Lottery winners will no longer have their last name shared in British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC) media releases on their wins.
BCLC, the crown corporation that manages gambling in B.C., started the change on Jan. 1, 2026. They typically share a lottery winner’s story on their website.
Now, they only share the winner’s first name, initial of their last name, recent photo, and story.
“We decided to take this proactive step to ensure we can continue to support player trust and confidence and the integrity and security of our games while providing players with additional privacy,” said Shelly Wong, a spokesperson, in an interview with Daily Hive.
Wong said that they didn’t receive “really any requests” for this, “but we do listen to our players, and we do see what other jurisdictions are doing nationally.”
“This approach is aligned with other jurisdictions in Canada that only promote winners’ first names and last initials.”
Wong said that for “transparency,” they share the winner information, so that the public knows the prize has gone to “a real person and the rightful winner.”
They made the decision to give winners more privacy, but still share the stories so the public knows the prize has gone to the right person.
BCLC requires written consent from a winner to publish their personal information.