to think going public with a lottery win is bonkers?

[WhataPlank]

Just watched a little YT documentary following the lives of lottery winners and I was blown away by how many people reach out to lottery winners to beg money; not just friends and family, ex-colleagues or even ex-friends, but complete strangers with sob stories (both genuine and fake).

Is there some kind of incentive offered by the lottery people to go public? It's obviously in the organiser's interest as its all publicity, but surely there's nothing in it for the winner but absolute misery?
There must be some kind of bonus for announcing it, because why would you want everyone to know!?

In some states in America the winners have to go public as part of the deal, basically they need the winners to be publicised to prove the legitimacy of the lottery (that it’s not a scam) and I suppose also advertising winners makes it more appealing to play

I'd imagine alot of people go public because they don't stay quiet right after winning, so by the time their claiming the prize, all and sundry already know so the lottery people tell them you may as well go public now if you second cousin twice removed already knows you've won, there's nothing stopping them selling your name to the papers, especially if they view you as being stingy with the winnings.

My plan if I won an obscene amount on the euromillions was always to tell nobody nothing for at least 6 months, maybe a year, then tell close family and friends I'd won something on the lottery, but never tell them when or how much, and if they wanted to be sad and try work it out by adding up everything I'd be buying, they can do so without me in their lives.

There are still plenty of big winners who opted to go private and have not been discovered by the media, so it is possible. If it's a huge win there is never "getting it over with" by going public, as there are plenty of examples of the lives of certain lottery winners every salacious moves being reported on years after the win, no thanks.

As an aside which games offer the best odds? Presumably far fewer play some of them.

Claiming it was an inheritance would never work in my family. We don't know anyone in our families with any significant wealth. The lie would get unbelievable very quickly.

Once we had made gifts to the family the cat would be well and truly out of the bag. There's that saying: three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

I have a formula in my head for how we would gift money. Essentially we would tell people and tell them how much we were giving them at the same time. It would all be family so we can be pretty sure of how people would react.

We wouldn't want to disappear for 6 months before making the gifts. We would get it over and done with pretty quickly and let people get on with their lives.

My old boss’ wives best friend won £134m on euromillions, they didn’t go public, and they still received a huge amount of begging letters. People just find out. I only takes for you to tell one person. News travels so quickly. Even if you weren’t to tell a soul, people are going to start asking questions when they see your lifestyle change. I think it’s unavoidable, unless you move and no one has your new address and you go ghost on all social media.

Absolutely - my current business takes up too much time - one with no returns sounds nice and relaxing...

where would you like to hold the first board meeting? Cocktail bar in Paris?
My funds should get me there sometime in 2027

😁

To win anything or the jackpot?
The Lotto jackpot is 39.5 million to 1.
The Euromillions jackpot is 139.5 million to 1.

I think the Set for Life jackpot, £10k per month for 30 years would solve a lot of the problems of suddenly being rich.

It is absolutely bonkers. Not sure what the incentive is, but I doubt it’s worth the harassment that comes with a public win. At 31 years old, not a single person (including my parents/family/partner etc) have ever known my income (aside from a ballpoint figure they could find out online) or how much is in my bank account or savings account at any given time. I have nowhere near that amount, but I’m sure if a lot of people knew, I would be asked for money much more frequently than I currently am.

The uk lottery is actually 45 million to 1 which explains the relentless rollovers and why nobody ever wins the darn thing anymore.

The set for life is 15 million to 1 odds which is much more reasonable but there are few winners on that either as most people who play lotto play for the big ones.

There might be some truth in this, the Irish woman Dolores McNamara was drinking in the pub with her mates when she discovered she win the 115 million euro back in 05 and before she knew it the whole town she lived in knew.

I assume this was the 90s? Wasn't a few million an insane amount back then though?

45 million to 1, you’re absolutely correct. Thanks for the update!

it’s a £15million must win on Saturday btw.

it’s a £15million must win on Saturday btw.*
*
Is it? Today's draw hasn't happened yet? How is it guaranteed a must win on Saturday?

At the start, about 94, you had 20 odd winning the jackpot & only up to 50 numbers or so?

They’ll get found out anyway. If you go public it’s all managed for you and you don’t have to worry about sneaky tabloids.

Nah no-one wins enough to worry about that. There are thousands of people with far more money than lottery winners. They would be no worse off than anyone else rich.

I didn't tell a soul.

Why did you tell people though? I wouldn't tell anybody.

They throw in extra, it's a special night but its title is misleading. The 15 million never gets won and the money filters down so that if you get 3 numbers instead of the normal 30 quid, you get 45. The bog standard lottery has gone to shit long time ago.

kidnapping of rich people in UK never happens in UK. People here watch too many movies.

Lots of people like the idea of being famous.

Everyone who knows you is going to work out why you are suddenly living large anyway.

i guess that’s why.

Tabloids don't care nor do they try to find out secret winners. This was a plot at home with the Braitwaithes on ITV that people think is true, it isn't. 2 different people in my hometown won millions. They didn't go public but the whole town knew and they admitted it. But outside the town nobody ever cared, nor did the tabloids come digging.

No you did not. There was 1 night in 1995 that the most people to win the same jackpot was 133 – they all picked the numbers 7, 17, 23, 32, 38 and 42 on 14 January 1995 of a jackpot of £16,293,830 jackpot only to end up with 1/133 of that total: £122,510. This was a 1 off and you never had 20 odd winning the lotto in 1 night. It's just that the odds were 1` in 14 million up until around 2016ish which meant more winners.

I think it's harder though to know for criminals though who has what/how rich people are than a lottery winner who goes and tells the world I won 180 million.

Just because somebody lies in a flash house or drives a Bentley doesn't necessarily mean they have millions in the bank. The only people people would know have a lot of wealth would be big celebrities like footballers, very big singers or movie stars and they are very hard for the average person/criminal to target.

Like of the top of my head a few uk celebrities who would have millions would be Wayne Rooney, Kate Winslet and Simon Cowell. And it's not exactly like any criminal gang would stand a chance of targeting them even if they knew where they lived as their houses would be so secure.

But even going public doesn't make one a celebrity or famous really albeit literally 5 minutes of fame. After a week, you are forgotten about generally by most of the population and might appear the odd time in a tabloid story but you are generally below z list and unless you do something absurd like blow it all then you aren't interesting enough for the media or the general population to focus on. People think lucky bastard and then forget you.