11 more retailers suspended by Florida Lottery

May 17, 2014, 2:13 pm (35 comments)

Florida Lottery

Includes video report

The Florida Lottery, suspecting fraud, has suspended sales at 11 more stores, bringing the total to 14 since a Palm Beach Post investigation revealed startling patterns of winners.

Two of the stores were owned by winners profiled in The Post's investigation.

Amit and Nita Thakker have owned or operated various stores in and around Gainesville for years. Since 2005, they've cashed in 226 big lottery prizes worth more than $560,000.

Lottery officials seized equipment and turned off the terminals at their current store, the Williston Corner Market, about 30 minutes southwest of Gainesville.

"The Florida Lottery will not tolerate fraudulent activity by our players or retailers," a lottery news release stated.

If the lottery's investigation confirms that store owners or clerks fraudulently sold or redeemed tickets, the lottery will terminate their contract. They could face criminal charges as well, according to the news release.

The Post's investigation found lottery winners who were cashing in tickets against incredible odds. The most prolific winner, for example, was cashing in a ticket worth $600 or more every 11 days, on average, for years.

The winning patterns were red flags that led other lotteries to uncover ticket theft by store employees, ticket cashers who helped people avoid paying taxes or child support and even criminals using the lottery to launder money.

One of the prolific winners told The Post that he'd been cashing in tickets for other people, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Fort Pierce gas station owner Vipul Shukla has cashed in tickets 149 times, collecting $323,000, since 2006.

He previously told The Post that he'd been cashing in tickets for others, but he had stopped.

The lottery said Thursday it had suspended his store, the Midway Food Mart, 1200 W. Midway Road.

Seven of the suspended stores are in the St. Petersburg area. A Monday report by a Tampa-area TV station found that the owner of all seven stores had an unusually high number of wins.

Two other stores also had disproportionate wins by their owners.

The name of the man listed as the owner of La Rampa Supermarket, 2925 NW 27th Ave., in Miami, matches the name of the store's top winner in lottery records. He has won 11 times at his own store since 2008, collecting nearly $36,000.

The man listed as the owner of the A&L Discount Beverage in Ocala has won at his store 17 times for $21,500 since 2006, lottery records show.

Both men had even more winning tickets from other stores.

The Post's investigation, published March 30, found that six of the 10 most prolific winners in Florida since 2003 were store clerks or owners.

The chances of winning any lottery prize worth $600 or more are remote. Only one in every 8,700 scratch-off tickets sold is worth that much, and the rate is far worse for online games such as Play 4.

Mathematicians calculated that many of the top winners would have to spend millions to have a low chance of winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Thakkers had said they had discovered a loophole in the lottery that allowed them to turn a profit every year playing the game. Experts and lottery officials discredited their explanation.

After suspending three Pompano Beach stores identified in The Post stories on April 2, the lottery three weeks later permanently revoked their licenses. The lottery said someone at the stores broke the law and won't ever be allowed to sell tickets again.

The Post found that the lottery wasn't following some industry best practices, including asking winners whether they work at stores that sell lottery tickets.

While the lottery has not adopted that rule, officials said they would adopt software to track frequent winners and install more self-checking machines at its outlets so that players don't have to rely on store clerks to tell them if they have winning tickets.

VIDEO: Watch the press report

Palm Beach Post

Comments

Drenick1's avatarDrenick1

Just another reason why I don't play scratch off tickets.

dr65's avatardr65

If you don't scan your ticket yourself and are handing it over for the clerk to do it AND believe them

when they say:

SORRY NOT A WINNER...

chances are, some of those SORRY NOT A WINNER replies should have been:

CONGRATULATIONS!! Here's your claim form.

Why stay in your own country and suffer when you can come here and prosper?

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Crazy time to set the entire state adrift into the Atlantic

Goteki54's avatarGoteki54

If people just sign their tickets, they can't be scammed by the clerks right?

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

Here we go again, with the misadventures of dishonest store clerks and owners. That loophole he found, must be his gaping A-hole, that he just pulled his head out of. Jail time is in order.

mrcraft's avatarmrcraft

What I don't like about this story is how the FL Lottery and their auditors likely turned a blind eye to this entire situation for years.  The data is right there, staring them in the face.  It was only after the Post's article was published that their legislature demanded an investigation, and now suspensions and terminations are moving at a fast pace.

