Lottery winners broke, busted
For someone who struck it rich, William Rivenburgh had fairly modest plans about how to spend his lottery winnings three years ago:
Pay off debts, make home repairs and possibly take a family trip to Disney World. Whether any of those things happened is unclear.
What is clear is that the money Rivenburgh has gotten so far from the $1 million scratch-off ticket he won in 2006 seems to have evaporated. He doesn't have enough money to make $5,000 bail after he was arrested May 25 for alleged ...
Jun 25, 2009, 12:57 am - - Lottery News forum
Feds freeze online poker champ's winnings
Federal officials order banks to freeze millions in online poker winnings
On the Sunday before Memorial Day, David made the big time.
Winning $10,000 in an online poker tournament made him eligible for the upcoming World Series of Poker, the game's premier event, where hundreds of players amateur and professional descend on Las Vegas from around the world to play for a multimillion-dollar pot.
To register, he simply had to cash a check cut by a company that processed payments for the po ...
Jun 11, 2009, 11:20 pm - - Lottery News forum
Online poker group says gov't seized $30M in player payouts
In the latest skirmish in the battle over Internet gambling, online poker advocates say the government has frozen more than $30 million in payouts affecting thousands of players.
The Poker Players Alliance released a statement Tuesday claiming that the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York instructed four banks to freeze accounts belonging to online payment processors. John Pappas, the group's executive director, claims the frozen accounts contain funds owed to 27,000 players wh ...
Jun 10, 2009, 7:45 pm - - Lottery News forum
Joint task force created to stop Jamaica lottery scams
The feds are cracking down on Jamaican lottery scams, which bilked Americans out of more than $30 million last year, authorities said Tuesday.
The brazen con artists are transforming the tropical getaway into a fraudsters paradise pulling in untraceable cash to finance the drug and gun trades with impunity, officials said.
It's just an incredible amount of money that's coming down here, said Vance Callender, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attache at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston.
...
May 27, 2009, 3:25 pm - - Lottery News forum
Alaska lottery assault leads to 3-year sentence
The man accused of attacking the winner of Alaska's biggest lottery with a metal pipe or rod pleaded guilty this week to a reduced charge of second-degree assault, a prosecutor said.
Brandon Hughes, a 20-year-old from the Los Angeles area, was sentenced to three years in prison under a plea bargain, said prosecutor Clint Campion.
Hughes will be eligible for parole and time off for good behavior, which is usually about one-third of the sentence.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Patrick McK ...
May 20, 2009, 8:03 am - - Lottery News forum
Man loses house in lottery scam
Police have revealed that an elderly man from south west Scotland has lost his home to a foreign lottery scam.
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary made a renewed appeal to the public to be aware of the danger of bogus letters.
They said two people in the region had recently lost significant sums of money with one of them actually ending up losing his own property as a result.
Police warned the public never to give out bank details to anyone offering to give them significant lottery winni ...
Apr 4, 2009, 9:18 am - - Lottery News forum
Sting nabs Minnesota lottery clerks stealing winning tickets
Investigations will expand after lottery ticket agents attempt to redeem undercover agents' winning tickets
Five Twin Cities convenience store employees and three accomplices are facing lottery fraud charges after they were caught by undercover investigators allegedly trying to cash in winning lottery tickets for themselves.
The fraud was discovered after the Minnesota State Lottery's security office and the state's Alcohol Gambling Enforcement Division set up a sting operation to test whe ...
Mar 30, 2009, 10:24 am - - Lottery News forum
More Calif. stores accused of stealing customers' lottery prizes
Perhaps you're not quite as unlucky in the lottery as you thought.
That scratcher ticket you tossed? Well, it just might have been a winner with the cash prize going to none other than the store owner or clerk you passed it off to as garbage.
Ten retailers and clerks are accused of trying to cash in customers' winning lottery tickets at three locations in San Jose, two in Milpitas and one in Santa Clara. Nine people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of felony grand theft of lottery ticket ...
Mar 6, 2009, 7:59 am - - Lottery News forum
Man accused of cashing stolen lottery tickets
A Baltimore man's alleged attempts to cash lottery tickets stolen in a September armed robbery at a Hampstead gas station may have won him nothing but a trip to jail.
Mark Arthur Perry, 44, of the 1300 block of Ensor Street in Baltimore, is charged with armed robbery, robbery, theft of more than $500, first-degree assault and use of a handgun in a violent crime.
He was held without bail at a bail review hearing Friday, according to court records.
Perry and two other men allegedly robbed ...
Feb 26, 2009, 7:41 am - - Lottery News forum
Lottery retailers busted in raid
Store owners, clerks accused of stealing winning tickets
Lottery officials raided several mini marts Tuesday in Fresno, California.
Owners and clerks were taken away in handcuffs after undercover investigators say the suspects cheated would-be customers by lying about winning tickets.
Late last year officers posing as consumers showed up at many local mini marts to test their honesty. More than a dozen store owners and employees failed. Today, authorities caught up with them at the busi ...
Jan 22, 2009, 11:45 am - - Lottery News forum
