Virginia Lottery Scratch Offs appear to be huge scamPrev TopicNext Topic

• Coppery

  

  East Coast
  United States
  Member #96,932
  September 8, 2010
  19 Posts
  Offline
  Sep 8, 2010, 8:25 pm

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  I have now read not one, but two stories about how the Virginia Lottery has been sued for holding back tickets and/or not releasing all winning tickets for sale ( you can google Redskins 20 dollar ticket or VA lottery sued by Professor )

   

  I wish I had known how they seem to be shady, because I wasted a ton of money last weekend on several tickets at two different lottery sales locations over the weekend.

   

  I had just won 575 dollars on a few scratch offs in Maryland. I was plan on holding onto my winnings, but a friend goaded me to try and buy several 20 dollar 5 million dollar club tickets in Virginia later that night.

  Out of 22 tickets, only 1 winner.  The odds on the tickets say 1 in 2.71. Oddly enough, the losing code letters seem the same as Pennsylvania's { K, P, B , Z , D )

  Anyway, just a cautionary heads up.

  I do well on tickets from Pennsylvania and Maryland.
• MattfromPA

  

  SE PA
  United States
  Member #93,578
  July 3, 2010
  1,950 Posts
  Offline
  Sep 8, 2010, 9:31 pm

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  Pennsylvania is very streaky. I got a couple Big Winner Spectacular ($10) wins today, but many more losers. And other times I get 3, 4 winners in a row. Some of these losers were in spots I thought would win (#54, #55.) I think sometimes they put in more rolls with bunched winners, and most people get in the 5, 6 losers in a row.

  But 1 out of 22 tickets in VA won? I would complain about that if they were in a row. That's beyond the usual shenanigans.
• fastscratcher10

  

  CB, Virginia
  United States
  Member #86,199
  January 31, 2010
  37 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 8, 2010, 6:06 pm

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  You didn't specify but I know those 22 tickets were not in a row, because in VA there are only 20 tickets on $20 rolls. Reguardless you just caught a string of loosers. It happens and that's why it's called gambling. The overall odds are 1 in 2.71, but that does in no way mean you are going to win by buying 3 or more tickets. You may go to one store and buy 4 tickets back-to-back and loose on every one. Then you may go to another store and buy 4 more tickets back-to-back and 3 or 4 of them yeilding wins. It's random!

   

  From the VA's Lottery website:

  "When Scratcher tickets are printed, prizes are distributed through computer-generated formulas. Although a particular string of 5 or 10 tickets may not produce a winner, another string of tickets could produce several winning tickets."

  
  

  As for the lawsuit, Virginia Lottery has since changed their policy reguarding top prizes. 

  http://valottery.com/faq/kb_detail.asp?type=category&category=7&id=117

   

  I wish you better luck in the future.