If you won the lottery, would you go public?

[Frosty6611]

If you won the jackpot on the lottery would you go public? I think i’d just tell my close friends and family and start a new life somewhere.

Not a chance

I definitely wouldn't go public, but I'd want to give money away to family and friends...so how would you do that without word getting out? I did wonder if there was a way of giving people money anonymously....then I wouldn't have people getting pissy about me giving someone else more than them. It's a minefield!

@madmum haha I’ve had the exact same thought before about buying a cattery so my cat could be pampered and well cared for while I took a year to travel the world with my winnings (definitely been fantasising about all of this far too much )

But surely if you walked into a high end bank with a cheque for £20 mil from Camelot they'd be falling over themselves to give you advice, discretly!!

But surely if you walked into a high end bank with a cheque for £20 mil from Camelot they'd be falling over themselves to give you advice, discretly!!

Exactly. If you have a load of money a financial advisor isn't going to be difficult to source. And you can afford a really good one.

Camelots financial advice isn't worth all the shit it would bring.

I would sit on the money. Probably pay my mortgage off and clear my debts. No one would know I had done that.

I would then tell my family I had got a big promotion at work. It's not s stretch as people in the level above me are very well paid. Then get some bigger purchases, like car, start doing the house up etc.

I would want to help my mum and dad out but would wait a while and do it in smaller bits. And just tell them I was very well paid at work.

I certainly would not tell my kids. They would let slip and relatives I have not seen for years will come knocking.

You have to fight your way to get the cashier at at my branch. I’d love to try and see what happened if the lady trying to steer me to the auto deposit machine saw my £89m lottery Cheque!

No. And id tell absolutely no one apart from my DH what the exact amount was... although I would have to admit we had won something to family and friends because id want to give everyone a bit each (dependant on how much was won)

If I won something between €10 - €500k I wouldn't even tell DH. If I won more than €500k and whatever, I might tell DH but not how much.

Definitely would NOT go public on a big win.

One of my friends said she'd give friends/family a certain amount for each phone call or visit someone had made - she has a sister who never ever calls her but would be first in the queue for a handout - she said she daydreams about telling her how she's calculating the money.

I’d be inundated with begging lettersnfrom dh’s family, am already- they would just up the ante!

Have you ever wondered how many times newsagents have checked tickets and kept winning ones? I know you can ask for them back, but how many old people just don’t?

Not public! A house, gardens, orchard, rescue chickens and rescue greyhounds. And staff.

Not public! A house, gardens, orchard, rescue chickens and rescue greyhounds. And staff.

Not public! A house, gardens, orchard, rescue chickens and rescue greyhounds. And staff.

Not public! A house, gardens, orchard, rescue chickens and rescue greyhounds. And staff.

Not public! A house, gardens, orchard, rescue chickens and rescue greyhounds. And staff.

Not public! A house, gardens, orchard, rescue chickens and rescue greyhounds. And staff.

Would tell immediate family but no one else at all. I'd make sure everyone had the house they wanted, mortgage-free, and then I'd set up an account at a really fancy travel agent so that each of my parents/siblings could have, say, two holidays a year that I'd pay for.

Alright Willow we get the picture

Not a chance. You'd really see the worst in people.

There's a number of reasons they go public - as I understand it if you agree to go public you get help with financial planning but you also get help with media management.
As PP have said that amount of money doesn't stay secret for long and it's better to have some control over the announcement than none at all.

I wouldn’t tell a soul, especially not my children. We are v comfortable and not flash so would be easy to pass off as a v good bonus and cashing in some shares for DH job

FairfaxAikman plenty of lottery winners don't end up in the papers.

As I said there's the financial management side too. There are probably other reasons, those are just two I am aware of.

Our neighbours won approx 1 million, and told no-one except their children. Who went to school and told EVERYBODY. They were then burgled twice in a month, followed by a hurried move completely away from the area.

This reminds me of a story I heard in another context. Prompted by a conversation at school, a teenage boy asks his father, "Dad, are we rich?". To which the answer was "I am very comfortably off, you have nothing."