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GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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Dec 2, 2025, 12:13 pm

There's something fluky/crazy that I think is kind of interesting that could actually happen in Florida with a second place PowerBall win of either a million (or more) dollars.

In Florida, if you win more than $250,000 in any Florida lottery game, you can claim your winnings and remain anonymous, but only for six months! That's per Florida Statute 24.1051

On it's website, The Florida Lottery publishes a PDF file/report called "Jackpot Winners & Retailers Information".

If you win a jackpot, unless you claim your jackpot prize and invoke Florida Statute 24.1051, your name and the city you live in as well as information about the store where you bought the ticket will appear on the report. Should you opt to use the 24.1051 statute, the words "Exempt Pursuant to F.S. 24.1051" appears in the "Winner" field of the report. Six months after you claim your jackpot, your name will appear in the "Winner" field of the report.

Last Saturday night's (11/30/2025) PowerBall drawing produced a one million dollar second prize winner in Florida. Therefore, the million dollar winner's name and retailer information wont ever appear on the jackpot winner report. That means that the winner could possibly remain anonymous for a very long time. If the media asked The Florida Lottery for the second prize winner and retailer information, then the information would be released. If the second place winner had invoked statute 24.1051 when they claimed their prize, then the Florida Lottery would not reveal the winners name until after six months from the date of the claim had elapsed.

I buy three identical lines of PB with the PowerPlay option added. If I matched 5+0, then I could win 6 million dollars. That's a very highly unlikely or usual win, but I think the media would be all over it. (That's if The Florida Lottery issued a press release about it) But the media isn't ever going to find my name on the Jackpot Winner & Retailer Information report! Of course, I'd use F.S. 1024.51 to give myself a six month head start on doing a disappearing act, but my question really is this - Would The Florida Lottery even bother to issue a press release that a player had won 6 million with his whacky ticket?? If they didn't, then I'd be a six million dollar winner that could by default be anonymous for a very long time. I'm thinking it would be longer than six months anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not naive enough to think any of the above is ever going to happen. But crazy/fluke-like things related to the lottery have happened in the past. Wouldn't it be sweet if a fluke like this happened to me and not a soul other than my wife knew about it? A guy can dream anyway.... G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
Il2c

Everything

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November 23, 2024
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Dec 2, 2025, 8:42 pm

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Dec 2, 2025
There's something fluky/crazy that I think is kind of interesting that could actually happen in Florida with a second place PowerBall win of either a million (or more) dollars.

In Florida, if you win more than $250,000 in any Florida lottery game, you can claim your winnings and remain anonymous, but only for six months! That's per Florida Statute 24.1051

On it's website, The Florida Lottery publishes a PDF file/report called "Jackpot Winners & Retailers Information".

If you win a jackpot, unless you claim your jackpot prize and invoke Florida Statute 24.1051, your name and the city you live in as well as information about the store where you bought the ticket will appear on the report. Should you opt to use the 24.1051 statute, the words "Exempt Pursuant to F.S. 24.1051" appears in the "Winner" field of the report. Six months after you claim your jackpot, your name will appear in the "Winner" field of the report.

Last Saturday night's (11/30/2025) PowerBall drawing produced a one million dollar second prize winner in Florida. Therefore, the million dollar winner's name and retailer information wont ever appear on the jackpot winner report. That means that the winner could possibly remain anonymous for a very long time. If the media asked The Florida Lottery for the second prize winner and retailer information, then the information would be released. If the second place winner had invoked statute 24.1051 when they claimed their prize, then the Florida Lottery would not reveal the winners name until after six months from the date of the claim had elapsed.

I buy three identical lines of PB with the PowerPlay option added. If I matched 5+0, then I could win 6 million dollars. That's a very highly unlikely or usual win, but I think the media would be all over it. (That's if The Florida Lottery issued a press release about it) But the media isn't ever going to find my name on the Jackpot Winner & Retailer Information report! Of course, I'd use F.S. 1024.51 to give myself a six month head start on doing a disappearing act, but my question really is this - Would The Florida Lottery even bother to issue a press release that a player had won 6 million with his whacky ticket?? If they didn't, then I'd be a six million dollar winner that could by default be anonymous for a very long time. I'm thinking it would be longer than six months anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not naive enough to think any of the above is ever going to happen. But crazy/fluke-like things related to the lottery have happened in the past. Wouldn't it be sweet if a fluke like this happened to me and not a soul other than my wife knew about it? A guy can dream anyway.... G5

I think it should all be anonymous to the exception of government employees and retailer store clerk associates.

