What a nice problem to have!
All jackpot winners of the National Lotteries Lotto game or EuroMillions, are given the option by the lottery organisers Camelot of having their details made public or not. There is no right or wrong decision to make, everyone is different with different personalities and circumstances. What you are doing and where you are when you discover you’ve won will also have an impact on the decision you make. If you are with friends in a public place when you check your ticket, you would have probably blurted out ‘I’ve won the lottery’ before you’ve had time to think.
At that point you may have already lost the opportunity to remain anonymous. On the other hand if you were at home on your own in front of the TV when you discover you’ve won, you’d have time to consider your next action and its implications.
What is important is to take your time making a decision if you possibly can. If you start telling everyone straight away, you won’t be able to go back on that decision. However, if you keep it to yourself, you will always have the opportunity to go public in the future should you wish to.
Below are some things to consider if you are contemplating having publicity or not having publicity.
Publicity Pros
For winners who dream of getting their ’15 minutes of fame’, opting for publicity after a lottery jackpot win will bring them more publicity than they could ever imagine. The National Lottery organisers will often arrange for the presentation of the prize to be in a posh venue with champagne and all the trimmings. Local and international press and TV will be there to record the event and your face could appear all over the newspapers and TV. Interviews will follow for TV shows, newspapers, magazines and the web.
Publicity Cons
It’s often not until the initial excitement of all the new attention has worn off that the negative side of seeking publicity shows itself.
What past lottery winners have found is that the attention is far more than they bargained for and quite soon becomes a major and often permanent invasion of their privacy. They open themselves to being bad mouthed by old enemies with an axe to grind who find it all too easy to get a newspaper journalist to write about some past misdemeanour or secret you’d rather wasn’t made public. Friends start to wonder if they will see any of the spoils, and family will expect to be included too. Then there’s the begging letters that will start filling your postbag. Not only from genuinely destitute people and charities that really could do with your help, but from scammers too who will look to appeal to your good nature with practised and seemingly genuine stories that will pull at anyone’s heartstrings. You then become suspicious of the motives of any new friends that you make, and old ones you haven’t seen in while who get in touch. You find others have been discussing what they think you should do with your new found wealth and want to tell you. Rarely does it match what you want to do. You can feel that you have lost your identity as you are forever known as the man/woman/couple who won the lottery.
Getting Publicity Even Though You Don’t Want It
Just because you opt for Camelot not to make your win public doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Should a friend or colleague spill the beans then the media are perfectly entitled to follow the story up resulting in exactly the type of publicity you were seeking to avoid. Some newspaper journalists like nothing more than ‘sniffing out’ a lottery winner who has opted not to have publicity. It appeals to their investigative instincts to be able to track a winner down. Sometimes winners can unknowingly cause the leaks themselves. Pulling up in the drive in a new Ferrari 2 days after Camelot announce that there has been an anonymous jackpot winner in your area is asking for trouble.
Keeping the fact that you’ve won a major cash prize a secret is very difficult, but it can be and has been done successfully. Firstly opt out of the publicity at the first opportunity. Then don’t tell a soul about your win for at least 3 months if at all. If you do then decide to confide in family and or close friends, swear them to secrecy. Spend your money modestly and slowly without splashing out and try and keep a low profile.
