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$560 Million Lottery Winner Can Remain Anonymous: Why Is This Even An Issue In 2018?

This article is more than 6 years old.

A New Hampshire judge has ruled that the mystery winner of the $560 million Powerball jackpot can remain anonymous, finding that the woman’s right to privacy outweighs the public's interest in knowing her identity.

Jane Doe, as she’s identified in court documents, filled in the back of the winning ticket with her name, address, phone number and signature, only to realize later that by doing so, she was forfeiting her anonymity under the state’s Right-to-Know law, which allows citizens to request public records.

If Doe wanted to remain anonymous, her attorney later advised, she should have created a trust with a non-identifying name, designated herself as a beneficiary and had her attorney pick up the lottery check as trustee.

As it turned out, this was information that would have been useful to Doe before she signed the ticket, because lottery officials told her that if she attempted to white out her informationeven by her lawyer in the presence of lottery officialsthe ticket would be invalid.

And so began the court battle.

The Winner’s Right to Privacy

It isn't difficult to imagine why Doe would want her information to remain private. In today’s internet age, we are all incredibly easy to locate, and if people have nefarious reasons for doing so, we're also in danger. Unfortunately, past lottery winners' experiences are Exhibit A.

Take, for example, the tragic fate of Urooj Khan, who was found dead of a cyanide-induced heart attack in Chicago a day after the check was issued for his $1 million scratch-off win; his murder remains unsolved. Or Craigory Burch, who was killed during a home invasion in Georgia after winning $430,000 in the state lottery. Or Andrew “Jack” Whittaker of West Virginia: After he won $315 million in 2002, thieves stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his car (twice) and also drained his bank account.

Doe's complaint detailed several similarly harrowing stories, leading Judge Charles S. Temple to write, "Although the Commission dismisses this harassment as trivial and/or speculative, for the Court to do so would require it to ignore the significant media attention this case has received, the numerous documented bad experiences of other lottery winners, as well as the bevy of unsolicited emails, phone calls and in-person visits already directed at Ms. Doe through her attorneys."

In granting Doe's request for an injunction to stop the release of her name, Temple concluded that "the Court has no doubts whatsoever that should Ms. Doe’s identity be revealed, she will be subject to an alarming amount of harassment, solicitation and other unwanted communications."

The judge ruled that the name of her town could be released, however, because that information didn't carry the same privacy concerns.

For all you nosy Rosies, it's Merrimack.

The Public’s Right to Know

Why are lottery winners’ names revealed anyway?

In most states, identifying information of lottery winners is available under public records laws, such as New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know law. As Temple wrote, these laws exist so that the government's activities are open to "the sharp eye of public scrutiny." State lotteries are paid from public funds, and their profits benefit public programs such as those for health care and infrastructure; New Hampshire's lottery funds education.

The primary reason to require disclosure of a winner’s name is to protect the integrity and transparency of the process. When lottery winners’ identities are available to the public, the argument goes, citizens can be assured that insiders aren’t cheating in favor of themselves or loved ones — such as when Iowa security chief Eddie Tipton rigged a multistate lottery and got a 25-year prison sentence instead of a $16.5 million jackpot.

In fact, under this rationale, most states do not keep winners' information private. Only a small minority of states, including Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, permit at least some anonymity of lottery winners.

In defense of making winners’ names public, lottery officials also like to put a face to the name for publicity's sake — read: increased sales, cha-ching! — although that would hardly be a convincing argument when weighed against a winner’s right to privacy.

Finding A Happy Medium

In the end, Doe's case wasn't about whether lottery winners can remain anonymous in New Hampshire; they already can, so long as they create a trust and have the funds released to the trustee. (North Carolina, by the way, doesn't allow this because beneficiaries' names would be public.) The complication here was the potential whiting-out and invalidation of the ticket, i.e., a technicality if ever there was one. The judge's decision is sound because it upholds the state's interest in the transparency of the process while simultaneously keeping Doe's identity secret.

But a case like this shouldn't even have to exist in 2018.

There's no denying that privacy concerns have increased exponentially over the past 20 years.  It’s time for lottery rules to catch up with the realities of the modern world. Yes, transparency and openness of the lottery process should always remain a concern, but we need common-sense solutions that balance these interests without lottery winners having to go to court to protect their identities.

Through new legislation, states should reach a happy medium between the public interest and an individual’s privacy. One innovative example came from the late New Jersey State Senator Jim Whelan, who for years pushed for a law that would make winners' information available to the public after a one-year delay to allow publicity to fade and to give winners time to adjust. The bill made it all the way to Governor Chris Christie's desk, but he vetoed it.

Another option for a middle ground could be a specially appointed, independent board that can verify the identity of the winner for transparency’s sake but also keep the winner's private information under wraps.

Whatever the future solution, the moral of the story for the present is this: If you play the lottery, don't bet on having a choice about whether to go public about your newfound good fortune. Know your state law before putting down your money, and if you don't like the law, contact your representatives to change it.