Jackpot winner: winning the lottery is too good to be true because of the fallout that comes after

By Kate Northrop

A $70 million Powerball lottery winner from Michigan, who won the jackpot back in 2020, has come forward to argue that lottery winners should be able to choose to remain anonymous.

The winner of a $70 million Powerball jackpot feels strongly based on her own experiences that there should be legislation passed allowing lottery winners to claim a prize without revealing their name.

In 2020, Waterford resident Cristy Davis went from living paycheck-to-paycheck to matching all five numbers plus the Powerball to win a $70 million Powerball jackpot. She opted to collect the one-time lump sum payment of about $36 million after taxes.

"I was just living check to check, staying with my grandma, saving my money, just working at a dealership, driving parts to different dealerships and to auto shops," she said in an interview with The Detroit News.

At the time she bought the winning ticket, Davis was out with her friend, who was buying Daily Three and Daily Four tickets for his aunt and uncle. It encouraged her to withdraw $20 from the ATM to put toward her own tickets for Mega Millions and Powerball, as well as a couple scratch-off games.

The morning after purchasing her tickets, a friend alerted her over FaceTime that the winning Powerball ticket was bought at the Huron Plaza Liquor store on West Huron Street in Pontiac, the same place where she had bought hers.

She pulls out her ticket to check it at her workplace, and she cannot believe what she's seeing.

"My friend Erica's next to me, and she's like, 'No,'" Davis recalled. "I yelled through the whole shop, and everybody came running. It was literally like a three-second excitement, and then it was like, this was too good to be true. It still hasn't clicked in my brain that it's real."

Michigan state law says that lottery players who win more than $10,000 in local, in-state games may claim their prizes without revealing their name, but winners of multi-state games like Mega Millions, Powerball, and Lucky for Life cannot remain anonymous.

"We tried to get a lawyer to see if I can [claim] anonymously, and they said no," Davis continued. "That was my big thing — I didn't want to go on TV. I know so many [who've] been through so much in life, and it was either that or no money."

After her name went public, Davis noticed her identity being used in unscrupulous ways without her consent.

"I've seen in [the] 'Waterford Matters' Facebook group a post: 'This is Cristy Davis, and I'm giving away blah blah blah blah blah... Send me this info to this phone number.' Comments on [the post] are like, 'They cleaned my bank account out.' Why would you give somebody your bank account information?" she related. "And then I have friends on there [replying], 'That's not really her,' saying I'm not on social media, and I changed my name."

Davis argues that this is a perfect example of why lottery winners should not be forced to reveal their names. Concealing the identities of big jackpot winners not only protects the winners themselves, but others who may fall victim to scammers using message of false hope to prey upon unsuspecting individuals, such as the elderly.

"The Lottery people need to know when they expose your name, this is the stuff that happens," she contended. "The Lottery even emailed me like, 'Oh, we heard you're out here scamming people.' I said, 'You know, that's what happens when you expose people's names.'"

"I'm not scamming anybody — I have money," she continued. "Why would I want to hack into somebody's bank account and take their money when they probably have $200 in their bank account? Just leave me alone."

For those that do not want to leave their longtime home, change their name or phone number, and alter their way of life, winning the lottery can come with consequences.

"They definitely should pass the law that allows [lottery winners] to be anonymous because [the Lottery doesn't] realize what they do to people," Davis concluded. "[Winning the lottery] is life-changing already. A lot of people do move away, but some people don't. I didn't. That's probably why I felt the way I did the whole time. It's just too good to be real because of all the stuff that comes after."

VIDEO: Watch the interview

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