Q

Why don’t lottery winners have to be named publicly in the U.S.?

A

Some of them do, such as those in places like California, Florida and Tennessee. But other states are wary. Jackpot winners “get a big old target painted on their backs,” said Andrew Stoltmann, an Illinois attorney who has represented winners. One example cited by Don McNay, a Kentucky financial adviser, is Abraham Shakespeare, a Florida janitor who won a cash payout of US$17 million in the Florida lottery in 2006. Shakespeare had spent or given away most of his prize by the time he met Dorice Dee Dee Moore in late 2008. She befriended him and became his financial adviser, with control over his remaining money. Shakespeare disappeared in April 2009. His body was found nine months later, encased in concrete and buried behind the home of Moore’s ex-boyfriend. Shakespeare had been shot twice in the chest. Moore, convicted of his murder, is serving a life sentence.