NJ bill aims to protect lottery winners' identity

Comment #45

Lottonomics — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 09:28:15 GMT

!!!

I like the idea. Is there a list of states that currently allow anonymous claiming? Also, in the states that don't allow anonymous claiming is that a for sure thing? There wouldn't be any exceptions that would allow you to claim anonymous

Comment #44

haymaker — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:55:48 GMT

I just found out that this law passed just a few hours ago.

But still no details about when it's effective.

One thing I did notice is that it said 1 year from the win,

so I guess that means if you wait 6 mos. to claim, you'll only get 6 mos. of anonymity,

again, the devil is in the details.

Comment #43

haymaker — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:14:00 GMT

I dredged this up cause of the anonymous delaware winner story.

Anyone heard any more on this ?

It's not on nj lottery website.

Comment #42

KY Floyd — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:21:19 GMT

In most places it's about 365 days.

Comment #41

iamrobbysmith — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:42:13 GMT

Can anyone explain to me what they mean by a year

Comment #40

KY Floyd — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 05:35:07 GMT

Don't the lotteries give you 6 to 12 months to claim the prize? If that's not enough time to relocate your door you need to worry about yourself instead of worrying about other people.

Comment #39

frisky100 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:41:00 GMT

Very good idea everyone needs time to adjust to their new life without everyone knocking on their door.

Comment #38

faber98 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:10 GMT

yes, ronnie i will rephrase, 2 paltry winners were killed or kidnapped out of thousands and thousands of lottery winners in the last 30+ years or so. they overtrusted (is that a correct word) a friend or relative who betrayed them. just living in arizona and fending off illegal aliens is far more hazardous than winning a lottery so beware.

Comment #37

CDanaT — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 12:59:56 GMT

I agree with the idea of protecting the winners identity, give them the option of remaing silent or being potentially targeted. No person(s) should suffer because of having won a large windfall of money. At what point does the publics right to know stop ? You provide a valid ID and a valid ticket to claim the prize to prove you have a legal right to it. I shouldn't have to provide it to every Tom, Dick and Harriet because they want to know about me or my life. We trust the lottery system to be r... [ More ]

Comment #36

BuyLow — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 10:53:04 GMT

I like FL's stance. They release name and city, no photo required. Unless you have an extremely rare name this system is fine.

Comment #35

myturn — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 04:42:22 GMT

What Happens in the UK!

One of the most important decisions for new winners to make is whether to opt to go public or remain anonymous. If a winner decides to talk publicly about their win, the UK Lottery will organise a press conference and handle all media interest on their behalf, removing the anxiety that can accompany talking about a big win.

If they have requested to remain anonymous, the UK Lottery takes its obligations and duty of care to protect winners privacy very seriously. Unl... [ More ]

Comment #34

hearsetrax — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:45:21 GMT

Comment #33

mcginnin56 — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:29:46 GMT

You can say that again. I've had a few death threats already via PM's.

Oh well, so much for friends.

Comment #32

hearsetrax — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:15:12 GMT

Comment #31

mcginnin56 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:39:31 GMT

I'll still risk the concrete slab.

Some things have to be worth dieing for.

I just hope the slab doesn't irritate my skin to much

Comment #30

Ronnie316 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 19:49:41 GMT

Having said all these, I do suspect, however that no one at the Lottery Post, friends or enemies would want to see you gone, not even those, that tend to, or practice frequent disagreements with you.

Careful, there are some here who may adamantly and strongly disagree with you on that point.

Comment #29

Factorem — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 19:26:47 GMT

Hello mcginnin56,

It appears that you have been spending quite a bit of time, in some areas of the Old Testament from paragraph 3 of your above post viz:

If your fear your friends and relatives will kill you for your money, kill them first. Problem solved.

LOL

Although the risk of going out in a concrete slab is a harmless condition, because it is just that - a Risk and until it is upgraded into the reality that makes us all quiver, it remains a harmless consideration.

