You might feel lucky after winning a lottery, but there are numerous downsides to winning one. Do you want your name to be announced in public? Then you must be prepared to deal with your extended long lost relatives who will start visiting you too often than usual, asking for a gift. In the worst-case scenario, you will end up being targeted by a bunch of criminals who may entice you into a scam or may harm you and steal all the money.
Oops! Did you change your mind? To this prospect, it turns out that hiding your identity after winning a huge lottery is a good idea.
Well, you can hide your identity, but that will largely depend on where you live because it is the Government of that place, who decides if the winning person can stay anonymous or not.
In this article, we are about to list some states that believe in Anonymity in the lottery.
United States The United States has different rules and regulations for lottery across its various states. Some states only allow lottery winners to stay anonymous, whereas other countries like California, Washington DC, Wisconsin, and even the US territories prohibit winners from remaining anonymous. Again there are some places like Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont all these places allow the winners to claim their prize form a trust so that they don't have to disclose their name.
Canada In Canada, there is no way that the winners will be able to keep their names and identity hidden. Anyone who has won a lottery in Canada must go through a photoshoot session. Their picture, along with their name, face, and municipality, is published, which is a part of the lottery official's publicity campaign.
The UK and Europe In the UK and Europe, the anonymity rule works entirely differently. The lottery that takes place under the Government's control gives people an option to either declare the name or remain anonymous. But the best part is most of the winning people in the UK prefer going public instead of being anonymous because they love the fifteen minutes of fame they get with their name published in the front pages.
Australia In Australia, the authorities also give the lottery winner two options to keep their identity secret or announce their name. But the officials encourage the winners to maintain their Anonymity to avoid any unfortunate condition.
New Zealand New Zealand also permits the winners to maintain complete privacy regardless of how much the contestant wins.
China China provides the winner two options stay anonymous or remain public, but they highly recommend Anonymity.
Then people debate against Anonymity?
No matter how many people are in support of Anonymity, but there are critics everywhere who argue on this topic and question the legitimacy of the lottery. Announcing the winners to the public ensures transparency and gives other people an option to know who more about the real winner. This also guarantees that the winner is not an imaginary person created by the lottery officials. So what about you? Which one do you prefer Anonymity or publicity? Do let us know about your views in our comment section below!