If someone in New Jersey overcomes the huge lottery odds and wins all or a share of Saturday’s gigantic $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot, we’ll almost certainly never learn his or her name.
That’s because the Garden State is one of more than a dozen states across the country where lottery winners can remain fully or mostly anonymous.
The other states where winners can shun the spotlight are Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota (prizes over $10,000), North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
In Arizona, information regarding the prize winner’s city and county of residence is not confidential, though.
Illinois also allows winner of prizes of $250,000 or above to keep their name and hometown confidential by indicating that on the claim form.
Other states offer partial anonymity. For example, in Colorado, only the first name and first initial of winners is published on the state lottery’s website.
The Wyoming Lottery says it “will honor all requests for anonymity from winners.”
In Michigan, state law requires the identity of multi-state lottery jackpot winners – such as Mega Millions and Powerball — to be made public and does not allow a trust to claim the prize to keep the winner’s name a secret. Winners of in-state draw game jackpots do not have to release their identities in order to claim their prize.
Other states, meanwhile, say winners can collect their winnings anonymously if they claim their winnings in the name of a trust.
Anonymity — names and addresses would be exempt from the New Jersey’s open records laws — doesn’t mean complete secrecy. State agencies will be able to share the information internally to collect back child support, public assistance overpayments, delinquent or defaulted student loan payments and other debts.
Winers of prizes of $599.99 or more must fill out a claim form with the New Jersey Lottery, show identification and report the prize money to the Internal Revenue Service.
Prior to Gov. Phil Murphy signing a bill into January 2020 that protects the identity of lucky lottery winners, the New Jersey Lottery disclosed their names and hometowns.
In the days before the law allowing winners to remain anonymous, the New Jersey Lottery held press conferences during which the winner stood in front of television cameras, met the media and answered questions. Those days are gone, though.
The most recent jackpot winning Powerball ticket sold in New Jersey was a $33.2 million ticket for the Jan. 30, 2021 drawing. It was bought at a QuickChek in Cedar Knolls.
It was the second consecutive week a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket was bought in North Jersey. Someone who bought a ticket at a Clifton convenience store won the $23.3 million jackpot on Jan. 23, 2021.
In 2020, there were two Mega Millions jackpot winners in New Jersey — a $202 million ticket sold for the Feb. 11 drawing in Edison and a $123 million ticket bought for the July 24 game in Bayonne. Both also claimed the winnings anonymously. There hasn’t been any Mega Millions jackpot winners in New Jersey since.
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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.