A Massachusetts State Lottery winner claimed their $4 million prize on Aug. 18. However, their name wasn’t publicly released.
Kit Kat Nominee Trust of Mattapoisett claimed the $4 million prize. It was the first jackpot prize in the Massachusetts State Lottery’s “$4,000,000 Jumbo Cash” instant ticket game.
The winning ticket was purchased at Girlies Variety Store in Taunton, which is located at 96 Oak St. The store will also receive a $40,000 bonus for its sale of this ticket.
The trust was represented by trustee Patricia McArdle. She opted to receive the trust’s prize in the form of a one-time payment of $2,600,000 before taxes.
Massachusetts isn’t one of the at least nine states that allows lottery winners to remain anonymous but it can still happen.
Massachusetts allows lottery winners to create a trust. It then allows the trustee to be able to turn in the winning ticket, receive the check and then deposits it into a bank account set up for the beneficiaries.
“One of the most frequent pieces of advice new lottery winners get from others is to try as hard as possible to remain anonymous,” Baker Law Group’s website states. “If your name and photograph is published, there’s a strong chance you could find yourself quickly harassed with calls and requests for money.”
But the winners don’t remain completely anonymous.
Lottery spokesman Christian Teja previously told The Republican that the secrecy only involves the public. All members of a trust are required to be identified by the lottery for its internal records.
The lottery runs the names of those in a trust past other state agencies, including the state Department of Revenue, the Child Support Enforcement Division, Office of the State Comptroller and the Department of Transitional Assistance. The names of the winners are checked to see if they owe the state money for child support, income taxes, tuition and fees at state colleges, or Mass Health payments. If so, the amount owed is garnished from the winnings.
There are still two jackpot prize winning tickets available for the game “$4,000,000 Jumbo Cash,” according to the lottery’s website. Players have a 1 in 5,040,000 odds.
Overall, there were more than 520 winning lottery tickets worth at least $600 claimed or sold in Massachusetts on Aug. 18, including 16 in Worcester and 9 in Springfield.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of all the winning tickets each day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
The largest lottery prizes won in Massachusetts this year were two $15 million prizes. Both lottery prizes were claimed by trusts.
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