OP was exposed by his SIL, not the government or lottery department.

It's state by state. In some states you can be private. In some you can't. There are reasons for both

ur allowed to choose if u wanna b anonymous or not. most ppl dont have their identity revealed. those who do r usually asked if they want a news announcement or just put on public record. the OP probably chose public record and exposed it to their family. if its on public record ppl can search online to find out but all itll say is name and state. only ppl who work for the lottery have the detailed info. my friend won the lottery once and she chose to b completely anonymus. so shes only on private staff eyes only records. only ppl who kno r me, my parents and her parents. only reason i kno is cuz im the one who bought the ticket for her bday along with her present. no one knew but she was homeless at the time but visited her parents often so ppl assumed she lived with them. now i dont drive so my parents drove us but the first thing i said was "lets get ur winnings and go to the bank". we did just that got a specialist on the matter to help. she set everything up and was good to go. i asked her wat she wanted to do and she said she wants to find an apartment somewhere in between the college she went to and her parents house. my dad was a morgage broker with many realtor friends so he helped her out with finding a place. once she had the apartment me and my family got her a bunch of furniture (her style of course) as house warming gifts. her parents packed up anything she owned at their house brough it over and helped her get settled. she told me she didnt want to live the fancy life so we thought about things she can use the money for without revealing to others that she came into money. first thing we did after the apartment was fix up her car instead of buying a new one, next was college loans, she got a new laptop nothing fancy and then we went food shopping. after that she went job searching, medical insurance searching and car insurance searching. her car wasnt in driving condition until we got it fixed but she was on her parents car insurance plan and medical. she wanted her own however her parents wouldnt budge on her getting her own phone plan lol. she did everything a normal working college student would do. she never got anything fancy or expensive and she still to this day has her 2010 honda lol. and still no one but me, my parents and her parents kno she won. she knew me and my parents would help her in any way we could cuz we had been for years. i come from an upper class family and she comes from a lower class. ud never kno bc i didnt act like i was upper class and she didnt show that life was tough for her. ive been there for her since 4th grade and our parents became close friends too. shes living a perfectly normal life in her ikea style apartment lol. she always said wen she got her own place everything is coming from ikea lol. but ya shes now married, has 1 kid, shes a kindergarden teacher and i couldnt b happier for her. her husband does kno about the lottery win all those years ago but never asked for a single penny and never told anyone. only thing he ever asked about was if she wanted to set up a college fund using some of that money for the child which she thought was a great idea. he told her to put it in her name and their sons name since it was her money. she is pregnant and they r planning on finding a house. she is using the same realtor that helped her find the apartment. they dont want anything fancy just big enough for them and 2 kids with a nice backyard. her husband is a prime example of how someone should b if a family member wins the lottery. i didnt trust him at first wen i learned she told him after they were together for 3 years but he proved me wrong by saying he didnt care cuz its her money not his. all choices made with that money r hers to make and he stood by his words. shes planning on using the money for the house which will b in both their names. they both have good incomes so they can live comfortably without the lottery money she stashed away. but ya the public would never b able to find out shes a past winner. we live in new york. after she won it was on the news saying how there was a winner who chose to stay anonymous. never even said wat state shes from. the only reason their being a winner is announced is so ppl know the jackpot wont b going up due to no winner and it will b reset basically. otherwise its a choice to b exposed here in the us. most ppl dont but those who r dumb and over excited tend to and it doesnt always end well.

Years later my niece reached out to me, promising not to tell anyone if I answered. I was touched and would have made her my heir. Long story short, she babbled, AND THEN lied to me about it even when I offered her an out AND gave out my very private number! She doesn't know my nett worth now, but is not receiving an amount that is 40 times what that family think I wasn't worth receiving. It will now eventually be going to the children of friends who stood by me, and assorted charities.

Why? He's already helped that family out once. And they screwed him over royally for the privilege. They're having problems paying their medical bills because they also have a house they can't afford & a spoiled wife who thinks she's a princess. It's not his responsibility to pay his brother's bills simply b/c he's sick. He said he's willing to put his niblings through college later. He has two other brothers, parents, friends, etc. Just b/c he won a lottery doesn't automatically make him morally responsible for everyone else's debt, bad luck, and crappy decisions.