LottoMetro's avatarLottoMetro

Quote: Originally posted by Drenick1 on May 17, 2014

Just another reason why I don't play scratch off tickets.

Pick 4 constituted a substantial portion of the "fraudulent" winners.

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

People always trying to cheat the system i.e. deadbeat parents instead of paying for their kids Mad

Drenick1's avatarDrenick1

Quote: Originally posted by LottoMetro on May 17, 2014

Pick 4 constituted a substantial portion of the "fraudulent" winners.

So the "fraud" is not the winning ticket itself but the act of cashing it in for the true winner? I thought that perhaps these retailers were doing something with the bar codes on scratch offs to pre-determine which were winners.

HEHATEME's avatarHEHATEME

I DO BELIEVE SOME STORE CLERKS HAVE A MEETING

OF THE MINDS AS SCRATCH OFFS ARE SOLD AND

OWNERS FROM STORE TO STORE,ABOUT HOW THE

CORNER NUMBERS DISTRIBUTION AND STUDY IT

JUST LIKE ANY OTHER GAME. THEY ALSO OFFER TO CASH

THEM IN FOR BUT FRAUD AND JAIL TIME AND CAMERAS

TELLS THE ENTIRE STORY.WHEN COMES RIPPING THE

COSTUMERS THAT'S STILL GOING BECAUSE MAY COSTUMERS

DON'T UNDERSTAND THE TICKETS.OKAY SELF SCAN

YOUR TICKETS.Lurking

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by mrcraft on May 17, 2014

What I don't like about this story is how the FL Lottery and their auditors likely turned a blind eye to this entire situation for years.  The data is right there, staring them in the face.  It was only after the Post's article was published that their legislature demanded an investigation, and now suspensions and terminations are moving at a fast pace.

Exactly.

The states know this is going on but if they do anything about it the corruption is exposed and they look bad. They'd rather let it continue than make themselves look bad. Thank God a newspaper is willing to do their job for them every once in a while or nothing would ever be done.

I would bet that this is epidemic throughout all the states and they all know it.

Buncha useless, incompetent, corrupt bureaucrats.

ONEDAY's avatarONEDAY

The chances of winning any lottery prize worth $600 or more are remote. Only one in every 8,700 scratch-off tickets sold is worth that much, and the rate is far worse for online games such as Play 4.

that above statement from the lottery scares me a little..

I don't know about scratch offs..but pick 3 and pick 4 players can win more then $600 more often then they think..they also mention in the article it be hard to make a profit..BS..I did even play much last year and made a profit, they are some serious lottery players who do well with the daily games..but the best thing is to win less then $599..

LottoMetro's avatarLottoMetro

Quote: Originally posted by ONEDAY on May 17, 2014

The chances of winning any lottery prize worth $600 or more are remote. Only one in every 8,700 scratch-off tickets sold is worth that much, and the rate is far worse for online games such as Play 4.

that above statement from the lottery scares me a little..

I don't know about scratch offs..but pick 3 and pick 4 players can win more then $600 more often then they think..they also mention in the article it be hard to make a profit..BS..I did even play much last year and made a profit, they are some serious lottery players who do well with the daily games..but the best thing is to win less then $599..

But can you make a "profit" for 7 years running, like some of these winners? I think that's what raised alarm here. Yeah, people get lucky every now and then, but not that lucky. If it were possible for lottery players to profit over the long-term then the lottery would go broke.

It's obvious these clerks were either swindling winners out of their tickets or cashing them in for them to avoid taxes, child support, etcetera.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by dr65 on May 17, 2014

If you don't scan your ticket yourself and are handing it over for the clerk to do it AND believe them

when they say:

SORRY NOT A WINNER...

chances are, some of those SORRY NOT A WINNER replies should have been:

CONGRATULATIONS!! Here's your claim form.

Why stay in your own country and suffer when you can come here and prosper?

If clerks gave customers back their losing tickets then they wouldn't have any reasons to lie.  I don't buy ticket at place where clerks keep your losing tickets.

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