Search

Cottage industry helps lottery winners dodge taxesNews Story
With few rules or law enforcement to stop it, a cottage industry has popped up to help lottery winners avoid taxes, child support, and other debts, potentially costing the state and federal governments millions in lost revenue. Enterprising merchants risking charges of aiding tax evasion are openly hawking losing lottery tickets on Craigslist and eBay to help winners offset the profits with phony gambling losses. If you need the losers to write off for taxes, read one ad, since removed, f
Aug 7, 2014, 11:33 am - Lottery News

Seeing sales slowing, Missouri Lottery officials seek new customersNews Story
For many years, as state revenue has fluctuated and stagnated, the Missouri Lottery has been a welcome outlier, a dependable, sometimes surging revenue stream that rarely failed to post record profits. From 2001-2008, the lottery doubled its sales, to just shy of $1 billion, and its contribution to state education funding (where its profit is directed) reached $265 million. Since then though, the pace has slowed. While sales have continued to tick upward, gone are the years of double-digit
Jul 22, 2014, 7:13 am - Lottery News

Some lottery winning streaks have defied beliefNews Story
The Brudnicks may be one of the luckiest families in Massachusetts. In just the last couple of years, Chelsea insurance agent Robert Brudnick has cashed in 140 winning Massachusetts lottery tickets worth at least $1,000 each. His 25-year-old daughter Ashley has racked up another 100 wins. And his 23-year-old son Nathan, has turned in 99 more. The total take: More than $440,000, mostly from scratch tickets. But state lottery officials and statisticians say they doubt any family could be tha
Jul 20, 2014, 3:02 pm - Lottery News

Would you quit your job if you won the lottery?News Story
Survey results may surprise you Lottery tickets clenched in hands. Eyes trained on the numbered lottery balls in motion like popcorn popping. Mind solely fixed on this thought: If I win this one, I'll be rich enough to quit my job. Rich enough to quit, but would you? Most people would keep working, even if those lottery balls lined up in their favor, says a Harris Poll survey released today. Just over half 51 percent of workers said they would continue to work, even if they didn't nee
Jul 18, 2014, 9:02 am - Lottery News

Lottery mystery yields clues to $7.5 million prizeNews Story
By Peter Mucha, Philly.com Third of three parts See Part 1 and Part 2 Ever notice that instant lottery tickets are consecutively numbered? Ever wonder if those numbers could help in a hunt for riches? They theoretically can, at least in Texas. They helped us create a list, predicting the whereabouts of a missing $7.5 million ticket. A $50 scratch-off game called $7,500,000 Fortune started out with three top prizes among about 190,000 packs of tickets. Our list of likely susp
Jul 3, 2014, 8:16 am - Lottery News

Lottery legend Joan Ginther known as bigtime ticket buyerNews Story
By Peter Micha, Philly.com People confirm what statistics suggest: Lottery legend Joan Ginther bought thousands of high-priced scratch-off tickets on her way to winning millions of dollars four times. A store clerk named Victoria said she sold Ginther countless tickets, entire rolls of $50 scratch-offs at a time, according to a report by Houston TV station KPRC. And that was at just one of eight stores in and around Ginther's home town of Bishop, Texas, where she won 28 prizes ranging f
Jul 2, 2014, 3:59 pm - Lottery News

How lottery legend Joan Ginther used odds, Uncle Sam to win millionsNews Story
By Peter Mucha, Philly.com Second of three parts See Part 1 Joan Ginther wasn't necessarily lottery loco. Maybe it wasn't a case of dumb luck, but smart luck. She may have purchased at least 80,000 pricey tickets worth $2 million or more, according to expert analysis of 28 instant prizes she won, including three totalling $15 million. If she also was the source of two dozen lesser wins by her friend Anna Morales, Ginther might have spurred the purchase of as many as 100,000 ticket
Jul 2, 2014, 10:07 am - Lottery News

Lottery's 'luckiest woman' bet flabbergasting sums on scratch-offsNews Story
By Peter Mucha, Philly.com First of three parts For years, people who dream of beating the lottery have puzzled over the amazing case of Joan Ginther, who made headlines around the world by scratching off 10MILL on a $50 instant ticket in June 2010 to win her fourth multimillion-dollar prize. Skeptics wondered if she cheated or had an ingenious system for pinpointing winners. After all, Ginther received a Ph.D. from Stanford and has lived for years in Las Vegas. News reports at the tim
Jul 2, 2014, 8:26 am - Lottery News

How to win the lottery (happily)News Story
If you have won the lottery, or if you plan to do so, please keep reading this column. The information is vital not just to your happiness but also to the progress of social science. You have a chance to dispel the notion of the curse of the lottery, which is blamed whenever a big winner ends up divorced, depressed, destitute or dead. Journalists like to explain that the curse is no mere legend the futility of winning the jackpot has been demonstrated by actual scientists with jobs at accredi
May 27, 2014, 8:06 am - Lottery News

Postal agents intercept, destroy fake lottery checksNews Story
Includes video report Instead of sending foreign lottery letters and checks directly to you from Canada, Jamaica, Costa Rica or Mexico, more and more, scammers are sending big batches of letters in a box, to middlemen in the United States. Each letter is stuffed in a pre-addressed envelope and many envelopes are stamped with American postage. The return addresses are typically just a private mailing center in an American city. The person who picks up the box may hand it off to yet another
Mar 4, 2014, 1:14 pm - Lottery News