Fugitive, or someone who walked away from a former life, started a new one, and does not want the two connected.

DockJ:

There are some legit reasons why someone would not want to claim a lottery prize under the Iowa Lottery's rules, which state that a claimant's name must be public information.

Let's say the winner was a woman who fled a stalker and has been hiding from the guy for some years - she could be so terrified that losing the prize would be preferable to having her name made public, perhaps eventually leading her stalker back to her.

Nothing wrong with that, except that it would be a shame and a pity that someone was that terrified of someone else, and had no faith in police or the law to address the situation.

"With $14 million in her pocket, hiring some guy to make sure her stalker doesn't bother her again won't be a problem."

Never been stalked, have you dear?

Your stalker appears every time you least expect it. You can't open your email without bracing yourself. You go to the grocery store with friends for protection and there he is, smiling that Goddamn "I'll get you" smile, but doing nothing else so that your friends see nothing they can do anything about. You get odd signals - stuff on your patio rearranged, a window forced but nothing disturbed, just to show you he can.

Much of stalking is a mind game, and if you'd ever been subjected to it, you'd now how insanely creepy it is - like being in a Halloween movie that never ends.

Trust me, you'd gladly forfeit $14 mil to get past it and know for sure it was over.

"Either extremely paranoid or a veteran of the stalking club."

The latter. I was lucky; the son-of-a-bitch got T-boned at an intersection by someone fleeing the cops and killed instantly.

"Making someone's name and address public is bullshit. They should respect people's privacy."

The problem with that is that you would never know for sure if anyone actually won or not. This system helps keep lotteries honest.