Having a lottery machine: Now that's the ticketPrevious TopicNext Topic

Since this article, today was the first chance I had. So, I bought an instant ticket and asked the guy to scan it for me. He looked surprised. Like maybe I should scratch it first - then he could scan it.

I told him about this article and he said they need the 5 digit number under the part you scratch. And that in MI you can't scan before hand to see if it is a winner.

Anyone find anything out to the contrary (in MI)?

truectitic,
I'm going to check and see if that's true in Ohio too.  If it is then the next time I see a customer buy $20 worth of scratch-offs and have the clerk scan them without scratching them and is told he has no winners, I will offer to buy all those losers for a dollar rather than allowing the clerk to discard them.  Since the terminal doesn't make any noise to alert the customer that something is not right, he's taking the clerk's word for the results of the scan. 

I just hope if I buy a big winner, the customer won't claim later that I scammed him and try to get the prize for himself or a crooked clerk doesn't get mad at me for getting in on his scam.

RJ,

Wait until the original customer leaves the store and then give it the acid test!  LOL

I am in complete agreement with you that the lottery store personnel have no business being able to tell ahead of time if the ticket is a winner.  If that goes on anywhere, it should be stopped immediately.

I don't know about Ohio but Michigan posts how many Instants are still left scattered throughout the State.  And some of those tickets are big.  Look at Merri Millions at the link below.  Only 15 tickets and one of them is $500,000.  I would think for sure that clerks somewhere would be scanning like crazy for those kind of prizes (if they could).

http://milottery.state.mi.us/msl-ig-trigps.php

I have worked selling scratch-offs in TN since day one...

The back of the ticket is scanned to read the roll from which the ticket came..

the validation code has to be scratched from the front to punch in after the back is scanned for the computer to tell if it is a winner..

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If you visit our store and find tickets laying on counter, it is because someone refused the ticket after asking for it.. (Scratch -offs and Online GAmes)

We can cancel pick 3 and pick 4 games within 15 minutes of the mistake.. but PB and Lotto 5 cannot be cancel

We have people who get upset when they mess up there play ticket by not marking 5 draws... and we print it for 1.. they dont want the ticket but they dont want us to resell it either, since it has their numbers on it..  OH well....  you cannot eat your cake and have it too...

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I found this article very interesting and the replies as well. I cannot wait to share it with others at work today..

I now wonder if any of our customers actually think we are able to get the winning tickets and save them the losers?.... if they do..  Why in the Sam Heck are they still scratching.........?

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On Wednesday and Saturday nights we have people coming in for the bloopers..  the tickets that were printed by mistake for PB...

I cannot wait until the day comes, when our blooper buyer wins with a blooper and the person who refused it has to share the jackpot with the blooper buyer...  (some of the pot will be mine as well)

Believe me.. lottery clerks have no clue to whether a ticket is a winner or not...

I have sold $1,000 winners...

I can predict which roll is about to hit when I have worked a full shift and stayed with the tickets...

Intersting website- I like the way that they do this .

I thought there would be a major scramble for the tix until I realized that yes, there are only 15 winners left and one is worth $500,000, but then realized there could be thousands of unsold tix left.....

Yes, that is true...."there could be thousands of unsold tix left"....I should have stated 15 top prize tickets remain.  And knowing there is $500,000 on one of them, seems like they would scan like crazy (if they could).

"Pramod Patel, who owns two convenience stores in Morristown and was 10th on the list of winners, said he often buys more than $50 of tickets a day just from "mistakes" — tickets his customers reject because store clerks type in the wrong numbers. "

they expect people to buy that?    how bad are your store clerks where they are inputting at least $50.00 worth of mistakes a day? every day?

seriously.  are there no play slips that automatically do the inputting? it's one thing if someone decides not to purchase a ticket or leaves and forgets the ticket is there (because the employee didn't bother to give them the ticket after it was paid for... happens. a lot. gotta remind a lot of those clerks).  it's another thing entirely to have a bunch of tickets rejected due to clerks inputting the wrong numbers.

it puts me, personally, in a mind to wonder what other purchases they're inputting wrong.  i would never shop at a store that had something like that going on.  looks like gotta look into no mom and pop convenience stores and gas stations for me.

besides, it's bad, bad, BAD business sense to allow employees to purchase tickets where they work.  that's almost like the paperboys who used to steal all the inserts and freebies from paying customers, in order to win a prize and have free stuff.  or the couple in tennesee who won a jackpot off their own store's terminal. 

i love how the casinos do it, and the big companies who state that no one who works for the company or is affiliated with the company can claim a prize.  that's trying to present a fair game, even if it doesn't pan out all the time (like with the mcdonald's monopoly games, or whoever was talking about the guy in indiana who told his friend where the top prize scratch off was). 

maybe loserjeff should look into getting his own store with its own terminal, though.

it puts me, personally, in a mind to wonder what other purchases they're inputting wrong.  i would never shop at a store that had something like that going on.  looks like gotta look into no mom and pop convenience stores and gas stations for me.

There is a Deli in Sparta that had to put up a sign, no verbal numbers, only tickets or Quick Picks.  People would mumble numbers then not take the ticket because the clerk typed what they thought they heard.  They "ate" so many tickets, they stopped doing it.  So I can believe there are all kinds of meanings to the term bad input.  Plus,, most clerks in these little stores have no idea of what they are doing and make mistake after mistake.  Cheap labor equals cheap output.

And don't forget the  " no speakie de englis "

I have bought scratch tickets in Massachusetts, after scratching the tickets I returned to another store to cash them only to find out from the clerk that the money had already been claimed. I ripped the ticket furious, I could not believe that a ticket could be sold already scanned and cashed.

don't get mad.  report em.  that's when you contact your official at your friendly neighborhood Lottery Headquarters.  i don't know how they could sell a ticket that was already cashed in.

but if it happened, you don't tear it up if there was a prize attached. you report it.

also regarding single tickets on rolls... i've never seen that in new mexico, but then i only go to one mom and pop store (delicious baklava).  i've seen the clerks have a hard time tearing off along the perforation.  i've never seen half the stuff some of you all are describing, but then i don't play the scratch offs. that old 'i want to be in control of my own destiny' thing.

a lot of this stuff sounds extremely illegal, though. and i don't buy these clerks' excuses.  minimum wage is not an excuse.. there are many good people, great people, trying to survive on minimum wage -- just as there are thieves making top dollar.  the wage doesn't determine one's morality.  those are just bad people working the tills.

as for people mumbling numbers, i cringe.  i didn't realize there were that many functionally illiterate people... that's the only reason i can think of for someone not using a play slip.  they can't read.  if you can't read, how are you gonna protect yourself from crooks? what do you expect to do when you do hit? how will you know you're being treated fairly?  and so you add unscrupulous tillworkers *and* owners on top, (and i won't get into the foreigners dealing with natives issue)...

tillworkers and owners should only be allowed to buy tickets from stores they're not affiliated with by company or personal relationship.  but that's just me.