A winner is a winner no matter who has it. People do not deserve what they get if they do not know how much they won. Some people have crazy ideas what is right and wrong. Self scanners that tell the amount won are good. Signing the ticket is great and a receipt is good. So many people do whatever they like on the assumption that they will not get caught. The test of true character is not what people do when others are watching, but what people do when they are alone, in the dark. Many are found wanting. The people who win need the money too and the little old lady who has won with no idea may need to pay rent, buy groceries, pay her bills. She may buy a ticket on a whim and hope for a miracle but not remember to check until she finds it in her purse. The retailer who steals her winnings is stealing her destiny for a little happiness. People who are caught should not just pay back the winnings; they should repay the pain and suffering for stealing a little happiness in an otherwise dark life. A nice figure is 5x the amount in pain and suffering to be paid with assets or in nice painful monthly installments. I am sick to the teeth of this victimization due to chance opportunity. In my community an ex-nurse walked into a local hospice and disconnected the dying patients morphine drips and stole the drugs to sell and line her pockets. This is a sad world sometimes and opportunity crimes deprive needy people not only of money but dreams and hope.

I don't think it's a bad idea, but I'm responsible and I don't want to have to sign every little winning $1 to $10 dollar ticket I have. I know if I have a winner before I take it into the store. I don't shove the ticket in the clerks face and ask them to check my ticket. I wonder, does this mean that "TPTB" will be able to keep track of our small winnings and it be shown on are taxes or something?

Arizona plays the song were in the money when a winning ticket is checked and that way you know you have at least won a prize.  It is the players responsibility to ask for a players receipt to know they are being paid exactly what they won.  God bless and good luck.

TSC, do you know if they offer receipts in Idaho?  I've never been offered one and I've never asked.  But then again, I win so seldom, maybe I've just fallen thru the cracks. 

No, I've never been offered a receipt either. My biggest win was like $30 or something. lol. I tend to win bunches of small prizes, so I'm thinking they don't give receipts out for small wins.

While I agree with most of your post,I disagree with this statement:

People do not deserve what they get if they do not know how much they won.

Everyone that buys a lottery ticket that wins,deserves to be paid.Sometimes people don't know how much they won,especially if they are playing game that does not specify on the ticket how much was won.Powerball,Mega Millions and other online games don't tell you if you won or not,and they certainly don't tell you how much you won.Instant scratch off tickets are a different story,but even some of them can be hard to decipher.Just because a person doesn't know how much he/she won is no reason not to pay them.

Personally,I'm glad that Iowa will start requiring signatures on winning tickets,tomorrow.I have read to many horror storys about dishonest clerks,however,none in Iowa.