Anonymity lottery bill is well on its way to possibly becoming law
By Kate Northrop
North Carolina lawmakers are heavily considering a bill that would allow all lottery winners of $5 million or more to keep their identifying information hidden from the public.
An anonymity lottery bill passed the North Carolina Senate earlier this spring, and with lawmakers set to reconvene the legislative session this fall, it's up to the House to decide next whether it becomes a reality.
Senate Bill 402, sponsored by Senator Ralph Hise, would lower the prize amount threshold for anonymity from $50 million to $5 million and remove the 90-day period of privacy to grant anonymity indefinitely. Only government entities such as the North Carolina Department of Revenue and the IRS would have access to winners' identifying information for tax purposes, debt collection, and legal proceedings. Additionally, the tax authorities of the winner's state of residence would have access if the winner lives outside North Carolina.
The law would allow lottery winners of $5 million or more to request that their identifying information be exempt from public disclosure, which would prohibit the North Carolina Lottery from releasing the names of those winners to the media, general public, or through public records requests.
It originally stipulated a $1 million threshold, but the North Carolina Lottery Commission requested that it be amended to $5 million since they "use prize winners as advertising, and those kinds of things, to try to show people that somebody actually can win," Hise clarified during a committee meeting in April.
Hise contended that lottery winners should be entitled to privacy, not "friends and family coming out of the woodwork and mak[ing] requests."
"This bill actually started for me with a conversation with someone who was describing the last five years as having an 'unfortunate experience' of buying a scratcher that resulted in a $5 million prize," Hise said during the meeting.
The conversation was with a lottery winner who won $5 million on a scratch-off ticket and filed restraining orders for protection against harassment. After claiming the prize, he recalled, the winner was bombarded with visits from individuals who routinely showed up at the winner's door to pitch investment opportunities.
"And that's just not the experience we're trying to put together for someone who wins the lottery in North Carolina, but it's the realit[y] of where we are, and this [bill] will allow them to avoid that," Hise expressed.
According to the North Carolina Lottery, there were four wins of at least $5 million and 75 wins of at least $1 million in Fiscal Year 2024.
The North Carolina Senate passed SB 402 on May 1 and was sent to the House on May 5. It will need to undergo review in committee hearings and must pass on second and third readings on the House floor before it makes its way to Governor Josh Stein's desk for final approval.
Should the House make any changes to the bill, it would need to return to the Senate for consensus, or a conference committee could work out the differences.
The North Carolina legislature is currently in recess, with the 2025-2026 legislative session having ended on Aug. 28. However, the bill will have another opportunity for action when the legislature reconvenes on Sept. 22.
The bill's chances may largely depend on whether the House Judiciary 1 Committee chooses to prioritize it based on what other legislative concerns emerge during the fall session.
House Representatives Carolyn G. Logan, Pricey Harrison, Zack Hawkins, and Frances Jackson filed a similar bill, House Bill 401, which would grant total anonymity to all lottery winners of any prize amount. It passed the first reading in March but has since not seen any movement.
A little baby step in the right direction, but we still need full anonymity.
But lottery sales would plummet. The whole fun of the lottery is seeing what someone does with the money. No one would believe that it is legit if you couldn't expose the winners. They would think it is like the Publishers Clearing House scam.
What happened to transparency and accountability?
they ought to rat out this big winners on the smaller games LOL
So glad I live in Georgia where we can remain anonymous if the jackpot is $250K or more.
Publishing the identity of lottery winners is putting a target on their back. Thankfully, State Lotteries in Australia allow winners to remain anonymous.
Graeme Thorne was an eight year old Australian boy, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1960.
A month before the kidnapping, his parents, Bazil and Freda Thorne, who lived in a modest rented flat in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi, had won £100,000 in the newly conceived Opera House Lottery, designed to raise money for the construction of the now famous Sydney Opera House.
This was a considerable amount of money in 1960, when it was customary to publish the names and addresses of lottery winners in the newspapers.
Lottery procedures in Australia were changed after the Thorne case, with winners being given the option of remaining anonymous.
According to the North Carolina Lottery, there were four wins of at least $5 million and 75 wins of at least $1 million in Fiscal Year 2024.
So this new change only would helped the 4 winners and not the other 75. They need to have complete anonymity for all prize amounts and then give the winners the option if they want their photo and info publicized or not.
I can't imagine winning the 1.1B jackpot and having my picture in the news.
That would be enough reason for me to move.
I am happy I can be anonymous where I live.
I think the best course of action should one win tonight is to join a nudist colony because at least there you don't have to worry about pickpockets ..... and family, friends and friends of family and family of friends would probably not hound you for $$$$$$ while you are living this new lifestyle.
I mean any 3rd cousin twice removed who would dare approach you for $$$$$ would have to ditch the clothes before entering the community .
Just my $.02.
ShagE3
It actually tends to have the opposite effect. Virginia moved to anonymity years ago for wins of over $10 million years ago and had increasing online sales. They had banner years and then moved to lower the anonymity to wins of $1 million and over.
The biggest threat to the integrity of the lottery are lottery clerks and lottery employees.
It gets trumped when you become a primary target of criminal activities. As the article indicates
"Only government entities such as the North Carolina Department of Revenue and the IRS would have access to winners' identifying information for tax purposes, debt collection, and legal proceedings."
Those is the only people that need to know.
You can go to the press yourself, get on social media and volunteer all the information you want since your desire is to be a show pony, look at me, pay attention to me.
SWEET !!!!! Unfortunately, our leadership chooses to let you suffer the potential wrath of criminals and offers no such protection on any dollar amount above $600.