By Angelina McMinn | Staff Writer |
The lottery is something very common and normal in the United States, but in most states when someone wins the lottery, whether it is Mega Millions or Powerball, they can’t claim it anonymously. They have to show their face, and their name becomes public. Texas is one of the states where the winner has to publicly claim their winnings.
People should not have to claim the money publicly, they should be able to claim it anonymously. Having their name public can be very dangerous for the person. All they did was win the lottery by luck, and they are all the sudden getting death threats and being sued by previous landlords.
The winner may just want to live the rest of their life in peace and quiet, but they can’t because they are getting letters, emails, and calls from companies and complete strangers. They have strangers asking for money, saying they need it for their sick child and it’ll be the winners fault if the child dies.
Everyone will also be asking the winner for money, as a gift or a loan. It would be very annoying and hard to deal with. Living the rest of their life dealing with anyone who knows their name asking for money would be very annoying.
Some may want the winner’s name to be public because they feel that the winner was aware of the risk when they signed up for the lottery. Everything someone does has risks and consequences, this is just a consequence of that risk. But what they don’t realize is that the winner has to constantly deal with it for the rest of their lives.
The rule about claiming one’s winnings of the lottery should be changed for the health and benefit of the winner. The lottery is just a game of chance, people should respect that.