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Massachusetts retailers resist Lottery's push for online salesNews Story
The Massachusetts Lottery's technological systems are on par with an old, wall-mounted rotary phone outdated and inconvenient, but it still works while customers increasingly expect to be linked to the world through a smartphone at all times, the agency's executive director told lawmakers last week. Holding up a large, black rotary phone, Executive Director Michael Sweeney made his latest pitch to lawmakers to allow the Mass. Lottery to offer its current products scratch tickets, draw games,
Jul 8, 2019, 8:57 am - Lottery News

Court rejects Colorado man's claim to full $4.8M lottery jackpot he unwittingly split with scammersNews Story
Even though Amir Massihzadeh of Boulder, Colorado, was the only legitimate winner of a Colorado Lotto jackpot worth $4.8 million in 2005, he's not eligible to claim the full winnings, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in a decision released Thursday. Massihzadeh, one of three ticket holders to win that jackpot, accepted his prize of $568,990, after taxes. But 10 years later, a criminal investigation exposed a scheme to rig lotteries across state lines, and officials determined the other two
Jun 21, 2019, 8:39 am - Lottery News

New Hampshire wins Wire Act lawsuitNews Story
Federal judge to DOJ: Wire Act only applies to sports betting New Hampshire has won its lawsuit against the US Department of Justice clarifying the scope of a 1961 federal gambling law. In a 60-page ruling issued Monday, US District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro rejected a 2018 opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel which expanded the Wire Act to broadly cover interstate online gambling. The previous interpretation from 2011 applies narrowly to sports betting. The judge handed the DOJ a
Jun 5, 2019, 6:39 pm - Lottery News

Lottery winner can seek bigger prize at trial, judge rulesNews Story
Lucky Larry may have a shot to win millions more this time from a jury. A judge has ordered a trial in a lawsuit filed by Iowa lottery winner Larry Dawson, who contends a $9 million jackpot that he won in 2011 should have been nearly three times as big. Dawson filed his lawsuit in 2016 after an investigation revealed that lottery contractor Eddie Tipton rigged the previous $16.5 million jackpot, bought the winning ticket himself and unsuccessfully worked with associates to claim it. Da
May 17, 2019, 12:01 pm - Lottery News

Lottery-scamming brothers avoid asset seizures by transferring property to their motherNews Story
By Jason Clayworth Two brothers who were behind the largest lottery scam in U.S. history and owe more than $2.3 million in unpaid restitution and court fees recently transferred several properties they owned to their mother. The transfers from Eddie and Tommy Tipton have raised further questions about why four states Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin and Colorado have yet to seize their properties. It has been about two years since the brothers admitted their role in a scam that hijacked lott
Apr 29, 2019, 9:50 pm - Lottery News

Canada lotteries changing biggest games to computerized drawingsNews Story
Random number generators will be used for Lotto Max and Lotto 649 after May 14 Starting mid-May, players of Canada's two largest multi-province lottery games will no longer be able to rely on real lottery ball drawings to choose the winning numbers. Instead, the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation will retire the lottery balls that generate the winning numbers for Lotto Max and Lotto 649 on May 14, moving to a computer program called a random number generator. They're part of our histo
Apr 24, 2019, 6:19 pm - Lottery News

Colorado man who unwittingly split a $4.8M jackpot with scammer is fighting the Colorado LotteryNews Story
In 2005, three people won a Colorado Lotto jackpot worth $4.8 million, and Boulder's Amir Massihzadeh held one set of winning numbers. He accepted his prize of $568,990 after splitting the pot and paying taxes and moved on with life. Ten years later, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents visited Massihzadeh to interview him about his winning number because they were investigating a criminal scheme to rig lotteries. They suspected the other two ticket-holders who split the prize with Mass
Apr 15, 2019, 10:14 am - Lottery News

DOJ 'did not address' lotteries in Wire Act opinion, Deputy AG Rosenstein says in memoNews Story
A new memo from the US Department of Justice says that state lotteries are not at all impacted by the DOJ's reinterpretation of the Wire Act, a development that could mean the end of a federal court case brought earlier this year. (See New Hampshire sues DOJ over new Wire Act ruling, Lottery Post, Feb. 15, 2019.) The latest filing from the DOJ can be found below, including a memo signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. There, he talks about the Office of Legal Counsel opinion off
Apr 10, 2019, 4:23 pm - Lottery News

Florida Lottery will go offline for systems upgrade on April 15News Story
Florida Lottery officials say they don't anticipate problems as a multimillion-dollar upgrade of a vending system goes into place this month. But rather than press their luck, players are urged to buy earlier than normal as the new system is expected to require the main office to go offline for several hours April 15. The vast majority of the upgrade will occur overnight on the 15th, causing minimal inconvenience, lottery spokeswoman Keri Nucatola said. Still, we are encouraging our frequ
Apr 1, 2019, 4:48 pm - Lottery News

NJ joins DOJ lawsuit over Wire Act interpretationNews Story
New Jersey is joining New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and several lottery companies in a suit seeking to invalidate the U.S. Department of Justice's legal ruling last year which critics said could hurt the state's multibillion-dollar online gaming and sports betting industries, Attorney Gurbir Grewal announced Monday. Grewal, in the amicus brief filed March 8 in the United States District Court for New Hampshire, is seeking nationwide relief of the DOJ's reinterpretation of the federal Wire Act
Mar 12, 2019, 9:18 am - Lottery News