Under the rules that took effect July 1, lottery players in Virginia can now stay anonymous, as the state lottery cannot publish the names or photographs of winners on its website without their written consent.
New Rules Allow Winners to Keep Their Privacy
The change also means the Virginia Lottery will no longer publish the names of Lottery Rewards and second-chance winners on its website. Instead, those winners will be notified privately by email after the drawings. The state first allowed lottery winners to remain anonymous in 2019, initially applying the policy only to prizes of $10 million or more. However, in July last year, that threshold was lowered to $1 million.
Officials are urging players to log into their accounts and verify their email address and phone number to ensure they do not miss any winning notifications.
Right now, 24 lottery jurisdictions offer some level of anonymity for winners. However, many of them limit anonymity to prizes above certain thresholds or impose other eligibility requirements. In essence, this means that if you win a relatively small prize (which could still be hundreds of thousands of dollars), you can bet your name would be plastered across news outlets and social media.
Why Do Lotteries Announce the Names of Winners?
When it comes to winning huge sums of cash, many winners might want to stay anonymous to not bring attention to their personal lives and families. However, many state lotteries still announce their names as a requirement, which begs the question – why?
One of the main reasons is public trust. The Virginia Lottery, like many others, is a state lottery, necessitating the process to be more transparent to the public. Lawmakers have long maintained that transparency is essential to reassure the public that jackpots are genuinely won and not fabricated. Furthermore, the practice is also a great piece of advertisement, as publicity surrounding a major jackpot win typically leads to a surge in ticket sales for the next drawing.
However, publicity could also bring a lot of negative attention to the winners as well, leading to growing concerns about the winners’ safety and privacy. Publicly identified winners can be exposed to scams, extortion attempts, freeloaders, and, in rare cases, violent crime.
For example, in 2006, Florida resident Abraham Shakespeare won a $31 million lottery jackpot. He was later murdered and buried beneath a concrete slab after a woman who had gained his trust sought to get his winnings. About ten years later, in 2016, Georgia resident Craigory Burch Jr. was also killed during a targeted home invasion just weeks after winning of over $430,000 lottery prize.
In other recent news from Virginia, the state has seen a rise in problem gambling amongst its residents, leading to lawmakers considering a new bill to expand the state’s problem gambling advisory committee.