Lottery Winners

I was just reading on the news about the latest Eoromillions lottery winners and couldn't comprehend why people would want the world to know..

Would you go public if you won, and if so why?

Re: Lottery Winners

Declaring yourself as a lottery winner (which I was planning to do until someone beat me to it) has to be one of the worst things you could do in your lifetime. You would become instant target for every weirdo, thief, blackmailer, kidnapper and assorted scum who would stop at nothing to get your hands on it.

Unless you are going to use it to have a facelift, change identity and live in a far-off land, never to be heard of again.

Re: Lottery Winners

I would not go public and sad to say, it wouldn't change my life too much, I'd buy a holiday home or three, all in the UK.
As Graham says, going public you leave yourself open to all sorts. And sadly there is always a relative or two who'd crawl out of the woodwork..on the 'sponge'.

Re: Lottery Winners

Not sure how it could be kept private, the grapevine is no respector of privacy.

Re: Lottery Winners

There will always be people who will get to know it's true, but why make it so easy for total strangers to find out where you work, where you live, where your children go to school etc. I know the publicity must be great for Camelot, but you surely don't owe them a favour for winning?

Re: Lottery Winners

If I won £1,000,000+ I definitely wouldn't want to go public as I would absolutely hate being in the limelight. No big presentations for me thank you, just a polite note to say that 'said amount' had been deposited into my bank account would suffice! My family and I would be quite capable of deciding where, what and to whom the money would go to ........ if the occasion ever arose.

It's nice to dream about it though!

Re: Lottery Winners

I'm sure the Lottery Companies put pressure on the winners, possibly quite subtly, to get themselves maximum publicity in the media. They know sales zoom upwards when a huge win is announced, and all and sundry want to be next. Myself, I would tend to keep it quiet, but oh how lovely it would be to inform all those people who gave you grief of one sort and another in the past!

Re: Lottery Winners

Actually I think that there may be a legal obligation to go public to some extent if you accept the winnings. I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that accepting winnings forms a contract with Camelot which includes their being able to make your details public?

Re: Lottery Winners

I would not go public but I fear Mr. TWHRider would, even though he says he wouldn't

He can't shut up about anything. I have already told him if he wins the More Money Than Brains lottery, all I want is one million dollars put in a separate account and he can have the other gazillion dollars

I'll do fine on one million and my Social Security income can then become "pin" money

I figure I would have to leave him since he wouldn't be able to keep quiet and would have more friends and money stalkers than he knew what to do with

Re: Lottery Winners

Julie, you do make me laugh