If you win the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot in Florida, can you remain anonymous?

With all eyes on the more than $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, you might be wondering: If you win the lottery in Florida, can you stay anonymous?

Under Florida law, the answer is no. However, your phone won’t be blowing up with family, friends and long-lost aunts and uncles immediately.

As of May, people who win $250,000 or more in Florida can have their names withheld for 90 days from the date the prizes are claimed, unless they waive that right, according to the Florida Lottery website.

After that, your name, the city you live in, the winning game, the winning date and how much you won will be available to anyone who requests it, according to state law.

Your address and telephone number will stay confidential.

Michelle Marchante

Miami Herald

305-376-2708

Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription