$30M 6/49 winner allowed to remain anonymous

May 31, 2018

Anonymity, Lottery Winner, News

The winner of a $30 million jackpot, the largest 6/49 win ever in B.C., was able to convince the B.C. Lottery Corporation to remain anonymous and still claim the big prize, according to several news reports today. However, allowing a winner to claim a large lottery win anonymously is a very rare courtesy granted by a lottery commission. As this CBC article states on this latest story:

“We can’t speak, of course, to the specifics of an anonymous prize claim, but we can tell you that the circumstances must be extraordinary, they need to be substantiated with evidence that’s verifiable and capable of independent confirmation,” said lottery corporation spokesperson Laura Piva-Babcock.

“I can’t really give any specifics.”

[…]

Piva-Babcock said anyone can ask for anonymity, but they have to provide genuine proof that they need it.

She declined to provide examples of the type of situation that might qualify, but said personal safety would likely be a consideration.

[emphasis mine]

In the end, although this anonymous 6/49 jackpot claim is rightfully newsworthy because of its size, nothing has changed. The Canadian lottery commissions’ rules are still the same in that if winners of large prizes want to claim their winnings, they have to have their full name, photo, place of residence and prize win amount published for everyone to know. We’ve mentioned before how there have been one-offs where jackpot winners in Canada were allowed to remain anonymous, notably in 2015 in Ontario. But being allowed to remain anonymous by the good graces of the lottery corporation is very rare and not the norm. At Jackpot LawyerTM, we work with these rare exceptions and more to keep lottery winners anonymous in claiming their winnings.

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