BC lottery winners now score a bonus prize — some anonymity

Lottery winners now get a bit of privacy in BC.

You’ll still likely know if your neighbour won a million-dollar prize, but the province’s lottery corporation recently decided to give winners privacy as they remove surnames from announcements.

The decision, effective Jan. 1, echoes the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s decision to similarly initialize winners’ last names in news releases. No other provincial lottery corporation appears to follow the practice.

BCLC spokesperson Andrea Wong said the new policy provides some privacy to winners, but didn’t say specifically what prompted the new rule or whether BC winners had complained in the past.

Provincial lottery authorities always announce winners over a certain amount. It was done for accountability, to ensure they are transparent and show the winners are real people.

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According to BCLC, it’s still transparent by providing the winner’s first name, last initial, a photo and the city where they live.

While lottery corporations have always been forthcoming about who won big lottery prizes in the past, there have been rare exceptions.

In 2023, the winner of BC’s largest prize to date remained entirely anonymous after a $30 million Lotto 6/49 win. According to Wong, there have been other cases with smaller prizes, but they didn’t get as much attention at the time.

A winner has to file a request with their justification to remain anonymous, like a safety concern. Each case is assessed before BCLC grants anonymity.

Otherwise, large prizes are announced with the winner named, often accompanied by a photo.

Though Ontario led the way, that province’s lottery winners are still identified on its website, despite removing surnames from its news releases. BC does not have a similar list.