the integrity of our lottery games… This is necessary for us to demonstrate that people do win… For every prizewinner there are a number of other players who did not win but have a legitimate desire to know that someone won.

    Any suggestions to preserve anonymity? I’ve read of begging letters, emails and even threats of kidnapping that big winners have been flooded with.

    • LG

      Isn’t it funny how some lottery companies claim it’s essential for integrity – yet others, such as the UK Lotto preserve your right to anonymity. And they clearly don’t have any problems with their integrity!

      It’s purely about marketing and profits of course. They sell more tickets if they can parade the big winners in front of the media.

      My advice would be to boycott their games if they won’t allow winners the choice to stay anonymous. You can play in other countries lotteries quite easily when you play in an online lottery syndicate, or buy tickets online (not the best value for money, but an option).

  • Harvey

    Unfortunately, Credit Card companies in Canada won’t allow purchase of lottery tickets, even as part of a syndicate.

    And Canadian lotteries often have pretty big jackpots.

    • LG

      If you can’t persuade your card company to remove the block (so you can spend your money how you wish!) – then boycott them too 🙂

      You can always use Moneybookers (similar to Paypal). Takes a little setting up, but plain sailing from there.

  • Jason

    I don’t know if people get the ability to stay anonymous in the UK. When the first big winner of the lottery there won the press offered 10k for their name then printed it. You only get privacy if you’re not interesting enough to the media.

    You need some seriously good lawyers, and a willingness to drop everything and lie to your back teeth to not get found out if you’re a big winner.

    • LG

      If you win a real headline grabber of a jackpot – such as the recent big EuroMillions – then it would definitely be hard to avoid being out’ed. [Although with a £161 Million they will be able to afford a particularly good lawyer, so we’ll see on that one 🙂 ]

      But as there have been so many ‘million or two’ winners now, I think most are now not interesting enough to pursue. After all, you get two millionaires a week in the UK now just from the EuroMillions Raffle. And there are still a fair number of jackpot winners still quite happy to say ‘yes’ to the publicity, even when given the choice!

      • Jason

        The British lottery does give you the chance of privacy as you’re allowed to be unidentified. But you have to either get out of your area and into an area where people are used to money moving in without asking question, or emigrate. Which isn’t always easy either as you have to state your net worth when you emigrate to prove you have enough money to be able to look after yourself for at least one year.

        Either could draw some questions to make sure the money was legally gained, and someone could make that public knowledge.

        Also it might fly in some gated estate in California or Miami to have someone arrive overnight richer then most. But other residents will be asking where the money came from or assuming British citizen/lots of money, no experience of having lots of money (they do stand out).

        So remaining anonymous isnt easy, without your family knowing it’s like going into witsec.

        Here you get to wear makeup and even have lawyers collect for you but still the afterwards can be difficult. Everyone assumes you made your money from the lottery or illegally when you won’t discuss it.

        Better to have people know then move away as its almost certainly going to ruin your present town for you and others (people knocking at your door, driving by at 3am beeping their horns, stopping you in the street, local charities wanting ever more funds, churches wanting you to pay for their next steeple, etc, etc, etc) and all that can annoy your neighbors even if the money doesnt bother them, the constant line of people wanting your money or friendship or both.

        Perhaps this is one reason why so many winners never come forward, that such a shock to their lives isn’t worth it.

        A recent winner being the son of a hotel mogul has brought out the nasties in lots of people. Maybe someone with a past they don’t want the light of day on thinks its better to rip up the ticket than have to answer some serious questions.

  • Silvia Graebner

    You should win a content for one of the most useful lottery tips sites online. I will recommend this lottery site to my friends.

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