Pro anonymity for lottery winners
By Kelly Running
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听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Imagine this鈥� you buy a lottery ticket each week. You hope to win, but it鈥檚 such a rare thing, so many people out there purchase tickets and what are the chances of winning the big prize. But, the lure of $50 million is enough to buy the ticket.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 You take it in to be checked, after forgetting about it for a few days after the numbers are drawn, and can鈥檛 believe it when you discover you hold the winning ticket!
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 You鈥檝e won! It鈥檚 amazing! It happened!
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Now the press gets wind of it and the Lottery Corp. tells you that you have no anonymity, that they are going to release your name as the big winner and you have no choice in the matter. After all, it鈥檚 written on the back of the ticket that they name winners.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 However, why does this have to be the way it is? If someone wants to remain anonymous when receiving their winnings then why can鈥檛 they? Why not handle it like we do our RCMP report? Just say where they鈥檙e from, how old they are, and what their gender is.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 The thing about winning that much money is that you end up with people asking for a piece of it. Family and friends, even people you don鈥檛 even know well, become greedy and start asking you to invest in a business idea or to loan them money. They all have plans for the money you鈥檝e won and ignore what you want to do with it in favour of their plans.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Sure, if I came into $50 million I would share it around. I鈥檓 not saying you shouldn鈥檛 share the wealth if you win, but if a friend, family member, or acquaintance wins you shouldn鈥檛 harass them about it. Let them make their own decisions and if they ask for your input, give it to them, but even though they won the money and didn鈥檛 earn it, as some people see it, it鈥檚 still not on you to tell them what to do with it.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Being able to remain anonymous would allow you to maintain your lifestyle if you wanted to. If you wanted someone to know you had come into a windfall then you could, otherwise you are free to be you and reveal what you want to.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 The argument for saying who it is has to do with the integrity of gaming and lotteries having to be completely transparent. But, what if they were only in a different way. List the features out of the RCMP report like I鈥檝e said about the winners of the money and then a year later post a photo of the winner with their name.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Dealing with the fallout of everyone knowing that you鈥檝e come into money would be easier once you鈥檝e become established with it or once you鈥檝e spent it all, which I鈥檝e heard of happening.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Being anonymous doesn鈥檛 just come with avoiding unwanted attention from friends, family, and casual acquaintances thinking they鈥檙e entitled to it just because they know you. Being anonymous would also allow you to remain safe as once your photo and name are used across the country, even the unsavoury characters in the world will know you have money. Perhaps they would target you and your household upon discovering you鈥檙e now worth 鈥渪鈥� number of dollars.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Money always changes people and that phrase doesn鈥檛 just refer to the person who has the money, it refers to the people who don鈥檛. Money = Riches in our culture and this seems to be synonymous with being better than other people, so if someone comes into a windfall perhaps they want to be that person to show it off; to show to everyone that they are rich. Others, however, would rather not have people know they have money and would prefer to silently donate money.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 If we鈥檙e allowed to be a silent backer in a deal or anonymously give to charity, why can鈥檛 a winner of the lottery be anonymous? I鈥檇 rather know about the generosity of others than the horde of wealth someone is now sitting on, but even then, it鈥檚 a free country and we should be able to protect our privacy if that鈥檚 what someone wants to do.
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Anonymity and the lottery
by Lynne Bell
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听听听听 Have you ever been asked the question: 鈥淲ould you rather be rich or famous?鈥� I have, and I suspect my answer is the same one that most people would choose. Wealthy anonymity trumps fame (or even fame plus money) every time.
听听听听 However, most things in life come with a price, and the recent news story about the winner of a $50 million, tax-free lottery prize in British Columbia is an example of someone who got lucky once, and is determined to push that luck to the limit.
听听听听 The winner of the March 16, 2014 Lotto Max prize only recently claimed their massive win, and more than a month later is still fighting for the right to remain anonymous, and (at the time I'm writing this, anyway) is prepared to turn their fight for anonymity into a court battle, having already contacted a lawyer.
听听听听 This is in spite of the fact that the B.C. Lottery Corporation (and many others) clearly state that any person who purchases a lottery ticket must allow their name and photo to be published as a condition of claiming their winnings.
听听听听 A spokesperson for B.C. Lotteries says that this practice 鈥減rotects the integrity of gaming and lotteries by being open and transparent鈥� and that BCLC has drafted its policy taking provincial privacy laws into account, as well.
听听听听 Blanket anonymity is not allowed by any of this country's lottery corporations, and although exceptions have been made, they are exceedingly rare. Some American states and some lottery companies in Europe allow winners to remain anonymous; and there are compelling arguments for such an attractive option, among them: safety, security, and the no-hassle factor regarding the requests for cash that are an almost-inevitable part of a lottery winner's experience.
听听听 Unless there are extenuating circumstances in the case of the B.C. winner (of听 50 million tax-free dollars!) that haven't yet come to light, this individual's decision to challenge the province's Lotto Corp. seems at best churlish, and at worst, ungrateful in the extreme.
听听听听 The rules are clearly stated on the ticket itself and one can probably assume the purchaser of the winning ticket was fully aware of the rules of the game. Even if they were not, they certainly could choose to simply not claim their prize, and their winnings would eventually be returned to the lottery pool.
听听听听 Instead, by waiting a year, they have literally lost time and possibly, money. Rather than paying a lawyer to represent them in court over this entitled argument, they could have been earning interest on their win, enjoying the money themselves, and (even better in my opinion), lessening the burden such a massive win would bring, by spreading it around to some deserving causes and individuals.
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听听 听听Now there's an idea...
