If you won the lottery, would you go public?

[Slowpoke]

Dave and Angela Dawes are the lucky winners of £101,203,600.70 in this weeks EuroMillions, and the dream has yet to begin! Colin and Chris Weir's dreams came true when they won a massive £161,653,000.00 back in July! However, just a few short weeks later they apparently had to flee the UK due to sheer number of people begging them for money - doesn't sound like the best of circumstances to me!

A documentary recently aired (on Channel 4 I think it was) which told the story of several UK lottery winners who went public with their scoop, only to regret it massively later after being snubbed by friends and family, threatened by criminals and gangs and hassled for money by various strangers until the cows came home.

So, my question is, if you won the lottery, would you go public?

[beth]

oh i watched that documentary hahaha, i don't think i would purposely go public but i'm not stupid enough to think it wouldn't come out, even if i only tell my family. people like to share good news.

[DPS]

I couldnt go public as people do tend to beg when you do, i'd also be scared for my life and my family, incase someone tryed to kidnapp me or even them.
I'd give money to charity well only RichardHouseHospice as my nephew goes there and there so good.

But im sure someone i know inrl would sell a story about me winning if i had won, so yeah id still not go public.

[Mathew]

Yeah I probably would go public. To be fair, I'd be buying a house in Florida with the winnings and getting out of the country anyway, so there's no need to "flee"...

[Sharon]

no... you become a TARGET to everybody. people are licking you as far as even possible, charities targetting you like 24/7 and more plus i'd be scared to even go out in public.

[AgnesIO]

I don't think I would go public straight away, but only to keep my family and close friends safe. If it obvious that if you have vast amounts of money people may try kidnapping members of your family to get money out of you - that to me is a huge risk.

If I did come out/it did come out I would ignore any begging letters, however would be straight off to a school in Namibia to help make their school as good as possible. I would also be out of the country permanently before long.

[Stephen]

Nope and I think any people that do go public deserve what they get because the chances are they are gonna regret doing it :L

[Zuth]

I wouldn't go public, because i wouldn't want people begging me etc

[Slowpoke]

Nope and I think any people that do go public deserve what they get because the chances are they are gonna regret doing it :L

I wouldn't go public, because i wouldn't want people begging me etc

Note that, by doing this, even telling close family would be a risk (ie cousins, aunties, uncles).

Winning the lottery is a lot more complicated than it seems in my opinion. Yes, winning a vast amount of money would be amazing and no doubt most of us would be off to some exotic country to start a wonderful new life. But it's likely you'd have to sever ties many of your family and friends (easy for few) else the word would get out and the media would get their grubby paws on your story. And lord, they love to ruin loves (and don't we know it)

[Rozi]

deffo wouldn't go public
I would tell my friends that I'd won
but I wouldn't tell them how much
I'd just take them all on holiday