Ok, while I am excited that my state, Kentucky, is ready to roll out Mega Millions along side Powerball, I am still having to wrestle with the ardouous question about identity security.
Knowing that games are subject to individual states agreeing to a certain set of rules, some states have diffrerent and conflicting rules regarding Winner Identity security.
Some states allow winners to shield themselves, out of regard for their personal safety, and identity control.
Other states feel that personal identities MUST BE PUBLICIZED in order to show all players that "Real People REALLY DO WIN"
as well as letting authorities/creditors know "erstwhile deadbeats now have real deep pockets, come feed, take as much as you want but eat all you take!" While this measure insures "baddies don't get away with it..."
It also exposes otherwise honest tax-paying bill-paying winners to IDENTITY THEFT!
99 times out of 100, this thought is NEVER realy contemplated, especially in states where winners are compelled (probably through LOOSE interpretation of 'rules') to "go along to get along" and they don't mind the immediate publicity all that much....
but in too many Winner's "where are they now" stories, (Jack Whittaker, and for some here in KY, back in the late 90's/early 00's a Florence native) the windfall, and the publicity brought NOTHING BUT HEARTACHE, and Tragedy....the money gets eaten up faster than a winner could responsibly get ahold of managing it. All the while, the media hits the poor sucker with the glare of the spotlight, exacerbating the problem further....and in the end they become dead, broken, and worse off than when they won...
In my state, Identity control is squelched in favor of publicizing, to promote "Honest wins", and making sure "baddies don't get away with it...."
And my question is...what do you do if you find yourself holding the ticket, and have to run this gauntlet, to get the money?
Up until now, the responses I have recived were completely inadequate. they ranged from phony beards, to "move to another state" to "well just have your lawyer handle everything" to "Oh, well, you better get a good TAX ACCOUNTANT, because your tax rate just shot to the moon!"
Some of you remember reading the John Stienbeck story of "The Black Pearl?" In the end that poor man, and his family, were so torn at by others, that he cursed that pearl he found and threw it back into the sea....
There MUST be a way to have a third party shield your identity, in states such as these, so as not to let either the state's clamor for regulation-keeping trample on your 4th ammendment rights, when you DO attempt to claim, or any lawyer's suggestion for a TRUST vehicle that you agree to, completely eat up your windfall due to TRUST vehicle overhead....
What must you do....because now you are that poor indigent who just found the "Black Pearl"
