HANOVER, Mass. — From the looks of it, David Spillane appears to be one of the luckiest guys in the world.
“The first four of five times I did it people kept asking me how come you keep winning? How come you know? What’s your secret? I always whisper in their ear, buy a ticket,” he said.
Spillane has been to the Massachusetts Lottery headquarters 41 times to claim a winning ticket.
“They used to refer to the old lottery headquarters in Braintree as my office,” he said.
Spillane’s office is actually in Hanover. He is an attorney that specializes in estate planning.
“My practice is mostly joyous people at their best and no better example than that than the lottery. I mean everybody is happy when they win the lottery,” Spillane said shortly before the Mega Millions $1 billion jackpot was announced.
Spillane has carved out a niche of claiming winnings for lucky lottery winners, who want to remain anonymous since lottery winning is a public record. He sets up legal trusts for winners so they can avoid the spotlight.
“Every story is interesting and every story is different, but they all have something in common. They don’t want everybody to know they won the lottery,” he said.
Spillane began claiming winning tickets after he met a man who won $1 million dollars in the lottery.
After meeting with a client, Spillane turns in the winning ticket, receives a check, gets his picture taken by lottery officials and then deposits the money into a bank account set up for the beneficiaries.
“There are some really wonderful stories with people who really deserved to win and needed to win that it changes their life and it’s a great thing,” he said.
Spillane said the two biggest pieces of advice he would give a lucky winner are don’t sign your winning ticket until you meet with an attorney or financial planner and keep the ticket in a safe place.
Spillane added that he is paid his regular hourly rate and not a percentage of any winnings.
Cox Media Group
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