Somebody in Massachusetts won $25 million this month and nobody knows who. The Lottery’s announcement named the winner as the Open Door Trust of Boston, represented by a trustee, Renat Lumpau, and said the trust took the prize as a single payment of $16,250,000 before taxes. The ticket was a $25,000,000 Mega Money instant from a Cumberland Farms on Montague City Road in Turners Falls. That is all the public will ever learn.
Massachusetts does not let lottery winners claim prizes anonymously. It also does not stop them from doing exactly what this winner did. Here is how the two facts fit together, and what a winner has to do between the moment they scratch the ticket and the moment a trustee walks into Lottery headquarters.
The rule
The Massachusetts State Lottery treats a winner’s name, town and prize as public information and releases them. It is one of the majority of states that do so. A winner who claims a prize in their own name is photographed, named in a press release, and listed on the Lottery’s website. There is no anonymity box to check.
Bills to allow anonymous claims have been filed on Beacon Hill in past sessions and have not passed. The Lottery’s position, and the state’s, is that publicity is part of the game: it demonstrates that real people win, and it deters fraud in the claiming process.
The workaround
The rule attaches to the claimant. A trust can own property, including a winning ticket. If the ticket is assigned to a trust before it is claimed, the trust is the winner, the trustee presents the ticket, and the Lottery publishes the trust’s name and the trustee’s name. The beneficiary, the person who bought the ticket, is disclosed to the Lottery for its internal records and is not published.
This month’s claim followed the pattern exactly, and so did a $10 million claim in April, when the Welcome Spring Trust of Quincy, through trustee David Spillane, collected a $10,000,000 Premier Cash prize on a ticket sold at A-1 Market in Avon, taking $6.5 million as a lump sum. The trustee in each case is a lawyer. That is not a coincidence, and it is not a formality.
How to do it
Sign nothing, tell no one, and put the ticket somewhere safe. A lottery ticket is a bearer instrument. Whoever holds it and signs it is presumed to own it. Do not sign the back yet, because signing it in your own name is the step that makes you the claimant. Photograph it front and back, then lock it up.
Retain a lawyer before you call the Lottery. The trust has to exist before the claim, and it has to be drafted for this purpose: a trustee who is not you, a trust name that reveals nothing, and terms that let the trustee receive and hold the funds and distribute them to you. Massachusetts has estate and trust lawyers who have done this many times. Expect to pay for the drafting and for the trustee’s role.
Decide on lump sum or annuity before claiming. The Open Door Trust took $16.25 million cash on a $25 million prize; the Welcome Spring Trust took $6.5 million on $10 million. The alternative is annual payments over a period of years. The choice is irrevocable and has tax consequences a lawyer and an accountant should walk you through together.
Understand the taxes. The Lottery withholds federal and Massachusetts income tax on prizes above the withholding thresholds. Withholding is not the tax. A prize this size is taxed at the top federal bracket, and Massachusetts taxes lottery winnings as income, plus the 4 percent surtax on income above about $1 million. The trust structure does not change the tax. It changes who is named.
Mind the deadline. Instant ticket prizes must be claimed within one year of the game’s end date. Large prizes are claimed in person at Lottery headquarters in Dorchester, and the trustee will need identification and the trust documents.
What a trust does not do
It does not hide the money from the government, from a spouse in a divorce, from creditors, or from child support enforcement. The Lottery reports the prize to the IRS and the Department of Revenue, and it checks claimants against state debt records before paying. It does not shield you from a co-worker who says the ticket was a pool purchase. And it does not survive your own disclosure. The trust protects your name only as long as you do.
It also does not make the win private in the small sense. The store gets a bonus and a press release, and in a town the size of Turners Falls, a $25 million ticket from a Cumberland Farms is news whether or not the winner’s name is attached.
Can you claim a lottery prize anonymously in Massachusetts?
Not in your own name. The Lottery publishes the winner’s name, town and prize. Winners who want privacy assign the ticket to a trust before claiming, and the Lottery publishes the trust and trustee instead.
Who won the $25 million Mega Money prize?
The Lottery identified the winner only as the Open Door Trust of Boston, represented by trustee Renat Lumpau. The ticket was sold at a Cumberland Farms in Turners Falls. The trust took a lump sum of $16.25 million before taxes.
Should I sign the ticket?
Not until you have decided how to claim. Signing it in your own name makes you the claimant and defeats a later trust claim. Secure it and get legal advice first.
Does a trust reduce the taxes?
No. The prize is taxed the same way. The trust changes only whose name is published.
How long do I have to claim?
One year from the end of the instant game, or from the drawing date for draw games. Large prizes are claimed at Lottery headquarters in Dorchester.
Is the Lottery required to keep the beneficiary confidential?
The Lottery collects the identities of trust beneficiaries for its records and does not publish them. Whether those records could be reached by a public records request has not been tested in a reported case.
Prize details from the Massachusetts State Lottery’s announcements as reported by WWLP and Boston.com, September and April 2026. Claim procedures from the Lottery’s published rules. Tax treatment stated generally; rates and thresholds change. General information about Massachusetts law, not legal or tax advice. Anyone holding a large winning ticket should consult a lawyer before contacting the Lottery.