Your odds of winning in the lottery could be even worse than you thought

[TerryH]

.... if you allow a clerk to check your tickets. Almost 1 in 5 California ticket sellers will rip you off according to this article. That's an incredible number.

We only play a few times a year when it gets big and we pool with friends/family. Not sure how you don't know if you won or not. I know when my tickets are winners or losers.
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"Your job is to verify lottery tickets.

Someone has just handed you a ticket worth thousands of dollars.

Would you pocket it and cash it yourself?

Clerks at five Twin Cities stores did just that during the Minnesota State Lottery's first compliance test, authorities said. The clerks and three accomplices now face felony charges of lottery fraud.

"(We) really need our retailers to be honest and to have their employees do it right every time," said state lottery director Clint Harris.

The stings took place last December and January at 186 randomly selected metro stores, Harris said. Undercover agents would ask clerks to verify the specially constructed crossword game scratch-offs as winners. The prizes ranged from $7,000 to $21,000.

"Our goal was to find out how people would handle those tickets, and what instructions they would give," said John Willems, director of alcohol and gambling enforcement for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which had agents help with the sting.

Lottery tickets worth more than $600 must be verified and cashed in at lottery headquarters — which is what the clerks were supposed to tell the undercover agents. But a few are accused of saying the tickets were losers and offering to toss them. Those clerks then tried pocketing the winnings by cashing the tickets at lottery headquarters themselves, sometimes by using an accomplice.

Fewer than 3 percent of the clerks involved in the sting violated the law.

To me, that's somewhat positive," said Harris, who noted a similar test in California found 18 percent of 450 stores checked broke the law. "It would be great if we can get to zero."

[porsche4life]

The solution? Big flashing lights and buzzers on the scanning computers. That way the clerk cant lie about a winner. You just have to force some people to be honest.

[911Rob]

My odds of winning the largest voluntary tax fund are way worse; I don't buy them.
Biggest dream stealers of our life time.

When I win I'm gonna.......
How about getting off your but and just making it happen? Ever thought of that?

[peppy]

At least it is not the state ripping you off.


http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/184833


Lawsuit against Virginia Lottery to go forward
The suit estimates that the Virginia Lottery made about $85 million from selling tickets for which top prizes were no longer available.

By Mike Allen | The Roanoke Times
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* Professor to sue Virginia Lottery June 10,2008

A Washington and Lee University professor's lawsuit accusing the Virginia Lottery of breach of contract remains alive after the state sought to have it dismissed this week.

But a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled that Scott Hoover cannot act as "virtual representative" for all Virginians who may have unknowingly purchased scratch tickets for which the top prizes were no longer available.

Hoover, an associate professor who teaches applied business statistics, played a scratch-ticket game called Beginners Luck in August 2007. He bought the tickets after checking the Virginia Lottery's Internet site, which appeared to show that several top prizes of $75,000 were still available.

Subsequently he noticed that according to the site, the top prizes were being given out at a rate slower than laws of statistics would dictate. His suspicions led him to discover that the last $75,000 prize for the batch of tickets he had purchased from had been given out the month before. The prizes listed online were for a new batch of tickets, he and his attorneys have said.

Hoover's lawsuit, filed in June, claims that in the game Hoover played, about 241,000 "defective" tickets were sold after all six top prizes for the first batch were gone.

The suit estimates that the Virginia Lottery made about $85 million over five years from selling 26.5 million tickets for which top prizes were no longer available. The suit demands that the lottery be found liable for that money and be made to repay it.

It's unclear how the judge's ruling Monday will affect the amount of restitution the lawsuit can seek. Hoover had sought to act as a representative for all ticket buyers in the state, but the judge ruled he can proceed only with his individual claim.

Virginia law does not allow class action lawsuits.

Hoover's attorney, Roanoke lawyer John Fishwick, said his firm is examining the judge's decision. "We look forward to moving this case forward," he said.

Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto has said that in the past a few of the popular scratch games did continue to sell tickets after all the top prizes for a batch had been awarded, but the practice was ended in July 2007. Now, a game is ended as soon as the last top prize is given away.

[pwd72s]

Be careful what you wish for...winning a big lottery would definitely bring on many complications. I'm in the "keep life simple" mode these days.

[911Rob]

Be careful what you wish for...

Yup, winning over a million in the lottery causes more destruction than happiness 90% of the time.

Hey, Look over there..... his yard has much greener grass than ours!

[Dave L]

I "win" a few dollars every week by not playing. I think lotteries are a tax on those that are bad at math.

[Dottore]

Someone once said: "Lotteries are a tax on people who can't do the math".

[TerryH]

yada yada yada... why bother

[Bill Douglas]

We had a lot of that sort of trouble with Indian store owners. Now we have machines where you check your own tickets. Or do it online where the money goes straight into your bank account and emails are sent out.

[Rick Lee]

Why would anyone let a clerk check their ticket for them? I've never heard of such a thing. If I'm super lazy, I'll take my ticket to the store (when I already plan to be there) and just check it with their scanner. On the rare occasions when I play, I check the number myself on the website. I have no doubt winning a big jackpot would bring about some complications. But I'd not even claim my prize before meeting with a lawyer (probably Dottore) and financial planner, changing my cell phone # and email address. Any dime I gave away would be 110% anonymous and unsolicited, even to friends and family and I'd not tell anyone but my wife that we'd won.

[VINMAN]

The state already gets enough of my money. I refuse to ever buy a lottery ticket.

Whats really sad is, the majority of people that buy lottery tickets, are the ones that really cant afford to.

[pwd72s]

In Oregon, the state runs video poker and video slots. Every bar seems to have these machines in them. People who look like they can't afford it, shoving bills in, hoping against hope. It's really pretty sad. The state is the big gambling addict here. Recent articles had lottery officials crying over revenue loss because of a recently passed smoking ban...not as many people on the machines since they can't smoke while doing so.

I'll confess to buying a $1 ticket when a lottery prize gets wayy up there. I figure I'm buying a fantasy for a few days, cheaper than the fantasy gained when renting a movie.

[Fishman7]

My mother-in-law was given tickets from relitives for he birthday, she won 100k!