Sting nabs Minnesota lottery clerks stealing winning ticketsPrevious TopicNext Topic

The names certainly suggest something about ethnicity and ancestry, so noticing it doesn't necessarily suggest that you're a racist. OTOH, that you don't know that ethnicity or ancestry doesn't tell you anything about their nationality or citizenship does suggest that you're an idiot.

That's fine for tickets  that can't be cashed at a store, but doesn't mean much if a clerk wants to give you $50 and then take the rest for a ticket that's worth a few hundred bucks.  I expect that thenlottery deliberately uses  tickets with big prizes so that the dishonest clerks can be charged with a felony, but if they don't also use smaller tickets means that somebody with a smaller ticket isn't part of a sting operation.

I'd like to see how the Iowa stores would have done with prizes like these

www.lotterypost.com/news/190538

$1 - $100 prizes aren't nearly as tempting as multi-thousand dollar ones might be.

your  right   ......in  my  neighborhood  store  there   from - Palistine  -    and  all  the   clerks  have  to  do  is  cheat  like   hell   ...but  be  right  only   once ?

they  have  them  in  New  York   they  dont  always  work  and  go  back  only  30  days  and  must  be  free  fromm  the   sun  ...otherwise   its  too  much  glare  to  read   the  bar  code   on  the   ticket  ;

and  never  are  the  checkers  in  a  covient  spot   for  the  lottery  player   they  always  seem  to  interfeer   with   lottery  players ;   I  wonder  if  the   machines   are    leased ????   IF  SO  THEN  HOW  MUCH   THE   CONTRACTOR  GETS ;

THANK YOU!!  Todd - What can WE do to make the retailers pay?  I can only cash in my tickets at one in a neighborhood of about 10 retailers.  I am told that they can only pay me by money order by one retailer, the others just refuse to pay me.  Once I had to go out of town to cash my ticket and I live in Philadelphia, Pa!

I just think that if I pay you cash to play my ticket, I should be paid in cash when I win, up to the limit of course.  I can see if I had 5 - 500.00 tickets and you don't have that much on hand, but give me something!

And the retailers have no respect for your lotto tickets, they rather do anything else than to input your numbers in correctly.

The most important thing you can do is to complain to the state lottery (in writing) every time something like that happens.  Each new infraction = 1 new, separate complaint.

Lottery retailers have to get approved to sell the lottery, and they go through training and certification.  There are a set of rules that retailers must abide by.  If a retailer is consistently breaking the lottery's guidelines, then I'm sure the lottery will threaten them.

Ultimately, the lottery has the power to suspend or revoke the retailer's license to see tickets, so enough complaining may do the trick.

You really have to be diligent about it though.  Most people just forget about it when they finally track down a retailer that helps them out, so retailers get away with all kinds of stuff as a result.

I agree with your last sentence too.  I have seen many retailers that get a real attitude when they have to type in numbers, and they act like it's YOUR fault when they screw it up.  The heavy breathing and sighing ensues. 

And, oh my gosh, wait'll you ask them to enter a different kind of wager!  I like to wheel my bets, and some of them look at me cross-eyed when I ask them for a wheeled bet.  Usually only one person in the whole store knows how to do it, and they're somewhere in the back.

I will say, however, that I have also come across many very nice, knowledgable lottery retailers too.  (Those are the ones I tend to go to again and again.)

The best lottery retailers are the ones who are thrilled to have a lottery machine in their store, and they understand the value that selling the lottery brings to their store.

I think people who are too stupid to know that their tickets are winners should not be playing them. I don't see how anyone gets taken like this. I always keep losing tickets and no cashier ever tried to keep them.

NO NO NO NO NO  MY FRIEND, YOU ARE GOING ABOUT THIS THE WRONG WAY.  ANYONE - AND I MEAN ANYONE, SHOULD AND MUST BE ABLE TO PLAY WITHOUT BEING CHEATED. 

THIS IS OUTRIGHT WRONG THAT PEOPLE ARE BEAING CHEATED OUT OF MONEY.  BC THIS IS WHAT THIS IS.

WINNINGS ARE MONEY, AND CUSTOMERS WHO WIN ARE CUSTOMERS.    SO.... THIS IS CRAZY.     AND I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, it makes me crazy as hell when customers get cheated out of money. 

I DON'T CARE if you're a millionaire or on welfare, what yours is yours.

Let me tell you, recently I had a very bad experience with this one retailer, and I never went back of course, but The guy must have been f---ING nuts to try to think to cheat ME out of MY WINNINGS.    The machine said "your're a winner", and I already knew that of course, and for how much too, ($80.)   He was an immigrant too, but that is meaningless, bc there are dishonest people all over, its just that My opinion on this is that they maybe come from dog-eat-dog countries, and i dunno Americans try to be fair and honest, not to imply everyone is, but what i'm saying is, that's the general attitude is ... in America ... fair is fair... as it should be. 

