It seems like people have been talking about the case everywhere this month, so I’m addressing it here on the blog as we head into the weekend. You’ve likely have heard by now about the New Hampshire woman who won the $559.7 million Powerball jackpot in the Jan. 6 drawing and then sued the state, saying that she wanted to remain anonymous when she claimed the prize.
A judge ruled this week that she can, indeed, remain anonymous. The prize was claimed in the name of the Good Karma Family 2018 Nominee Trust, with two lawyers representing the trust accepting a ceremonial check at a news conference in Concord.
So we have been asked: And what does that mean for the prize-claim process here in Iowa?
From my understanding, the decision involved a specific exception in the New Hampshire open records law. There isn’t a similar exception in Iowa law, nor have prizes in Iowa been allowed to be claimed by trusts without the members of the trust also being identified.
Under Iowa law, lottery winners’ information is public. It is possible for a trust to claim a prize in Iowa, and that has happened through the years. But in addition to the name of the trust, the identities of the members of the trust also are released.
We firmly believe that transparency is important. Not everyone is on the up-and-up when it comes to dealing with large sums of money. And the requirement that winners’ information is public in Iowa was key to our efforts in the long-running lottery jackpot investigation that ended last year with guilty pleas to fraud charges from three men.
I have an idea for a new game. When any of the games such as powerball, megamillions, or lotto America reach a certain limit, say for example $100,000,000.00 million dollars and no one has picked the winning numbers. This will trigger a new, televised live game show that will
pick winning numbers of players who purchase new tickets for the live
Saturday evening show. All the numbers picked on the live show will be winning numbers of tickets that were purchased for the show and not random numbers. Multiple winners will be chosen for cash prizes ranging from say:$1,000 to 1,000,000.00 (one thousand to one million) dollars or more. I believe this type of game would generate more money for the states, more winners, not to mention massive economic activity. I hope you might consider such a game. If other readers agree with this idea, please copy, paste and pass it on.
Thanks
Tom L.
Walnut, IA
Posted by: Thomas Liston | March 26, 2018 at 05:32 PM
This is why about once every 6 weeks we make a weekend road trip to Kansas and purchase multi draw tickets where winners have the right to remain anonymous.
Posted by: Yorel A. Nonymous | March 25, 2018 at 06:58 PM
When the jackpot reaches into the hundreds of millions they should draw for SEVERAL winners!! Make several people comfortable for the rest of their lives!!
Posted by: Vicki | March 25, 2018 at 05:45 PM
The Iowa lottery can do many things to make sure that a winning ticket is really a valid ticket without having to reveal the winner's identity.
Posted by: ed ohlin | March 24, 2018 at 07:41 AM
If its a law, then it needs to be changed for the safety of the players.
Posted by: Kj Thompson | March 22, 2018 at 08:23 PM