Lawmakers say a push to change state law to allow lottery winners to remain anonymous will continue next session after a person in California won Wednesday's Powerball jackpot worth over $1 billion.

California, like New York, is a state that requires lottery winners to publicly disclose their identity and hometown to claim their award. 

Several New Yorkers who've won the lottery in the past few years have hired Long Island attorney Eric Jaffe to help their identities remain a secret. 

"Some people want to hold the big check and want to be on TV, and that's great, but not everybody," Jaffe said Thursday.

It started in 2019 when 24 people who won a $425 million lottery prize wanted to remain anonymous. Jaffe helped them form an LLC, which is the only legal avenue New York winners can hide their identity from the public. 

He's brought at least a dozen other lottery winners through the process since.

Jaffe is in favor of a proposal to permanently change the law and allow all lottery winners to have the option to not give consent to the state to release their name and remain anonymous, even though it'd mean he'd lose business. It won't be considered by the Legislature until next year at the earliest.

"Even though it would cause me some business, I do think it's the right thing to do," he said. "People should have that option."

State Sen. Joe Addabbo, who chairs the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, had constituents who won the lottery be forced to move from their home after suffering ongoing harassment from financial advisors and solicitors. Several were scammers. 

It led the senator to reintroduce a law to maximize public safety and allow New Yorkers to choose if they want to celebrate their lottery winnings in public or in private.

"When you win a big ticket, the lawyers come out, the accountants come out, the financial planners, even relatives you never knew come out," Addabbo said. "It's people looking for donors, looking for operations. They're looking for medical procedures and they beg you for the money, and the pressure is immense."

Winners risk consequences from their sudden wealth, especially business owners or people estranged from their extended families.

"I've had winners who were fearful that people in their home country would find out and it could cause problems with their family there," Jaffe said. "And there are winners who are afraid they're going to get hacked by someone."

Most people, lawmakers say, don't know about the loophole or have the resources to form an LLC.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed a similar bill the Legislature passed in 2018, arguing it's important for the public to see who wins the lottery and do public relations to make sure winners are not public officials or employed by the New York Lottery office.

The public announcement of the winners also provides publicity for the lottery office. The state Gaming Commission’s Lottery and Video Lottery Gaming operations reports $10.4 billion in combined sales for the 2021-22 Fiscal Year.

If passed, lottery winners can continue to choose to go public. They would also still pay taxes on the award, go through a background check and complete paperwork so the state knows their identity.

Addabbo says the state could use actors in its lottery marketing, or other ways that don't threaten public safety.

"We know the store where it came from, so that community which had the winning ticket... there's other ways of marketing," the senator said. "I don't think marketing should be the greater influence over the safety of someone else."

Remaining anonymous is something several other states, like neighboring New Jersey, already allow lottery winners to do. 

Addabbo is confident lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will support the measure in efforts to improve public safety and protect New Yorkers.

"This is just a safety measure," he said. "And who wouldn't be for protecting the safety of others? I can't find anyone who would be against that."