$50M lottery family's privacy plan backfires

They beat the odds and won one of Canada's biggest-everlottery prizes, but the Mayrhofers made a bad bet they could protect their identities.

In fact, by making every effort to stay private, they arguably invited more publicity than they would havehad they just accepted their prizeand said as little as possible.

Instead they found themselves on the front page of several of the English-speaking world's most-read websites. Britain'sSun wasn't concerned about the privacy issue in Britain, lottery winners can choose anonymity instead choosing the headline Family Waited TwoYearsto claim25m lotto prize.

Rupert Murdoch'sNews Corp. Australia also splashed the Mayrhofers' family photo in its "real life true stories" section, also choosing to headline the family's decision to wait so long to collect the prize.

Add the headlines from across Canada and the United States where winners have the option of anonymity in six states and it's clear the Mayrhoferslife as "private" people has ended, at least temporarily, as news agencies wonder why they would have forfeited as much as $500,000 in interest.

Family patriarch Friedrich Mayrhoferwas in good spirits, but sounded like he realized a mistake had been made when he spoke to the media this week.

"If I would do it again, I would come in more earlier ... but I took the family first, because money is nice, but the priority is my family," he said.

"I wish I would have come in earlier, because it was actually easier than I thought it was," he said to laughter.

It's a message to other winners, and a reminder that lottery corporations across the country are still reeling over allegations dishonestretailers won too many prizes, and will fight tooth and nail for transparency.