When I play pick 3 or 4 I don't like people knowing I win. It's not their business. Here online it's different.
KY Floyd

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Dec 2, 2025, 10:45 pm

I'd think that most states would have a page about winners on their website to promote the lottery. The page on the NY website may not have every winner of $1 million or more, but they've got plenty of entries for people who won 1 or 2 million (and occasionally more) with a 5+0 prize, plus winners for life. Assuming FL has such a page I'd expect somebody who won $6 million, regardless of the game, to get an entry.

The downside of winning $1 million is that the expense of using a lawyer to claim anonymously probably takes a significant chunk of an after-tax prize of perhaps 600 to 6350k. I once watched a video about Kurt Panouses, and IIRC he talked about fees of about 1% of the prize. If a lawyer would set up an LLC and be the public name for 10k I'd definitely do it, but I think that 1% figure is based on dealing with players who have won much bigger prizes, I gather he's including a bunch of other services for big winners, but for a couple of million I'd think only an LLC to keep your name out of it is all you really need. Good luck having the chance to find out.
Artist77

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Dec 3, 2025, 7:07 am

It is more than a little unethical per the model rules for an attorney to say their fees are a percentage of the winnings. Fees have to be documented and reasonable

That is the norm in insurance type cases to take a fixed percentage but NOT for other types of cases. Even a top law firm would be able to set up the necessary documents to claim anonymously if permitted and with a boiler plate trust or llc for 20k or less. Hours of work and the substance of that work have to be documented and billed....0.8 hours on phone call with client; 3.9 hours at $ hourly to draft trust; etc. The client can agree to a fixed fee total amount based on a number of work hours estimate but no way would it ever be 6 figures unless litigation was involved.

So if you win $200 million, your attorney is not taking a third or any percentage of your winnings for the preparation of standard documents. If they are taking a percentage of your winnings for simple document prep, run. Always ask for a number of work hours estimate and hourly rate.

DO NOT BE AFRAID.

How Great Thou Art. God has blessed America.
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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Dec 3, 2025, 10:35 am

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Dec 2, 2025
I'd think that most states would have a page about winners on their website to promote the lottery. The page on the NY website may not have every winner of $1 million or more, but they've got plenty of entries for people who won 1 or 2 million (and occasionally more) with a 5+0 prize, plus winners for life. Assuming FL has such a page I'd expect somebody who won $6 million, regardless of the game, to get an entry.

The downside of winning $1 million is that the expense of using a lawyer to claim anonymously probably takes a significant chunk of an after-tax prize of perhaps 600 to 6350k. I once watched a video about Kurt Panouses, and IIRC he talked about fees of about 1% of the prize. If a lawyer would set up an LLC and be the public name for 10k I'd definitely do it, but I think that 1% figure is based on dealing with players who have won much bigger prizes, I gather he's including a bunch of other services for big winners, but for a couple of million I'd think only an LLC to keep your name out of it is all you really need. Good luck having the chance to find out.

"Assuming FL has such a page I'd expect somebody who won $6 million, regardless of the game, to get an entry."

Because you're in New York, you'd expect that, but your expectation would be wrong. Assuming The Florida Lottery operates the same as The New York Lottery operates is a huge leap of faith.

The Florida Lottery does have such a page on their website, but I doubt a winners picture would appear on it if the winner claimed anonymously using Florida Statute 1021.51. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
KY Floyd

NY
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Dec 6, 2025, 12:44 am

"I doubt a winners picture would appear on it if the winner claimed anonymously "

If you win more than $250,000 in any Florida lottery game, you can claim your winnings and remain anonymous, but only for six months! They should have no problem putting your name, and maybe your face, on their website after 6 months, but maybe they should stop calling the page "Recent Winners".
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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Dec 6, 2025, 9:22 am

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Dec 6, 2025
"I doubt a winners picture would appear on it if the winner claimed anonymously "

If you win more than $250,000 in any Florida lottery game, you can claim your winnings and remain anonymous, but only for six months! They should have no problem putting your name, and maybe your face, on their website after 6 months, but maybe they should stop calling the page "Recent Winners".

Right. They shouldn't have a problem putting a winners face and name on their website. To my mind the real question is do they require it?

