Michigan residents who win multi-million dollar prizes on cross-state draws like the Powerball could gain anonymity.
House Bill 4004 was introduced to the Midwestern states House of Representatives by Pat Outman, a member of the Republican Party, back in January.
The Bill seeks to grant Michigan residents who win multi-state lotteries the right to anonymity when collecting their winnings – making it slightly different to anonymity legislation seen in other states.
In contrast to moves in Oregon and Virginia, the Michigan law will only apply to people who win on mutli-state lotteries. Examples of this are the Powerball, which is offered in 45 US states in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Michigan’s new law will apply to the Powerball, Mega Millions, and Lucky for Life, among other multi-state draws.
The laws in Oregon and Virginia, in comparison, relate only to lotteries held in those states. In Virginia, Bill 1799 was signed into law earlier this month and will grant people who win over $1m anonymity, while in Oregon amendments were added to legislation around lottery ticket resales to grant winners anonymity.
Though each state has granted anonymity to different people or to varying degrees, the arguments across all three remain the same – that not granting anonymity to big winners puts these people at risk of harassment and scamming.
“We shouldn’t force Michigan lottery winners to be in a position where they receive unwanted, possibly dangerous attention,” said Outman (R-Six Lakes).
“My plan gives them the choice to keep their identities anonymous. A privacy option gives people a sense of security and helps protect them from harassment or a flood of requests for funds, loans or donations.”
In many US states, lottery winners are required to show up in person at an approved lottery winnings collection centre, sometimes a city hall, to collect their cheque. As stated by Outman and by legislators in other states though, there are concerns that this level of visibility puts these people at risk.
Last weekend’s Powerball (Saturday 29 March), for example, saw a jackpot prize of $526.5m on offer. Winning such a large sum of money could put a target on some people’s backs, some policymakers fear.
Lottery scams are also hardly a rarity. Just last week, the World Lottery Association (WLA) issued a warning to US lotteries and customers about a scammer claiming to represent the association, or be an employee of it.
A counter-agument against the anonymity clauses is that transparency is needed when large winnings are handed over by a state lottery.
However, it seems that more and more states are moving in favour of anonymity, with Michigan joining Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia and Texas in granting it to mulit-state lottery winners.