His disguise proves he means business
A man has decided to keep his $30 million lottery win from his wife and kid because he believes that if they got a whiff of his new wealth, they would suddenly become lazy.
Arguably, 220 million yuan (£26m, $30m) jackpot would be difficult to hide.
The winner, who’s going by the pseudonym ‘Li’, so that his family won’t spot his name alongside the jackpot, bought 40 lottery tickets for the draw.
To keep his alibi air-tight, he arrived to pick up his cheque in costume.
And they all had the same seven numbers, meaning that ‘Li’ gained a huge payout because the lottery paid out 5.48 million yuan for each winning ticket. Lucky, guy.
‘Li’ went to the Guangxi Welfare Lottery Distribution Centre to collect his prize on 24 October.
He said: “I have not told my wife or kid. I am concerned that they might feel superior to other people and will not work or study hard in [the] future.”
He did donate five million yuan to charity though, so he’s not totally stingy.
‘Li’ can’t be blamed though, adjusting to winning the lottery is a tough cookie to swallow, as millionaires explained when Colin and Chris Weir when they won £161m in 2011..
They told the Independent: “We would have preferred to stay anonymous, but we recognised it wasn’t a possibility.
“We wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the experience if we had constructed lies to tell our nearest and dearest.”But this isn’t the only reason some go public though.
Camelot provide a lot of support to lottery winners who decide to go public, helping with things like press conferences and handling media requests.
Julie Jeffrey won a cool £1m in 2002, and explained to Yahoo: “Even if you only tell one person, things spread. Before you know it everybody knows.
“And if you don’t take publicity, Camelot can’t acknowledge your existence, so they can’t help you or provide a backup.”
She added that if she had started “going on fancy trips abroad people would have noticed,” and that this would have meant having all “the unwanted attention,” but without any support from Camelot.
Ultimately, it is completely up to the winners to decide whether they go public or not. There is never any financial incentive from Camelot for the winner to go public.
A Camelot representative told Business Insider UK: “The decision to share their news or remain anonymous is completely up to the winner and depends on a number of factors including who they’ve told and what they plan to do with their win.
“It’s fantastic when winners share their news but everyone is different. Ultimately it is up to the individual and we’ll support them whatever their decision.”
All the best to ‘Li’!
Related links:
- The reason why lottery winners go public as UK’s biggest EuroMillions revealed their identities
- Woman wins $10m on lottery when ‘rude’ person bumped her making her press wrong button
- Man wins $10m lottery for second time in three years
