Excuse my ignorance, but vendors pay a commission?  I thought it was the other way around.  Silly me. 

Edit:  Just checked out the FL web site.  Under "how to become a retailer" it states:

Don't know whether there is a commission or not, but a transfer of money from the retailer to the Lottery for tickets sold has to take place. Maybe that's the hangup.

........"According to CT Lottery spokeswoman Diane Patterson, Zahid has not received his bonus because "unfortunately, Mr. Zahid does owe some money to the lottery. At this time there is a net balance to the account."

The amount has not been disclosed.

According to Patterson, lottery vendors must maintain separate bank accounts dedicated to lottery monies.
"There is no charge to the retailer" to sell Lotto tickets, Patterson said, "but vendors do pay a commission to the Lottery for each ticket sold."

Zahid has stopped selling Lottery tickets, and had the vending machine removed from his store.

Before restoring service, Patterson said, the Lottery is requiring a $10,000 bond from Zahid.

The CT Lottery sometimes requires a bond for new vendors having "unsatisfactory credit history," according to Patterson.

Zahid, a Lottery vendor for more than a decade, says the bond is absurd."  .............

The big mystery seem to lie somewhere in the above lines, but difficult to determine without all the facts. 

Seems the bold above means that since the vendor is in possession of ticket sales money, then they in fact pay the lottery their portion which is called a commission of the sale.

There is nothing surprising about him having a balance due the lottery; that is how almost all lotteries sell their tickets.

 For scratch tickets, each book has a face value (# of tickets x value of each ticket). The retailers are usually charged a percentage of the face value equal to the lottery's take on the ticket. For example, if the retailer commission on scratch tickets is 6%, then the lottery charges the retailer 94% of the face value of the book. This amount is usually delay billed for up to a month to allow the retailer time to sell the tickets to pay the invoice. If the book sells out before the bill is due, the retailer is all good. If it doesn't, then the retailer has to pay for the invoice out of pocket and then sales of the remaining tickets go towards reimbursing the retailer for the sunk cost. If a game ends or a book is returned, the lottery then credits the retailer's invoice for the net value (face value minus commission amount).

 For online tickets, since there is no "book" to sell, the retailer sells the tickets from the terminal at whatever the cost per ticket ends up being. Then, on whatever schedule the lottery has set for invoicing/payment, the retailer is charged the net value of the tickets sold (total sales minus commission). The plus to online tickets is that retailers aren't charged for something that hasn't yet sold, so, theoretically, the retailer has the money in the bank to pay for what was sold.

 Now the rub is how CT (and each state for that matter) collect the money. Some states send/have retailers print from their terminal invoices which are then automatically transferred or swept out of their accounts to the lottery on a regular basis. Some states even require that these accounts be held separate from the main business account and be set up as a "trust" account where the retailer can only make deposits and the lottery can make withdrawals. Other states actually send an invoice to the retailer which the retailer then pays like any other bill.

I do not know how CT does its billing, but based on the statement that he had stopped selling tickets but had a balance owed still to the lottery, CT either does the second method (acutal invoicing) or Mr. Zahid did not have sufficient funds in his sweep account. And, based on the fact that he is being required to post an external bond (rather than qualifying for an internal bond as most lottery retailers do), he either had several NSFs or late payments on invoices.

 So, if Mr. Zahid wants his $10,000 bonus, he needs to take care of his credit issues and become a retailer again. Pretty much of a no-brainer, especially since he can use the forthcoming $10,000 bonus to guarantee his $10,000 bond.

I guess I misunderstood the use of the word commission in the article.

I was right there with ya justex, with the way in which the terminology of "commission" was used. Still dont understand it, even after several post. Reckon the best I can come up with is to compare it to a standard adult who may at some point default on a loan , the bank says catch up or we'll penalize you, The state is just retaining this mans funds due til he can settle what is past due.  His flaw is shutting down and basically cancelling his account with the state. Now they can say since hes not an active member then proceeds will not be granted. Only active members can probably only claim...(that is just my best guess since this article was vague in some important areas). The guy really should have consulted a lawyer before making a childish decision to axe himself. He'll still owe balances be it a closed account or not.