Publicity Options
If you win a major Cash for Life prize, your publicity options depend on where you bought your ticket. It may be that you can stay anonymous, or your state lottery might have to disclose certain details. Find out more about how to keep your identity private if you win.
It may be that you are more than happy to go public and share your story with the world as a Cash for Life winner. You wouldn’t have to worry about keeping it a secret from your friends, family or anyone else. Perhaps you would feel that having your name in the public domain could open doors for you, for example with future business ventures or charitable plans.
Many state lotteries regard a winner’s information as a matter of public record, and there are ‘Right to Know’ laws in various jurisdictions which dictate that some aspects of a significant prize payout have to be revealed. This is usually the name, hometown, prize amount and date of the win at the very least.
The thinking behind it is that other players need to see that big prizes are actually won. Disclosing the name of a winner, seeing their picture and hearing about their life helps to inspire others. It also shows that games are run fairly and winners are real. If nobody ever heard about a big winner, would others play? Ultimately, this leads to more ticket sales and more money being raised for good causes.
The counter-argument is that winners should have the right to choose whether their identity is made public or not. For security reasons alone, most players probably feel that they would prefer for their name to be kept out of the spotlight. Staying anonymous allows you to carry on with your life as normally as possible, without everyone knowing how wealthy you are.
The table below shows the rules on anonymity for each of the 10 states that participate in Cash for Life.
| State | Can I Stay Anonymous if I Win? |
|---|---|
| Florida | Only for 90 days, then the Florida Lottery has to disclose your identity if there is a request for information |
| Georgia | Yes, winners of $250,000 or more can stay anonymous |
| Indiana | No, a public records law dictates that winner information must be revealed |
| Maryland | Yes |
| Missouri | Yes |
| New Jersey | Yes |
| New York | No, a winner’s identity is deemed to be public information |
| Pennsylvania | No, the state’s Right-to-Know law dictates that some details must be disclosed |
| Tennessee | No, winner information is treated as a matter of public record |
| Virginia | Winners can only stay anonymous for prizes of more than $10 million |
Using a Legal Trust to Stay Private
Even in the states where it is explicitly stated that you cannot stay anonymous, there are actually ways to shield your name from being released to the wider world.
Winner checks can be made out to an individual, corporation, organization, partnership, trust, or estate, so when a state lottery says it has to disclose a winner’s name, it could be the name of the legal entity rather than the individual.
Setting up a trust or limited liability company (LLC) is one route that winners have gone down to effectively preserve their anonymity. For example, the top Cash for Life prize won on April 17, 2024 was claimed by the Wantagh-based E Squared 11 LLC. You cannot stay anonymous in New York, but the information released about this winner - which also included the location where the winning ticket was sold - did not give away anything about the lucky player’s actual identity.
Go to the Winners page to find out about more ticket holders who have landed Cash for Life’s top prizes, including some who have gone public and some who have retained their anonymity.