Should lottery retailers have money on hand to pay winners with?Previous TopicNext Topic

This morning my wife drove to Illinois to buy a MegaMillions ticket for tonights drawing.While she was there she picked up some scratch off tickets.She won $500 on one of the scratch off tickets.When she went back to Illinois to collect her money she was told that they didn't have enough cash on hand to pay her.She went to both of the other lottery retailers in this small town and was told the same thing.We ended up going to several other lottery retailers in 3 other small towns in the area with the same results.We finally drove 50 miles to a bigger town and found a Hy-Vee grocery store that grudgedly cashed it for her.My question is this:shouldn't lottery retailers be required to carry enough cash to pay a winner?I realize that conveniance stores in some parts of the country are targets for armed robbers,but I'm hard pressed to remember any of these gas stations/stores ever being robbed.I spent the better part of the day and most of a tank of gas trying to cash this lottery ticket and to be honest,I'm more than a little pissed about it.My opinion is if you won't keep enough money on hand to pay a winner then you shouldn't be allowed to sell the tickets.

MadMike51, it's a coincident that you write this today because I won $500 on today's midday Daily 3 and the store clerk didn't have money.  I had to wait 5 hours and come back just to get my money. i was so upset.

Perhaps they ran out of money...or really didn't have enough to give. Before wasting time and gas running around, I would do google search for convinience stores near by, get their phone numbers and call in to ask if they have enough for a $500 payout, after having one store not having the available funds. The next step is to write to your state's lottery headquarter and express your thought on this matter. With this kind of feedback they will take into consideration to better future payouts to winners.

           And, Yes.  I think they should have enough to payout.

I run into this ALL THE TIME!! Every gas station says the same thing, if its over $100.00 they don't have the money!  One even tried to tell me they will pay me in the form of a money order????

Lucky for me the 'local' grocery store will cash it for up the $600.00.  I won 2 days ago and they used up all the 20's and most of the 10's to pay me the $250.00. 

I have tried to complain to NY Lottery but they only care about the retailers paying THEM not if the retailers pay us the players.  I have sent at least 10 emails, as every time I am told they don't have the money I let NY Lottery know, and they do NOTHING about it.

yes i agree i have the same problem  some retailer's will write you a check from the lottery fund tey are suppose to have/ I found out going to a super market chain  strore that sells lottery always has the cash  I do realize small stores in some areas don't keep cash because of robberies and that is ok with me  happy for her win good kuck today

jojo

i think it will make easy targets [the retailers] for robbers...

there is already a lot of gas stations robbing...

that's exactly what I was thinking.  If they are required to have a certian amount of cash on hand then I would think they would be robbed more frequently

I had a lottery ticket it was worth 350......the place that sold it didn't have it and they told me to go to a "grocery store chain store" and they might cash it......................(however I agree..........If they sell it.........they should have it....If they said they paid it out.....then that's ok too........I would rather them say we had a winner.......instead of we don't have it try back latter..............( 600 ) at 601 and over it's to the lottery headquarters (regional) 20 miles away.................beaudad..................

I agree that you should have enough cash to cover it. That has happened to me before and I know the retailer had enough cash, I think he didn't want to be bothered. He never had a problem with taking my money for the lottery. I stopped patronizing that store because of it.

I can see how it's upsetting, but I agree diamondpalace, that next time you have to cash in a bigger prize, you should call ahead to see if they have money available. I think most stores don't keep that much cash on hand because of security issues. Also, I wonder how much money they would have to keep on hand and for how many winners? One winner, two, ten? That would be a lot of money to keep on the premise.

I haven't won anything as large as $500 yet, but maybe try a larger chain store. They seem to have more cash on hand then smaller stores and gas stations.

The retailer that sold her the ticket had just made a "drop" of the stores money into the floor safe and told her to come back at a certain time and they would pay her.We went back at the appointed time and were again told they had just made another "drop" and were very sorry that they forgot we were told to come back.The manager was in the store at the time but apparently was to busy loading beer into the cooler to be bothered with paying my wife.I really don't blame any of the other retailers for not cashing a ticket that was not purchased at their store.But it really burns my a$$ that the retailer who sold the winning ticket didn't pay.To make matters worse,after I posted this last night I sent an email to the Illinois lottery complaining about the situation and this morning I found that the email had been bounced back to me as "undeliverable".The Illinois lottery website doesn't have the correct email address!My wife is over in Illinois buying another Mega Millions ticket right now but I suspect its at one of the other retailers in Hamilton,Ill.

Here the problem with your solution TSC,a person should NOT have to make long distance calls to collect money owed on an "instant" ticket.The entire premise of an "instant" ticket is you win instantly and you get paid instantly.All of these convenience stores have the money on the premises,they just make "drops" into the safe when a certain amount of money is in the cash register.I understand that they make these "drops" for security reasons.What I don't understand is why the manager or the assistant doesn't open the safe for a legitmate reason,such as paying a customer for a winning lottery ticket.As for larger chain stores,there are none in this area of Illinois.The nearest chain grocery stores are 50+ miles away.

I think that they would tell you over the phone that they don't have it!!!!!!! For the little stores it's easy to sell and they don't want to pay!!!!!!

They've just written me a check when they don't have the money... what state are you all from, is that against the rules there?