One Sat night while purchasing my Lotto tickets, a clerk was talking about all of the employees who had won at that store, including a $10,000 scratch ticket.  I just shrugged my shoulders, assuming there was little truth to his stories or they were just very lucky, but this article makes me wonder.

Is this just up in Canada or here too? It's theoretically possible for store owners to inside-trade somehow to know that a certain roll of tickets contains a winner worth more than the cost of the roll. It seems like 10 times is a huge ratio if it's mainly based on some cheating potential winners. It's also up to players to stick with games they understand and play the game as it is intended, and scratch everything on the ticket and double check everything. When a player wins anything they need to watch for the display on the terminal to show the correct amount. If the display is not visible or the clerk is hesitant to show it then maybe something is fishy! But also be careful as a crooked clerk could use sleight of hand to pretend they're scanning yours but really switched in a known losing ticket or one with a small prize. I don't know how the terminals are up in Canada but I assume similar to here.

Of course it's also possible simply that clerks/retailers play 10 times more than customers?

Yikes.  Must be because I've been working all week without much light.  I thought the article said "Atlanta" not "Atlantic" even though it later mentioned Ontario.  Glad I have the weekend to renew brain cells.

Here in Oregon if you take a big win lottery ticket (anything over $600 I think - under $600 can be paid out by anystore that sells lottery tickets) to a store other than the one where you purchased it, the verification machine does not recognize it as a winner - though it does not come back with the "sorry not a winner" notification. Apparently the clerks are under no obligation to tell the owner of the ticket that they need to take their ticket to the store where purchased for validation. I've heard that some clerks also just tell the person it's worthless then throw it in the trash ... and I suspect pick it back out of the trash once the person is gone.  Since the tickets have a number on it for where it was purchased ... and I would imagine that clerks would know how to find out which store the number represented ... I for one would  not be surprised if naive  lottery players were frequently duped.  It is very important (IMO) to check your numbers yourself rather than just have a machine say whether or not it's a winner.... and read all of the fine print on the rules at your state lottery site.

It is very important (IMO) to check your numbers yourself rather than just have a machine say whether or not it's a winner.... and read all of the fine print on the rules at your state lottery site.

djklaugh, most stores where I've been in FL have a display that shows the amount won, but it depends on howthe terminal is set up. Most players I stand behind simply don't pay any attention, so it would be very easy for someone to say "Nope, not a winner."  Recently I went into a Publix supermarket and saw a "check your ticket" scanner.  I'm not sure if it's also for instant game tickets.  I haven't won a lot of money, but if I get anything I just say "This is a winner" and hand it to the clerk, even when it's only $5.00.  He/she doesn't know if I think it's a $5 winner or a $500 winner.

I believe that most clerks are honest and just trying to make a living like everyone else, but as in any profession, it's the person, not the job title. 

I am convinced it shows that retailers and clerks steal from lottery buyers all the time.  Absolutely.  It happened to me in 1994 or 1995 in Texas.  I had bought a ticket and gotten 4 of 6 right and i didn't think to ask for verification when the clerk told me i won $5.  Well, went home and looked it up and it was $105!!!!!!!!!!!! She kept the hundred.  Made me so mad but since i lived 50 miles away there was no way to go back and confront her.  I took it to hear though, i check my numbers first before i take them to be validated.  I think this happens more often than people know.

Before I hand the tickets over to the clerk, I tell them "I'll keep the loosers." On a few occasions, they throw them out anyway, and I make them retrieve it. Doing that makes me suspicious enough to have them checked at another store. Never had one be a winner though.

I still try to check my tickets at a limited number of places, where I'm not concerned about theft. In Delaware this is less of a problem because the self-checkers tell you exactly how much you've won.

According to people who run a convenience store i buy tickets, they have found over $1M worth of tickets thrown in the trash over the past 15 years. All the money goes to veteran oraganisations. people throw away tickets all the time i have found about $100 in ticks  laying around the lottery stand

I have never trusted the clerks at stores, they can appear nice to you, or honest, doesn't mean that they are. I check my tickets on the computer first before taking them to a store and I ask the clerk to show me the validation slip of what I have won as well!..

It's in the U-S too.  The California lottery last year charged a man who had his ticket stolen by a lottery retailer.  The Fifth Estate covered that story along with the Bob Edmonds one.  If you go to CBC.ca/fifth/  there's information about some of the U-S lottery jurisdictions where retailer fraud happened.

This sounds like damage control out of fear that lottery consumer confidence may be shattered. The idea that retailers or store clerks are being deceptive could cause people to not purchase lottery tickets. Looking at a statement in the other news post, Atlantic Lottery retailers win 10 times more often than customers, "We didn't find a pattern that pointed to a particular game or to a pattern of wins around one location.", as if this means that a criminal act has not occurred. That's like someone in law enforcement (police) saying because we can not find any pattern to robberies, shootings, muggings and murders there is no crime in the city.