The acts

Comment #28

Ronnie316 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 18:34:57 GMT

Nice point JWBlue, we deserve the right to choose.

Comment #27

JWBlue — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:32:31 GMT

The argument that a winner's identity needs to be revealed in order to verify there is a winner is completely invalid.

This is what one lottery commission does for all their drawings.

Q: How are replay winners selected?

A: Winners are randomly selected from all entries received for each drawing. Drawings are conducted according to established Lottery protocols under the observation of an independent Certified Public Accounting firm.

Comment #26

Ronnie316 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:21:22 GMT

WAIT...... thousands were killed or kidnapped??? Is any winner safe

Comment #25

NJJim — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:40:14 GMT

If the Lottery folks want to inspire confidence that the lottery is transparent and fair, they need to go back to drawings with a human host. This current broadcast where the machines fire up and release numbers with no human element seems so cold and calculating, and I for one wonder if it is truly a live event at all. Some state lotteries tape Pre-draws and then air the drawing that loses less revenue for the state. Requiring a large jackpot winner to pose with the big check is a public relati... [ More ]

Comment #24

kola2121 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:08:08 GMT

Comment #23

Colt45ML — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:05:07 GMT

I don't think it is necessary to reveal the winners of jackpot lotteries to the public in order to sell tickets. People buy tickets purely because of the possibility of wining millions upon millions of dollars, however remote their chances are. Of course, everyone, including and especially those that don't buy lottery tickets, have some semblance of the voyeur in the depths of their psyche and are interested in knowing who won, and all the particulars. And this is where the problems come in to p... [ More ]

Comment #22

mcginnin56 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:56:11 GMT

I'd rather risk going out in a concrete slab, then not to play at all.

There's risk in everything you do. If you going to be a coward all throughout your life, play it safe all the time, more power to you.

If your fear your friends and relatives will kill you for your money, kill them first. Problem solved.

Comment #21

jamella724 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:54:32 GMT

I definitely agree on this...Once a lottery winners' identity became known to public, his/her life would be endangered. If this legislation will be passed on Congress, lottery winners will feel secure and safe. The safety of our fellow men should be the utmost priority of this bill.

Comment #20

faber98 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:12:33 GMT

but what about the lottery in states that need to publicize winners names and situations to sell more tickets. if everyone pumped the money into a boring annuity anonymously people would lose interest in playing over time. if you're so worried about the leeches trying to separate you from your winnings don't play. but if you play and win prepare yourself for an onslaught because you invited it. (especially friends and relatives) those 2 paltry cases out of thousands who were killed or kidnapped... [ More ]

Comment #19

luckywinner380 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 06:06:35 GMT

If more players started purposefully playing in states that protect identity, I bet others would follow suit.

Comment #18

RedStang — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 05:13:26 GMT

I've heard Family can be your worst enemy when it comes to money and these stories seem to prove that. All inside jobs.

Comment #17

Seattlejohn — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 04:00:18 GMT

Your arguement is nonsensical. The reason for this legislation is that, once a lottery winner is announced publically, they're immediately set upon by any number of beggars, thieves, scam artists, distant relatives looking for money, charities aggressively seeking contributions, gold digging women or men, purveyors of high end items (sports cars, real estate, financial investments, jewelry, yachts, planes, etc) contacting them ceaselessly, kidnappers, burglars, etc; all sorts of types looking to... [ More ]

Comment #16

VenomV12 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 03:24:20 GMT

The moron that ended up under a concerete slab did not do so because his identity was found out, it was because he dated that woman and gave her access to his money and trusted her, in addition to generally being a not very bright individual. Also how would protecting the identity of the Illinois resident from the public have changed anything, it was his sister in law that killed him, not Joe Blow off the street. This guy proposing this law is an imbecile. Using two examples that have no correla... [ More ]

Comment #15

Ronnie316 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 03:00:10 GMT

Anyone can put $10 million in an annuity and have $400-$500 thousand coming in every year for the rest of their life. And it would likely take all of about 2 hours to set up.

