{"id":356307,"date":"2026-07-29T15:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/356307\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:09:11","slug":"florida-mega-millions-lottery-winner-has-90-days-before-unmasking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/356307\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Mega Millions lottery winner has 90 days before unmasking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lottery winner who scooped an $800 million jackpot has 90 days to come forward before they are unmasked under Florida law.<\/p>\n<p>The lucky <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/29\/us-news\/mega-millions-800m-jackpot-winning-ticket-sold-in-florida-results-drawing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida Mega Millions ticket holder won the massive prize<\/a> \u2014 the largest in 2026 and the 10th-largest in the game\u2019s history \u2014 on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>The winning numbers were 34, 48, 49, 59, 70, and the gold Mega Ball was 12, but the location of the winning ticket was not immediately announced.<\/p>\n<p>But while the winner hasn\u2019t been named yet, the public will likely know their name by late October after the Sunshine State\u2019s 90-day temporary anonymity rule runs out.<\/p>\n<p>Under Florida Statute 24.1051, anyone who wins a lottery prize of $250,000 or more receives a 90-day public records exemption, beginning the day they officially claim the ticket at the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/barneswalker.com\/can-you-stay-anonymous-after-winning-the-lottery-in-florida-the-90-day-myth-and-the-trust-solution\/#:~:text=Here&#039;s%20the%20reality%3A%20Florida%20Statute%2024.1051%20gives,window%20isn&#039;t%20for%20you%20to%20hide%20forever.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sunshine State law firm Barnes Walker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Once the 90 days pass, the winner\u2019s full legal name and city of residence become part of the public record and can be released to anyone who files a public records request.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39713533\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/62437111.jpg\" alt=\"The odds of hitting a jackpot in the newly revamped game are 1 in 290,472,336.\" class=\"wp-image-39713533\"  \/>A Florida Lottery winner scooped an $800 million jackpot on Tuesday night. MargJohnsonVA \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>However, the winner\u2019s street address and phone number remain strictly confidential under Florida law.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t a workaround to remain hidden.<\/p>\n<p>Most jackpot winners in Florida will hire an asset-protection attorney before they claim their prize.<\/p>\n<p>They will often set up an entity \u2014 such as a blind trust or LLC \u2014 which will claim the prize instead of the individual.<\/p>\n<p>In such cases, when a public records request is made, it will list the winner as the legal entity\u2019s name \u2014 rather than the winner\u2019s name.<\/p>\n<p>But the clock is ticking for Tuesday\u2019s lucky ticket holder, who has 180 days from the draw date to claim their prize.<\/p>\n<p>The newly minted multi-millionaire also has just 60 days from the draw date to choose a single cash lump-sum option rather than the 30-year annuity.<\/p>\n<p>Because of that 60-day cash option window, major winners usually take several weeks to assemble a team of lawyers and financial advisors before they head to the lottery headquarters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lottery winner who scooped an $800 million jackpot has 90 days to come forward before they are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,7059,16099,4278],"class_list":["post-356307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-lottery","tag-mega-millions","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}