Florida House OKs bill to protect lottery winners’ privacy

People who win $250,000 or more in the Florida Lottery could choose to keep their identities secret for 90 days under a bill overwhelmingly passed by the House on Wednesday.

Democratic Rep. Tracie Davis read headlines about multi-million dollar lottery winners in Florida and Georgia being killed after claiming prizes.

“At some point in our lives, we all dream of winning the lottery,” Davis said. “But unfortunately for some people, that dream of winning the lottery, sometimes those dreams become nightmares.”

The bill passed on a 114-1 vote without any debate. An identical Senate bill has one more committee stop before being considered by the full chamber. So far, it has received no opposition.