Includes video report
DES MOINES, Iowa — A Powerball jackpot winner from Bondurant, Iowa, who was elected to the state legislature says he would oppose efforts to let lottery winners stay anonymous.
At least nine states allow major lottery jackpot winners to stay anonymous, and some other states allow a form of anonymity by claiming prizes through a private legal entity. Earlier this year, Virginia became the latest state to allow lottery winners to remain anonymous — but only if their prize is greater than $10 million.
In Iowa, basic information is released about anyone that wins a prize of over $600. That includes name, city, and the amount of the winnings.
Officials say that lets people see that real people are winning the prizes.
Brian and Mary Lohse won $202 million in 2012. Brian, who is now a state lawmaker, says it's all about transparency.
"It certainly holds us accountable to the public to do good things with it. And having that notoriety does that but it's fading and it fades quickly. So, I don't have a problem with it," says Rep. Lohse.
VIDEO: Watch the interview with Brian Lohse
Each State is different. I understand State Representative Brian Lohse's position. Iowa's history with the largest lottery scam. Eddie Tipton is in prison.
Rep. Lohse's comments about still being hit up for donations and gifts is revealing. Even seven years after their win.
I will find a third party to say, "NO" to the beggars kindly. 😎
This much freedom of expression and opinion is a double-edged sword: Because it has or can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences!
It's easy for Lohse to say that ,since he is surrounded by corn not busy highways, dense traffic,nosey neighbors, the press driving around the block..looking for you.
I guess you've never been to Des Moines. I have. It's a city (a nice one), containing the attributes you mentioned.
noise-gate, State Rep. Brian Lohse would have benefited personally with anonymity.
He has probably talked with Terry Rich, Mary Neubauer, and other Lottery officials and has made this difficult decision.
Brian and Mary have been very generous to their local community.
We hear very little from past winners. This interview is quite revealing.
The reporter mentioned that Rep. Lohse supports mental health causes. This is one arrow in our quiver to fight against mass shootings. Start with the State level and see what works best.
Previous winners needed to pay for mental health care for themselves. They could have saved themselves from much trouble and agony. 😢
It all depends on where your State is on the Least Safe/Most Safe List of States:
https://www.safehome.org/resources/americas-most-dangerous-states/
Least Safe=New Mexico
Most Safe=New Hampshire
Sure l have, but it's no LA or SF. I guess the point l am making is, given the population of the State he lives in compared to others which do have millions more, it's " easy " for him to say what he did. This is not a knock on he's State, after all, we all have to live somewhere.
Todd, have you heard about this ?
<News story snipped>
With all due respect, that's a bit ridiculous. You're basically saying that the benefits or problems with anonymity only occur in LA or San Francisco. Maybe it would just be best to say that maybe your initial statement was ill-advised. When you're wrong, it's OK to admit you're wrong.
Frankly, a winner could hide out much easier in LA or SF than they could in a "corn field" like Des Moines.
Please do not post news stories in the forums. If you have a news tip, there is a form on the Contact Us page to report it: https://www.lotterypost.com/contact/newsSuggest
Thanks!
ICAM ...(I couldn't agree more w/you on this, music.)
and enjoy you day now.
l have no problem admitting l am wrong, but l was stressing population.
Todd,
Just my $.02 here.
The population of Bondurant, IA is 3880.
Having grown up in Bayonne and now living in rural Illinois if there's one thing I see everyday it's that small town Midwestern people are just nosier and tend to be gossips, both males and females.
(I also live in Monterey, California....best 'summer weather in the world!)
Bayonne:
Someone says, "Gee I haven't seen Tony for a while" and someone else elbows him and says, " Shut yp about Tony, maybe he went to the mattresses, maybe he's doing time..whatever, not your business."
Small Midwestern Town
"Gee, I haven't seen Tony for awhile. I wonder where he is or what he's doing, I'm going to call some mutual friends and ask them and if they don't know I'll call Tony." yada yada yada adnauseam.
Even better
Someone says, "I wonder what Bill has been up to". So (especially in a bar or restaurant) "Oh, don't you know. He got on the police force and now he's working undercover."
/////////////////////////////////
As a side note, a few years ago someone hit the Little Lotto jackpot (now it's Lucky Day Lotto) in a very small town near here. The town has a post office, a bank, 2 gas station /convenience stores and a restaurant.
The winner was someone just passing through but yet people around here drove themselves crazy for months trying to figure out who won it. Nothing like walking into a place to buy a lottery ticket and have a bunch of Bubba's in Carhart's and Cat hats asking total strangers"Did you win the jackpot?" - Even though the people working in the store kept telling them, "We never saw him again and we know all our players."
I don't agree with Lohse's reason for wanting big winners' names made public:
"It certainly holds us accountable to the public to do good things with it."
Lottery winners are not accountable to the public. If they want to blow their money on McMansions, cars, and strippers, that is their prerogative and nobody who wins the lottery is obligated to spend it charitably. There are plenty of good arguments for requiring winners' names to be made public, but this is not one of them.
I don't think he means that winners are accountable to the public — he is saying that the lottery itself is accountable. The entire reason for making lottery winners' names public is so that the public can be confident that actual members of the public are winning and big prizes are not being funneled to insiders.
Right, and I'm saying that it is easier to hide in plain sight when you have millions of people surrounding you (like in a big city). It is much harder to hide when you live in a town of 5,000.
That is a more reasonable statement for him to make, but when I watched his interview it seemed he was meaning the other thing when he was talking about the impact of publicity.
