A Palmdale, California, gas station employee who mistakenly gave $75 to an undercover state compliance officer instead of advising him that he was the holder of a lottery ticket worth $75,000 did not commit fraud, lottery officials said Thursday.
California Lottery officials said they were "satisfied that the incident was a result of the clerk's misunderstanding of those procedures" and that their investigation of the gas station was over.
"Now we are going to move on," lottery spokesman Russ Lopez said.
Still, gas station employees appeared to be inconsistent in how they deal with winning lottery tickets, officials said, so they will receive additional training.
The undercover officer was conducting a random compliance check on March 25 at the Chevron gas station at Avenue S and North Sierra Highway.
The clerk gave the investigator $75 instead of telling him the ticket was worth $75,000 as was printed on a receipt.
(See $75,000 California Lottery winner leaves with only $75, Lottery Post, May 4, 2015.)
The gas station kept the ticket and no one filed a claim for the money.
Store manager Shamsun Islam said that employees notified the lottery about the ticket.
On Friday, a news van pulled into Islam's gas station to fill up, and she told the story of the mistaken $75 payout for the $75,000 ticket and provided photos and video of the winner.
After lottery officials noticed that videos and photos of the man from the store's surveillance camera had begun circulating, they came forward Monday, acknowledging that the man was not a winner but an undercover compliance officer.
Lottery officials acknowledged that the gas station was a target of a state investigation.
The officials thanked Islam for her determination in trying to find the lottery winner, "along with her continued efforts to maintain the integrity involved in selling Lottery products."
"We encourage the retailer to continue to train and monitor the actions of her employees so they may remain a successful Lottery partner," state officials said.
"We encourage the retailer to continue to train and monitor the actions of her employees so they may remain a successful Lottery partner".
In other words, "You screw up again and you're history".
My thought exactly!
This Place dodged a Nuclear Bullet.
*** l am willing to swear that this particular store will have a squeaky clean record moving forward as long as they have a lottery terminal on property.
Glad it was put to rest properly. Too often the skepticism of the matter muddies the reality of the events. NO fraud , no claims. Seems simple to me, Twas a mistake that is being rectified. Good for the Lottery for admitting its part.
Why was the store a target of the states investigation? Send the employees back to lottery class.
From now on, every vehicle in the parking lot and every customer that walks through that door, will appear to be somewhat associated with the lottery undercover operations. That's the mental anguish they will have to go through from now on. One {maybe} bad apple......
The California Lottery Inspectors will go into different stores from time w/ a scratcher that's worth a few hundred bucks "if" complaints are lodged in order to see if that pattern exists.. for them to go into THIS store with a fake $75k ticket, tells me that this store has been under Sur-veil-lance for awhile, perhaps cashing tickets well over the store payout limit.They did not " just show up there by chance" Like l said, them not cashing this ticket saved their hide....for now.
California lottery sting operations by Chris Hansen used to be fun to watch. Especially when the caught up person is trembling like a leaf because it just hit them that they're in the trap. Honesty is the only option in life. Honesty is the only option in life.
The California Lottery should have a subscription service. Some people don't trust lottery retailers, a subscription service would be more secure option for then.
This is good, Now the clerks at the store will pay very close attention now. If they screw up again they are DONE!
All states should have a subscription service that is available to everybody, but that is very unlikely to happen, thanks to the politicians and those billionaires that have them all in their pockets and eating out of the palm of their hands.
New York State flat out refuses to do checks like this one on an Lottery outlet..I wonder why...Can any of my L.P. friends tell me why not ?
My guess: They will say they don't have the Manpower or resources....
Mistakes do happen glad it worked out for the store.