buying lottery tickets

Stack47 asked :

Different subject but what if somebody who lived in a state that doesn't allow anonymity, spit the jackpot with someone in another state that does. Would a court rule that state must prove there was an actual winner and must divulge the name because it is public record?

I don't think a court can order a state agency in another state to do anything.They might ask the court in the other state to rule in favor of the lottery player that wants to know the identity of the other winner,but I don't think the court in the second has to respond.But,I'm not a lawyer,I'm just remembering what I saw happen in the death of the big busted chick in Florida last year with California & Texas & the Bahamas all involved.

The case involving Anna Nicole Smith was different, Mike.   She was a person who sought out fame and attention.  She was mainly famous for being infamous.   She was buried in the Bahamas because she lived there when she died. Therefore, her mother had no say in her burial.  I didn't really follow the case closely, but I couldn't possibly miss it without keeping the TV off for a month.

You can't split your winnings anyway unless you can prove that there was a prior contract, at least that's the way the IRS looks at it.  Otherwise it would probably be considered to be a gift. Every state is different and some will pay multiple winners and some will only pay a single winner which can also be in the form of a trust or LLC.  Still, I don't think people can just make these decisions after they win.  Anyway, I think the state in which the prize wins would have jurisdiction over the prize and, therefore, whatever rules it already established would be enforceable.  If someone who lives in a state where you can remain anonymous wins MM in GA they're still going to announce it in the paper.  FL doesn't have PB or MM, but the lottery would definitely have the winner's name available to the public.

(I am not a lawyer, so please forgive me if I am using incorrect legal terms, but you get my drift.)

Maybe I read his post wrong.I thought he meant that there were two winners in different states that were splitting the jackpot and one winner went public and the other prefered to remain anonymous.The winner that went public wanted the state that the anonymous winner lived in to prove that their actually was a winner by identifying the anonymous winner.

Sorry - just realized you were quoting Stack.  Didn't look closely enough at the post I guess.  Wow, your last post is very complicated!  LOL

If 2 people win in the same state, I suppose one of the winners could certainly request anonymity if the rules allow it.  (Never thought about the other scenerio.) However, I don't think there's any law preventing neighbors, relatives or another winner from blabbing to the newspaper.  To me, the most important thing anonymity does is help a winner keep his secret long enough to make plans. Since it often takes weeks to get the money, I wouldn't want to sit here waiting while my name was in the paper, although I wouldn't mind if they announced it in 60 days.  That would be a good compromise and I wish a state like FL would consider that option.  I mean, why can't the FL lottery protect the identity of the winner for security purposes and then make the information public in 30 or 60 days?  This gives a person time to contact an attorney, deposit the money and move if that's his desire. In that case, no rules are broken...right?  I mean, the info is still available to the public, but the actual announcement with all the details is delayed.

I'd guess the law applies according to which state the ticket was purchased in.  If 2 tickets were sold, then the one in the anon state will surely be allowed to stay anon if they wish, while the one sold in the other state will have their identity released.

If only one ticket was sold in a state that releases winner identities, and that person decided to share it with a friend/relative in a state that allows anonymity, then the person in the anon state will still be required to release their identity because the ticket was purchased in and is being paid out by the state that releases identities, and the rules of the state which is paying will have to be followed.

Maybe Stack will chime in and tell me if I read his post correctly or not.I could be way off base...its been known to happen.

I answered before that I do buy them, but I just remembered a time I didn't.  It was back when I was still buying the Powerplay.  I asked for 5 PB's with the PP.  I thought the clerk was gone a long time, but I wasn't paying much attention till she came back and said that's $50.  Huh?  She had printed 5 tickets with 5 lines each!!!!  So I guess my answer is, it depends on how much it'll cost me.  A few bucks and I'll buy the mistake.  Five or more and I probably won't.

Wow that was a huge mistake.

I would be so worried that the ticket I didn't pick from the five would hit.

I would be relieved if I didn't win that no one did from that store.

"I've seen clerks try to insert slips 5 or 6 times and then watch another clerk clear the machine and the tickets are printed the first time."

If the problem is that the right button needed to be pushed it doesn't matter who inserts the slip. OTOH, when the clerk does the same thing each time the slip is inserted, either the button(s) they're pushing only works the last time, or there is some other transient problem with the machine.

"if the machine is ready to accept a pick-3 bet because the clerk didn't press 'start over' and tries to run Mega Million play slips, it might not read them."

Since the machines aren't a new idea and the bugs have been worked out, wouldn't it make sense that the machines recognize the slips for different games?  Assuming you've had to use new slips for game where the matrix changed it should be obvious that the machines won't accept a slip for the "right" game unless it's the current slip. Of corse if the designers can't make a machine that knows what the slip is for, why would you trust their software? Buggy software could cause  problems just as easily as a physical problem in reflecting the laser. I'm certainly not saying that most errors are a machine problem, but I'd be extremely surprised if the machines don't cause some problems.

"I don't know why Mega Millions tickets can't be canceled"

Because there's no incentive to the lottery in cancelling tickets. Selling tickets that are mistakes is more profitable than  not selling them.

"Different subject but what if somebody who lived in a state that doesn't allow anonymity, spit the jackpot with someone in another state that does. Would a court rule that state must prove there was an actual winner and must divulge the name because it is public record?"

What if the person who won the first MM jackpot after somebody from Ohio won about $270 million and remained anonymous sued to see if there really had been a winner in Ohio? A lot of people worry that lotteries might somehow manipulate the game to prevent winners or decide which numbers do win. Suppose the state simply claimed they had sold a winning ticket and that the winner chose to remain anonymous, and simply kept the prize for the state treasury? It really doesn't matter whether a prize is split among multiple winners or not.  Either there is enough evidence of fraud to get a court order for the records or there isn't.

I'm pretty sure he understands the rules well enough and is referring to multiple winners that bought separate tickets in different states. If two people share a jackpot won on one ticket, it doesn't matter if the 2nd person lives on the moon. The rule that applies is the rule in the state where the winning ticket was bought.