Ok, granted, there are many ways to make yourself a target in the US. Say someone is too fat and living an unhealthy lifestyle and there you go, you’re fat-shaming now and people start a shitstorm on the internet. Say you think abortions should be legal and you have church activist groups piling up on you. Say something that is not politically correct and you have left wing activists and the whole internet knocking on your door, yelling at you angrily and demanding an apology.
But today, I want to talk about a much more profane way of making yourself a big target: Money. Money from winning the lottery, to be more precise.
The other day I was browsing across various news sites on the internet and on CNN.com, I stumbled across this:
Craigory Burch, Jr., a forklift operator from Georgia who won almost half a million dollars in the lottery last year, got robbed and shot dead in his own home. The first thing I noticed of course was the picture of the victim presenting one of these, in this particular case not too ridiculously big, fake checks to a camera.
My immediate reaction? That’s the reason why you don’t go public when you win the lottery! Where I live, THE number one advice out there is “IF you win the lottery, don’t tell anybody!”. Seriously, don’t tell anybody. Not your family, not your friends, not your co-workers, no one! They even suggest you go to a bigger city and have a bank there handle your money (frankly because in Germany we have a number of rather small banks who might not be used to handle such a huge amount of money coming from winning the lottery). But the main reason for that advice is not that you are very likely to get robbed and shot. I mean hey, after all, we are in Germany! I’m not saying there is no violence and robbery over here but there is a lot less gun violence in Germany than there is in the US. No, the main reason is, money attracts people. Many people. And not all of them might be nice people. Some will envy you, some will ask you for money, and some will want to take advantage of you. And they might get really angry with you if you refuse to loan them some of your money and friendships can break (which might also happen if they find out that you won the lottery many years ago and never told anybody but well, I’d rather take that risk than constantly being begged for money).
So here I am, sitting in front of my PC, discussing this particular case with some folks on the internet and saying that I feel sorry for that guy, his girlfriend, and his kids. But I’m also saying that you shouldn’t go public with stuff like that. I know, I know. I’m blaming the victim here. And I can already hear people yelling at me saying that I’d also blame women for being raped because they dress too sexy. Nobody should get raped because of the way they dress and nobody should be killed because they have money. But frankly, I believe this is different. A woman doesn’t get raped or groped because she dresses sexy. A woman gets raped or groped because, well, she is a woman. If there’s an opportunity, some drunk idiot will grope a woman that is near him, no matter if she’s dressed sexy or not. And a guy that wants to rape a woman will go out there and look for a victim who is available, no matter how she is dressed. And we need to do something about that, but that might be a topic for another day.
But in this particular case I thought to myself “Come on, show some common sense! Don’t wave your money around like that!”. And then one of my buddies from the US chipped in by telling me something that really baffled me. Currently, there are only six states in the US (Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Carolina) where it is legal to collect your winnings anonymously. Six states out of 50! In all the other 44 states it is not possible, by state law, to collect your money anonymously. Some other states allow you to collect the money anonymously, if you collect it using a trust or a company. But that brings the number of states where you can claim your winnings anonymously only up to nine or ten. Some other states allow you to remain anonymous for a certain period of time, up to one year, before your name and city of residence are released to the public. But still, it is being released to the public. And why is that so? Well, the answer will shock you: money.
Lottery officials state that paying money anonymously will lead to distrust in the system (I mean, who is telling us that the game isn’t rigged when we don’t know who wins?), which will lead to less lottery tickets being sold, which will ultimately lead to less revenue. A scenario that brings fear to state’s lawmakers, because the money they earn from taxes on sold tickets and claimed winnings is what helps them fix their broken budgets. So basically, in most of the states you have two choices. Number one, you decide not to play the lottery, and therefore have no chance of winning the jackpot (a very very slim chance indeed), or number two, you decide to play the lottery with the risk of being hung out to dry when you win, making you vulnerable to scams, violence, and people who want to take advantage of you.
In my opinion, this system is flawed. Governments should do what is best for their citizens and protect them. Not what is best for their broken budgets. Let the winners decide if they want to stay anonymous or not. What is being done right now is risking the life and money of the winners. And that is wrong.
PS: Talking about the lottery all the time made me buy a ticket.
PPS: No, I’m not telling you if I hit the jackpot.
Other sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/us/states-consider-awarding-lottery-winners-something-else-anonymity.html
http://www.powerball.com/pb_contact.asp
The Mind of a Budget Analyst 