How could anyone be so dumb? Surely if you win a massive amount of money the last thing you want is the world knowing about it?
May be that the lifestyle they want to live won’t allow them to be anonymous. Hard to explain the yacht and the Bentley suddenly parked outside their 3 bed semi-detached. But I agree it seems odd. If it was me, I’d be anon with few visible signs of any change.
I think they get asked about going public when they are in a state of shock over finding out how much money they win. I would never go public myself. Step 1, keep it quiet. Step 2, disappear.
I did consider this, long and hard. Still on the plus side, you will finally learn who TuT is....and maybe the next owner of WFC.
I worked for the Lottery many, many years ago, partly dealing with winners. They usually advised the big winners to go public as it is going to be so obvious that you've come into a huge amount of money. If it's not announced, that can be pretty awkward and the idea is that it's easier to announce it on your own terms and get your own narrative across.
Would never go public. The people who win these big jackpots always seem to look the same and say they’ll do the same boring things as each other.
I always wondered about if you just somehow found yourself in a lift with Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, just the two of you, what they’d do if you asked for £10k.
One a few things 1. Give you the money 2. Laugh at you 3. Slap you for suggesting it 4. Enter a negotiation with you about how much you really want 5. Ignore you
Both looking at eachother and thinking, what fun will I have now as single person with £90m in my pocket....
I think they offer assistance and help if you go public. Suddenly coming into a big wedge of cash like that isn't actually easy. Every man in a red hat and his dog will be begging for a slice.
They've said this today: The win will give the couple the money needed to work on the "dream" home they recently moved into. Mrs Thwaite said they bought the property to give their children a "country-type lifestyle" and share it with their three dogs, five chickens, two geckos and three ponies. "Like many parents, we stretch ourselves to give our kids everything we can," she added. "I always wanted them to be able to get up in their pyjamas, put wellies on and go out and feed the ponies and they can do that here. "The fact the roof leaks and the house needs renovating was OK, as it was the life we dreamed of for our family." They've already got a great life and seem really grounded people, so I ask again why wreck all that and go public?
The operators also have a team of councillors/psychologist to advise the winners. Why? Well take one really big jockanese winner: the first thing he wanted to do with the money was to buy the previous company he worked at so he could sack all of those involved with making him redundant a year previously...
In the early years of the Lottery a friend of a friend I knew had a win and in those days all winners over a certain threshold, which at that time I think was £250k, received financial advice.
My old man won a significant amount as part of a syndicate about twenty years ago, didn't go public but it eventually leaks out. (Being on the front page of the Wobby didn't help mind) Money changes those around you.
I'd go public. I think telling some of the pr1cks that I've known down the years that I'd just scooped 180 million would probably give me as much pleasure as anything I could buy with the money
That's the danger of it too. You tend to make a lot of new "friends" very quickly. There used to be a lot of horror stories about jealousy, especially within the close family. where you would assume they would supportive. Being extremely wealthy must be nice, but it also makes you more of a target.
The whopper who won it looks closer to 69 than 49. He'll be dead within a year. Also this explains why a lot of people go public. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-lotto-winners-go-public-2016-1?amp
One of my jobs at Camelot back in the early 00s was doing the winner's paperwork, checking ID etc. before printing the cheque and handing over the cheque. Saw the best and worst of humanity doing that. Once had a brother and sister arguing over the top of their mum's head (who had won a few hundred thousand) about who got the money when she died.
I still don’t buy the reason to go public as a good reason. I guess everyone’s situation is different, but I’d be happy telling my immediate family and friends so wouldn’t have to hide it from them anyway. Beyond that obviously other people would find out, but not literally the whole world and every oddball out there. If I won that sort of money in this jackpot I’d be giving immediate friends and family loads of it anyway, anyone outside of that that I was never that close with, if they came calling I’d know they were gold digging.
They would definitely say 'no'. People like that are completely detached from the daily struggles of the vast majority.