Comment #14

Grovel — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 02:46:57 GMT

This would be great if every lottery did this. A year would be more than enough time to get away before the scammers come looking.

Comment #13

faber98 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 01:47:04 GMT

first of all anything a new jersey politician proposes must be folly. 2nd of all half the fun if you don't hit it yourself is seeing how the winners manage to screw it up for themselves by basically being brain dead. my favorite was that west virginia guy 7 or 8 years ago who completely mismanaged about 300 million. i don't understand why any would care about some stranger mismanaging his lottery hit. if you mismanage it yourself you can only blame yourself. if i can't hit it the least of my wor... [ More ]

Comment #12

Ronnie316 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:47:58 GMT

Good choice, bring em back alive.....

Comment #11

Prob988 — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:21:10 GMT

As a New Jersey resident, all I can say is Yeah Baby

Comment #10

Seattlejohn — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:19:56 GMT

YES! I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it; it's completely unfair that lottery winners are thrown to the wolves when they win the lottery, as it's destroyed many families lives. While I think 1 year is too short, this is a fair compromise between public support transparency of the lottery process, and safety for the lottery winners. By the end of 1 year, the lottery winners should have had enough time to put into place safeguards so as to severely lessen their public profile. At that poi... [ More ]

Comment #9

dpoly1 — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:35:51 GMT

This is a logical choice for ALL States

Comment #8

haymaker — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:22:08 GMT

In jersey you always have to do things in increments,

the 1st time casinos where proposed it was for the whole state and failed (1974)

the 2nd time it was proposed for atlantic city only (1976) and passed

so i hope this will pass and believe it will.

And then the timeframe extended before the winner is revealed.

Comment #7

Cletu$2 — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:17:48 GMT

Its a start in the right direction.Better than nothing.Kansas and a few other states allow winners to be anonymous and I've never heard of any problems with it there.

Comment #6

hearsetrax — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:48:22 GMT

should be curious to see how this pans out ...

but by the same token I wonder how much pressure will be put upon the first big winner to change thar mind to go public b4 they allow for this option

Comment #5

maringoman — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:20:09 GMT

lol concrete is very clingy hahaha

This move by the NJ politician is a great one. By now people know and believe that lottery is real and real people win.

I think one year is ample time for a player to organize their affairs without the pressure of the begging hands.

Comment #4

gocart1 — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:05:26 GMT

Hope New York follows this also...

Comment #3

haymaker — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:45:52 GMT

WTG John Burzichelli, kudos, even though i don't live in your district.

I hope this passes, It'll be a feather in your cap.

And then you can work on reduceing or eliminating the country's highest state lottery tax @ 10.8 %

which discourges tix. buying, by residents and espeically by ppl. from PA,NY, DE.

as a way to improve sale of tix.

Comment #2

mcginnin56 — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:42:13 GMT

If this passes, it would sure beat winding up in a concrete slab.

Nothing against concrete, just after it sets in, makes it more difficult to get around.

Comment #1

Littleoldlady — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:17:37 GMT

Other states need to think about this, too. I hope it passes. A person should not become a target just because they win a lottery. A year is not a long time but it would give the winners time to do the things they need to do without everyone anticipating their next move.

NJ bill aims to protect lottery winners' identity

Lottery Post — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:09:23 GMT

For some lottery winners, a large jackpot can bring out scam artists and others looking to get a piece of the pie.

Some winners have even been kidnapped and killed.

Now, a New Jersey assemblyman hopes to reduce the chances of that happening through legislation that would keep winners out of the public eye.

Winning the lottery can be a blessing and a curse, said Assemblyman Deputy Speaker John Burzichelli.

Once their identities become public, winners can become targets for unscrupul... [ More ]