PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Oregon Lottery is adopting new rules surrounding winner anonymity and the practice of discounting tickets.

The Oregon State Lottery Commission approved the rules on Friday to comply with House Bill 3115, signed by Oregon Governor Tina Kotek in May.

The law has two main provisions. First, the law directs the Oregon Lottery not to publicly disclose a lottery winner’s name and address without the winner’s authorization. Previously, a winner’s name was public record under Oregon law.

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Under the rules, Oregon Lottery can release other public information about the prize win, including the city where the winner lives, the retailer that sold the winning ticket, the game played and the prize amount.

Second, the law bans the purchase or sale of a winning lottery ticket. This provision aims to reduce the practice of “discounters,” in which so-called discounters buy winning tickets for less than their value from players and cash them in for the prize amount.

While some lottery players choose to sell their tickets to avoid driving to an Oregon Lottery payment center, others may sell their winning tickets to avoid having their winnings garnished for outstanding child support or public assistance overpayments, Oregon Lottery explained in a press release announcing the rules.

Under the new law, Oregon Lottery officials will evaluate prize claims to determine if the tickets were bought, sold or claimed in violation of the law.

If a winning ticket is in violation of the law, Oregon Lottery will deny the prize claim and confiscate the ticket.

While Oregon Lottery remained neutral and did not support or oppose the bill, the agency’s senior manager of communications and policy, Matt Shelby, testified about the practice of “discounting,” while the bill was in the Oregon legislature.

Shelby noted that the Oregon Lottery is aware of some “nefarious” reasons to buy or sell winning tickets.

“Someone at the bar you’re playing at gives you some false information, like the state’s going to take 70% of that prize or they’re going to check your immigration status when you (go to an Oregon Lottery payment center). None of those things are true, but someone may give you that information in an attempt to scare you and then offer to pay less than face value for the ticket.”

According to Shelby, the Oregon Lottery is also aware of individuals making a business out of buying winning tickets at a discount.

“We’re aware of a handful of pawn shops and a couple individuals here in the state who have made a business of buying winning tickets at deep discounts. These folks come into (the) Lottery with stacks of tickets to claim at once. And while common sense tells us that they’re not the winner on all those tickets – nobody is that lucky – we don’t have a way to prove for each individual ticket who the original prize winner was,” Shelby explained, noting these professional ticket buyers will openly advertise these services online or hand out business cards at bars and restaurants.

According to Shelby, the Oregon Lottery is against discounting and has taken steps to reduce its prevalence, including in 2023, when the Oregon Lottery adopted a rule banning retailers from facilitating the practice.

While HB 3115 aims to deter discounting, Shelby previously said enforcement will remain a challenge.

“Enforcement challenges will remain so long as lottery games are played anonymously. It’s simply the case that when a person presents an unsigned winning ticket or play slip to us for payment, we don’t know whether the claimant is the original winner or not, and so the practice of discounting may continue even with passage of the bill,” Shelby said. “Lottery will continue to explore solutions to the issue, such as providing a way to claim prizes digitally or expanding ‘known play’ in which a player would need to log in or otherwise identity themselves and, thus, attach their name to any prizes won.”