Theoretically they could put any given winners picture that had claimed anonymously on their website after six months had elapsed, but that's IF The Florida Lottery requires winners pictures to appear on their website like New York does. It's possible they dont. And they might not even have taken the winners picture at the time the ticket was claimed because the winner claimed anonymously. I don't know what procedures are The Florida Lottery has put in place. You're speculating about them as am I.

If The Florida Lottery doesn't require a winners picture to appear on their website, then I can't think of any reason why they'd want go through the process of having to wait six months before Florida law allows them add a picture of an anonymous winner to their website. It takes a some effort to do that when they only carry a dozen winners pictures on their recent winners page anyway. With zero effort, and because experience has taught them that there will be no shortage of recent winners, my guess is they'd simply opt to use a picture of a truly recent winner. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
KY Floyd

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Dec 6, 2025, 10:44 pm

You could always ask them what their policy is. The NY page doesn't always have pictures, but I'm not sure if they have an entry for every player that wins at least $1 million or a lifetime prize. I don't know how far back it goes, but you can keep adding older stories to the NY age for a while. If Florida only shows a dozen "recent" winners they're definitely not showing every million dollar winner, but I don't see any obvious reason that "recent" has to mean in the last month or two. They're basically just tiny PR pieces to show that people do win.

Of course I've got no idea how they choose who to put on the page, but if you managed to win $6 million by playing PB the way you play I'd consider that more interesting than somebody who simply had one winning ticket.

As far as asking them, I don't know how good an answer you'd get. When PB got gig enough I tried to buy a ticket by replaying and old ticket from the previous run but the clerk said it was too old. I wrote to the lottery and asked what the time limit was and if it was based on the purchase date or the date of the last drawing (I usually buy a 3 drawing advance play to cover the whole week). I also asked about the reason for the time limit, because I can't see any technical reason that would keep any ticket with valid numbers from being scanned and generating an identical ticket. The only answer I got was "30 days".
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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Dec 8, 2025, 10:44 am

Quote: Originally posted by KY Floyd on Dec 6, 2025
You could always ask them what their policy is. The NY page doesn't always have pictures, but I'm not sure if they have an entry for every player that wins at least $1 million or a lifetime prize. I don't know how far back it goes, but you can keep adding older stories to the NY age for a while. If Florida only shows a dozen "recent" winners they're definitely not showing every million dollar winner, but I don't see any obvious reason that "recent" has to mean in the last month or two. They're basically just tiny PR pieces to show that people do win.

Of course I've got no idea how they choose who to put on the page, but if you managed to win $6 million by playing PB the way you play I'd consider that more interesting than somebody who simply had one winning ticket.

As far as asking them, I don't know how good an answer you'd get. When PB got gig enough I tried to buy a ticket by replaying and old ticket from the previous run but the clerk said it was too old. I wrote to the lottery and asked what the time limit was and if it was based on the purchase date or the date of the last drawing (I usually buy a 3 drawing advance play to cover the whole week). I also asked about the reason for the time limit, because I can't see any technical reason that would keep any ticket with valid numbers from being scanned and generating an identical ticket. The only answer I got was "30 days".

I learned some things over the weekend about claiming anonymously in Florida. At an HOA sponsored Christmas party I had a conversation with a lottery playing friend who is one helluva lot more knowledgeable than I am about Florida law. I wasn't surprised... he's a retired lawyer from The Northeast, although I don't know what his area of expertise is/was. He sits on The Board of Directors of my community's HOA. He's a real nice guy, and in the past we've shared some laughs about winning the lottery. He mentioned the name of a local law firm that he said he'd hire if he won a PB Jackpot.

This thought crossed my mind shortly after we parted ways - "Who would know who the very good lawyers are in this town are better than another lawyer?" Certainly not my neighbor who's a retired Corrections Officer from Connecticut! So I took the time to Google the law firm he mentioned and looked at their website. I'm glad I did that. I'd use them in a heartbeat should I ever get very lucky and win big. The pages on their website regarding estate planning and asset protection (which included pages dedicated to winning big by playing the lottery) were very informative.

I had the mistaken impression that Florida's grace period of anonymity was 180 days. It's not. It's 90 days. Not only that, Florida Statute 1024.51 is due to be sunset in October of 2026 unless renewed by The Florida Legislature. (My guess is that they'll renew it)

Live and learn. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!

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