Agreed, he was not very clear on that point, but I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.
l did a little research in Lohse, turns out when he won the PB jackpot in 2012, he and the wife had no problem telling the press where they worked,including their occupations. So it would seems that since Lohse exposed he’s identity to the general public, every winner should follow suit- well thanks Lohse, that’s great.
Michigan has been an anonymous state since 1989! In the 30 years since Michigan allowed anonymity there have been no major issues that have come to light. If there was something major that is bad about allowing anonymous claims it certainly would have shown up during the 30 years it has been allowed here and you would have read many stories on LP. Anonymity has worked so well here that most people in other states didn't/don't realize that Michigan has been anonymous for 30 years!
Before 1989, in Michigan, there was no state income tax on lottery prizes. In 1989, when Michigan started taxing lottery prizes, they allowed anonymous claims on prizes of $10,000 and over.
Michigan did not extend anonymity to the Multi-States when they came along. I believe that this is inconsistent since all prizes except the Jackpot are paid just by Michigan. Other states allow anonymity on the Multi-States and I have not read any stories on LP about any major problems with allowing the anonymous claims.
You can argue transparency but show me where there have been problems by not releasing the winner names.
Playing devil's advocate here: How do you know that there have been no issues? Because the winners are anonymous, do you have any way of knowing that the prizes were not awarded to insiders?
I'm not trying to take one side or another, but I do think that both sides have valid points.
Interesting post.
In one hand they have Tipton who is a poster boy for transparency and in the other they have a jackpot winner from 7 years ago that is still being "hit up for donations". MM and PB winning jackpots are few and far between and with 44 jurisdictions, some haven't had a winner, if any in years so we can't really blame they for wanting a jackpot winners story.
If it comes down to a compromise and if I had a vote, it would be for very limited transparency only giving the name of the store and the city.
I agree, which is why I bristled when another member said that staying anonymous was only an issue in big cities like LA and San Francisco. (Meaning that it didn't affect this Powerball winner from Iowa, so that's why he is advocating transparency.) I have said that in fact it is much easier to hide in a big city. This Powerball winner is from the type of situation that is hardest to deal with publicly. So whether you agree with him or not, you can't call this guy a hypocrite or accuse him of making life harder for other people while making it easier on himself. He's walking the walk.
You must be tired! I did NOT say that there were no major problems. I said I have not heard of any and I believe I would have because there have been 30 years for any to come to light.
Just goes to show that Lohse doesn’t think clearly. He had the chance to tell the press nothing about himself when he won the PB back in 2012- but no, he told them he was an attorney, the firm he worked for. The wife followed in his footsteps by saying she worked for a medical facility, her job description and now he says he is “still being hit up” for money years later? I wonder why that is?
Perhaps to tell other jackpot winners “ please experience my ongoing pain.”
No. I think.
.""It certainly holds us accountable to the public to do good things with it. And having that notoriety does that but it's fading and it fades quickly. So, I don't have a problem with it,"
pretty clearly indicates he is talking about winners
Who is being expected to "do good things with it"? -- and what is "it". I assume it is a large win.. which would point to the winners being expected to do good things...
see "notoriety".. and how it "fades".. that's not something I would expect to say about a "lottery".. lotteries having winners don't become notorious.. having fraudulent actors.. that gives them notoriety. Winners, however, get notoriety by winning large sums...
OK, that's possible. Too bad he wasn't clearer about it.
A lottery could also falsely claim someone is a winner and no one really would know the difference in the general public. I just don't think a face connected to a win guarantees honesty . The internal records need to constantly be audited by a third party.
Transparency is a good foundation when it's public money.
Thank you Lawmakers for keeping all sides honest.
It’s unusual for a politician who in the past won a big jackpot...Even though he won before he was elected...I wonder if his jackpot win was rigged in some way as he might have contact with high ranking officials of the lottery
"Least Safe=New Mexico
Most Safe=New Hampshire"
Walter White was sick while he was living in NH, but feeling much better during most of his time in NM. Coincidence?
"given the population of the State he lives in compared to others which do have millions more"
You think that the people who pester lottery winners are only the people who live near them? I think that shortly after somebody wins most people more or less forget about it. We may remember some of the names, but it's not something we spend a lot of time thinking about. OTOH, there's a small percentage of people who will remember and pay attention. It's only local people who can stop you on the street, but it's easy for scammers halfway around the world to call, email, or write an old-fashioned letter. In a small town the locals know who you are, so moving out of town might be a good idea. If you live in a place with a lot more people there are probably a lot fewer people who will recognize you on the street, but it's still a good idea to at least move to a different address.
None of his business!
NY10, Brian Lohse was a City Council Member before being elected to the State Legislature. I do not have the dates. He helped his career by donating to his City and building a store.
I'm sorry...but, as much as Lohse wants people to take the spotlight when they win, to show the public that His State's or His part of the Multi-State is "Clean and Honest" I see far too many examples that uncontrolled publicity put upon a person can lead toward...namely....DEATH.
One death from The wolves because Lotteries "just hafta hafta (and one more "hafta" from Wisconsin playing Chorus for this Dude.)" expose you and your identity is ...... far too much.
Sorry to hear about Michigan NOT extending their anon rules to Multi-State Games, but, I hope that changes in the future.
As for me, I'm glad I do NOT live in WI or IA .... (besides, it gets too cold up there for me, anyway.)
"It certainly holds us accountable to the public to do good things with it.''
So he is saying that if you win the lottery you do not get to do whatever you want with it you have to spend it on the community and anyone who asks for it.
This is bs.