Three Interesting Bills: Lottery Winners, Divorce and Livestock Compensation

More than 1,000 bills are filed for General Assembly consideration each year. In this weekly series, the Mercury takes a look at a few of lawmakers’ 2025 proposals that might not otherwise make headlines during the whirlwind legislative session.

House Bill 1799: Disclosing identity of Virginia Lottery winners

Del. Scott Wyatt, R-Mechanicsville, wants to prohibit the Virginia Lottery from disclosing information about any winner whose prize is $1 million or greater. His bill would exempt the information from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information unless the person provides consent. Under current law, only winners whose prize exceeds $10 million are not identified.

Wyatt told the House ABC-Gaming Subcommittee Tuesday a constituent who won $1 million in 2020 requested the legislation because of ongoing “harassment” after the Virginia Lottery published her information online.

Not only is his constituent being contacted by scammers from across the country, Wyatt said numerous social media accounts were created using her picture, “because her image was shared by Virginia Lottery.”

Subcommittee member Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, and Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, both expressed concern that the lack of disclosure could reduce the game’s integrity by allowing inside dealings with Virginia Lottery employees and their family members, both of whom are prohibited from buying lottery tickets under state code.

“If you do not have some way to verify that these million dollar winners are not family members, you don’t get to know whether or not there are any possible nefarious activities,” Rhyne said.

However, Virginia Lottery Executive Director Khalid Jones said his department verifies the identity of winners of $600 or more to check if they owe state debt, meaning lottery employees and family members would be spotted. Jones added the Virginia Lottery website publishes winners’ identities — including town and amount won — so the public can identify a real person who won a real prize.

Jones said this disclosure is important, “because we are dealing with public funds … the public understands that people are winning, for example, and it’s not rigged.”

Additionally, Jones noted a winner must consent in order for the Virginia Lottery to publish their image.

Subcommittee chair Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, acknowledged harassment faced by winners can be a real problem, which is why the General Assembly set the disclosure cap at $10 million in 2019.

Wyatt’s bill passed the House ABC-Gaming Subcommittee 6-0, with abstentions from Price and Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria.

House Bill 1775: Clarifying and expanding grounds for divorce

Legislation from Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, would clarify that a divorce can be decreed on the grounds of adultery only if it occurred before the final separation of parties. In Virginia, a couple must be separated for six months to a year before their divorce can be finalized. Under current law, adultery committed by either party during this period can serve as grounds for a fault of divorce.

Sullivan told the House Civil Subcommittee Wednesday the current law, “sort of retroactively serves as a fault for divorce even when the couple’s been separated, and that becomes often, too often, a cudgel one spouse may use against another.”

Additionally, the bill would allow a court to decree a “divorce from bed and board” for separated parties wishing to pursue court action prior to the expiration of the state-mandated waiting period. Richard Garriott with the Family Law Coalition told the Mercury a divorce from bed and board would allow a court to order support, determine exclusive use of the marital residence and issue injunctions keeping the parties from disposing of marital assets, among other things. Under current law, this decree can only be made under circumstances of cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, willful dissertation or abandonment.

Garriott told the subcommittee this has been a problem because parties can allege cruelties on the other in order to appear in court, which can unnecessarily complicate and draw out the divorce process.

“There are lawyers out there who will bootstrap pleadings to get into court and exaggerate things,” Garriott said.

Sullivan agreed, saying he hears the, “stories of ‘gotcha’ litigation occurring where separated parties can’t move on with their personal lives without risking some potential financial or family consequences in doing so.”

Garriott said the bill intends to take away some of those “gotcha” moments and, “allow our people to sit down and do what we really want them to do, which is work these things out without the trial and necessity of the courts.”

The legislation passed the House Civil Subcommittee 7-1, with opposition from Del. Jay Leftwich, R-Chesapeake.

Senate Bill 1000: Increased compensation for livestock and poultry killed by dogs

This bill from Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, would increase the compensation amounts for livestock and poultry killed or injured by dogs from $750 to $1,000 per animal and from $10 to $25 per fowl.

Stuart told colleagues on the Senate Subcommittee on Rural Affairs Thursday that he introduced the bill on behalf of a constituent in King William who is having a difficult time keeping dogs from killing his livestock and fowls.

While local governments would bear the cost of the increased compensation, Stuart said counties have existing programs like dog licensing fees to fund these costs. While the problem is not as widespread as it once was, Stuart has had to deal with it himself, albeit from the other side.

“I have a lot of experience with this because I had a yellow lab that really liked chickens and he killed my neighbors pigs, he killed my neighbors chickens,” Stuart said. “I paid for it, I’m just glad they didn’t kill him.”

A person can receive compensation for livestock or poultry killed by dogs if they provide the reasons and evidence of the quantity and value of animals killed, notify an animal control officer within 72 hours of its discovery and have exhausted all remedies to receive compensation from the dog owner.

The bill passed the Senate Subcommittee on Rural Affairs unanimously.

by Meghan McIntyre, Virginia Mercury

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