Scratchers

Perhaps someone else has experienced this problem when buying lottery scratchers: About a year ago, I was a fairly active buyer of lottery scratchers here in California. I would buy them mostly from a machine at our local market, mainly because I won a $1,000.00 from a scratcher I bought there the year before. I started noticing when a certain person was working in the Customer Service Section of the store, no matter how many scratchers I bought, none of them were winners. I'm talking about $30.00 worth at a time, with no winning tickets (The Customer Service folks refill the lottery machines at this market) After several similar episodes, I actually called the lottery headquarters to complain about so many non-winning tickets at this store. What the agent told me was surprising: It turns out the scratchers are sold at half-price (Wholesale) to retailers, and they can scratch as many as they like, or even use them to line their bird cages! Once the tickets are sold, they aren't tracked by lottery officials unless they're winners. My niece worked at a convenience store in New Hampshire, and she claimed the cashiers could make $200.00 per night just scratching-off unbought tickets, then using the winners to payoff the non-winners, and pocketing the difference. Lately, there's ANOTHER person who has replaced the previous "Jonah", and it's virtually guaranteed that no winning tickets will be bought from the machine when she's working.

Thats why I only buy my tickets from the machines at the Meijer superstore which has alot of rules about clerks messing with the tiickets.

Oneday, that's a good policy. I used to buy scratchers at a small mom-and-pop market along my route, where they displayed copies of large amount scratcher winners. It turns out THEY were the ones who won the money (I should've known no one else would just stroll in and have them copy their winning tickets..) I saw amounts ranging from $500.00 to $10,000.00. And these copies were among over a hundred in the display.

<Moved to Instant ("Scratch-Off") Games forum>

Please post in the appropriate forum ... thank you.

Oneday,

Do you also find that certain clerks neglect to fill the empty ticket bins? This "Jonah" I've described will not refill the bins until there's 10 "Out" or "Line" (Feed malfunction) readouts showing on the machine. Usually, the "Out" bins held the tickets I was planning to buy. Another trait of this person is "Double-Binning", where the same scratchers are displayed in two, or even three, separate bins. Invariably, I'll pick the one that holds the non-winners. The amount of frustration one deals with trying to win some decent amount of money on these things is sometimes considerable.

The store I go to rarely has a out light on..the mangers  dont even have the keys to the machines only the head bookepper does I been told. (I had a tciket get stuck in the machine and had to wait two days before the head bookeeper was back on duty)

I have always wondered about these copies they have hanging up. There are many stores in TN that do the same.

<snip> I hope retailers in Tn dont get them at half off. That is incredibly unfair if they do.

I have to question though ...it seems there are more lottery retailers in TN than in almost any other state i visit.

I mean, Tn has gas stations and Publix and Krogers of course, but scrathers and lotto is also sold at 'Discount Tobacco' stores which can sometimes span 4 or 5 in about a 1 mile area, plus Dollar General and even in some bowling alleys. I think the State just makes it easy for almost any one to sell them as it helps the state and education, but something also tells me there are big incentives for the retailers besides just the possibiltiy of commission for selling a big ticket. So it sounds like maybe just that is going on here.

I would ask some of the owners, but i dont  trust the majority of them. Or you dont know who the owner is or if it a family member that would lie to you anyway.

Theotherone,

There's an example of this near our home. A family who owns the convenience store on our main drag won a huge amount from scratchers, and used that money to play the Lottery 6/49 game. They won that jackpot, too! There was a short time where they painted their house with flaming pink walls, but they found out that it was a beacon for  burglars, robbers and con artists, so now it's just light brown.

What you describe is illegal in TEXAS.

The store sells the tickets on consignment, and get a percentage on tickets sold.

If the clerk wants to play they have they have the buy the ticket at the price sold to every one.

Red Toad, that's what I used to believe about California scratchers: That they were sold on consignment. Nope! They are sold to retailers at half price, and the retailers can just scratch off any number of tickets they desire. I mentioned my niece doing just that at the convenience store she worked at. She said the clerks made a bundle on the night shifts scratching unbought tickets until a sizable winner was scratched, then paying off the non-winners and pocketing the difference. It never ceases to amaze me how folks leap to defend the lottery system by pointing out the illegality of such activities. People rob banks for money, ya know. I think that's illegal, too....