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Anyway, guy pissed me off, had to hassle him, more on the principle, bc I always put myself in the shoes of someone who wouldn't know any better, and it irritated the hell out of me, that even after the "YOU'RE WINNER SOUND" he had the audacity to say in butchered English, with greedy eyes , "not winner, You come back, Tank you For Playing."   this is irritated me so much, I can't tell you what I wanted to do to him then and there, but then again, if you've ever tried to have been swindled out of something that's yours, that you paid for, I'm sure you know what I felt, or was feeling, and what I thought about doing to him.  Anyway, I kept my ground, and he finally payed me, FEIGNING ONLY AFTERWARDS that he didn't know what had just happened, which is complete bs, bc TRUST ME, YOU KNOW WHEN ITS AN HONEST MISTAKE, AND WHEN ITS A BLATANT RIP-OFF IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.  THAT'S WHAT REALLY UPSET ME.  anyway, I was polite, and insisted, HE NEVER gave me my ticket back, refused to, but since he payed me the right amount i shrugged it off.  Had he not, I would have called the police, I don't care how non-urgent it was, bc what he did is breaking the law.  And you can't do that to people.  needless to say I never went back there again, and sent an angry e-mail to Lottery Headquarters in Oklahoma, and they said they would look into the matter.   Whatever that means, but anyway, going back to what Todd said, signing the ticket is important, VERY IMPORTANT ACTUALLY.   but lets be real here folks.  We don't walk around with a pen all the time, and even then, its hard to find a surface to sign the ticket, or tickets.  but then again,its all the responsibility of the player, yes, BUT, this gives retailers and clerks no excuse for trying to make their money through others, you're NOT THE GOVERNMENT lol lol lol lol .  lol, at least the government builds roads.... you clerks are just greedy and this needs to stop.  [otherwise this might happen . lol jk ]

And you know, if its a young clerk they are usually not that cunning, or care, but i overlook this, its usually the older people that give you grief and and pant and groan, WELL GUESS WHAT.   IT'S YOUR JOB.  YOUR GETTING PAID FOR IT.  AND MAY I SAY SOME STORES HAVE DESIGNATED LOTTERY CLERKS, AND EVEN THEN THEY PISS AND MOAN.  EXCUSE MY FRENCH.  AND THEY HAVE NO RIGH TO THIS.  AND, on a further note, I always hate it when they ask why I buy or play so much, like its their G-d-Damn business,, one thing is to say "hey you play alot" - you give a friendly grin - ANOTHER IS, when they F-ing start interrogating you up the hill with so many G-d-damn questions, you think you did something wrong .... hahahahaha 

ANYWAY HAD TO VENT, bc i am a  very straightforward person, and I call it like i see it.   And from now on, i will write like Todd said, an e-mail to LOTTERY HQ, for every wrong i see, or encounter... BC GUESS WHAT FOLKS, that's what they are there for.  To make your playing experience as best as possible, and that's what we should all demand.   That's why their directors get paid the BIG-BUCKS, AND i'm tired of seeing the bad guys win.  And the good guys can't do anything about it, unless we report them.  So...

yeah in all, just beware people, bc nothing beats stupid, but like i said on the top, everyone deserves fair.

AND REMEMBER KEEP YOUR COOL. dON'T START A FIGHT, BC ULTIMATELY, YOU'RE PROBABLY JUST A $15 DOLLAR WINNER.  HAHAHAHAHA , BUT EVEN SO, YOU HAVE RIGHTS.   EXERCISE THEM. 

I am not going about nothing the wrong way, "friend." I have never been taken. If you are going to play lottery games you better at least educate yourself about how they work. I did. I personally never had a problem with this, but I was also well prepared when I cashed my tickets in. If you are going to spend hard earned money on lottery tickets you should know what you are doing.

Not just be lazy about it and have them scanned. No one "should" be cheating you, but you can't trust anyone and you have to do whatever you can to protect yourself. Not rely on others to be honest. It doesn't matter what is right or wrong, what matters is being well prepared for both.

Nab them all......

"...'Use an electronic ticket checker, if available at the store, to verify the ticket and winnings'...

These should be mandatory at all stores that sell lottery tickets"

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"they  have  them  in  New  York   they  dont  always  work  and  go  back  only  30  days"

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I used the Mega Millions electronic ticket checkers in the Chicago area for years.  Granted they were not perfect, but they were much better than handing over your tickets to a stranger and depending on him to tell you the truth.

Now that I'm in Powerball territory, I hate that they do not have electronic ticket checkers here.

Make sure that the display is facing you. Seen some Stores that have it turned around toward the Agent's view. also watch for sleight-of-hand where they may hoard a few losers or small winners ready to quicky "swap in" under the scanner. Also, don't Rush; if they look close to a win, double check. I find discarded ones that turn out winners because one symbol was missed.

"Powerball Territory" may soon be "everywhere".

I was wondering about the rule if you can keep your winning ticket or not?  Since,I think if a winning ticket get scanned then it would disable something on or in the ticket.

1.Am I wrong?

2.I got my winnings before from a ticket,but I didn't get a receipt,so there is not a good chance that I cannot get my receipt,right since it has been since January that I got my winning?