Should Big Lottery Winners Be Publicly Identified? [POLL]

As the saying goes, "You gotta be in it to win it." And by "you," the state of New York means your name should be released to the public if and when you collect a big prize. There was a bill that overwhelmingly passed in Albany that would have allowed winners of jackpots totaling more than $5,000 to opt out of being publicly identified.

However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed the bill saying that the public deserves to know where the money from the lottery coffers is going, newyork.cbslocal.com said.

The bill was extremely popular, according to the New York Post, with the Senate voting in favor of it 61-1 and the Assembly 140-3.

But Cuomo's objections aside, he did also say that there is already a way around having to be publicly identified: a winner can become a limited liability corporation and collect the prize in its name.

Before you think, "Whew, we potentially dodged a bullet there," take a look at what New York requires when starting an LLC.

The state website — which you might want to bookmark, just in case — requires setting up an unincorporated business organization, adopting an operating agreement, publishing notices in newspapers and filing statements every other year.

All that sounds like something for which it would be handy to have a lawyer in the family.

If there's any solace in all this — after all, we are talking about the potential aftermath of winning millions of dollars — New Yorkers aren't alone in the burden of non-anonymity.

Only a handful of states, including Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, allow winners of the lottery to stay anonymous, abcnews.go.com said.

And some states set limits on the length of time anonymity can be applied to a winner's good fortune.

So now it's time for you to weigh in on this issue. Vote in our highly unscientific poll and tell us why in the comments below.

Photo credit: NY Lottery.