Can You Stay Anonymous If You Win The Lottery?

This weekend, the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery drawings could make someone super rich. On Friday night, the Mega Millions jackpot will be an estimated $520 million dollars. In case you don't become an almost billionaire, you an still try your luck with the Powerball jackpot. That will be drawn on Saturday night and it will be an estimated $470 million dollars. So let's say lightning strikes and you win one of these amazing prizes, then what? Can you remain anonymous so your long lost third cousin four times removed doesn't find out you're uber rich?

According to Texas law:

"A natural person who is a prize winner of a lottery prize in an amount equal to $1 million or more, or who is an owner of a beneficial interest in a legal entity that is a prize winner of a lottery prize in an amount equal to $1 million or more, may on the date the winner claims the prize elect to remain anonymous and prohibit all personally identifiable information from being released to the public.
(1) A prize winner who elects to remain anonymous must specify that choice at the time of claiming their lottery prize."

So what does that mean? It means if you win a lottery prize you can remain anonymous as long as you win at least $1 million, but you have to remember to tell lottery officials that you want to remain anonymous.

If you plan on buying tickets with someone else, like in a work pool, make sure there is a contract drawn up between the people who are buying in so you make sure that everyone knows how much each person gets. You should also follow these tips so you don't lose all those millions.

Good luck!