If you're Nirbhai Singh, 36, who started out delivering for Pizza Hut and now owns a couple of 7-Elevens, what else can you do but be philosophical about losing out on $50,000?
It was his West Seattle store at 9200 35th Ave. S.W. that sold the winning $157 million ticket in Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot.
The winner has yet to come forward.
As for Singh, whom everybody calls "Sonny," until last year his store would have gotten a $50,000 bonus for selling a winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket.
Lots of states have such bonuses as a way to entice stores to participate.
But last year, in wrangling out a budget, the Washington Legislature decided that, hey, we can increase revenue by reducing commissions to stores selling lottery tickets.
The state got rid of all bonuses, including 1 percent for jackpots in the state Lotto and Hit 5. In Fiscal 2015 that had amounted to $468,000, spread among 57 retailers.
So. Time to be philosophical.
"That's OK. What can I do?" says Sonny. "It's the law. It's not just something done to me."
Still.
"It'd have been nice to wake up and get $50,000," he says.
His family is from India, and he's worked hard to own those two 7-Elevens. The pizza delivery, then driving for a limo service, getting help from his parents to buy his first franchise, putting in the hours at the store.
Sonny says he had to explain to his employees that he really wasn't getting a bonus that could possibly be shared with them.
"They were wondering," says Sonny.
An association that represents independent grocers in this state says its 385 members "are pretty angry" about the end of bonuses.
"This happened right at the tail end of the last session. There was never a bill or any discussion," says Jan Gee, head of the Washington Food Industry Association. "It was one of those things they did behind closed doors."
The amorphous legislative staff decided it needed $12 million more from the lottery.
So gone were the big bonuses to stores, gone were commissions for selling jackpot tickets in the state Lotto and in Hit 5.
And decreased from 6 percent to 5 percent were commissions for selling tickets to individual state games, and decreased from 7 percent to 5 percent were commissions for selling tickets for multi-state games.
"It's discouraging when this happens," says Gee.
There weren't many big bonuses such as the $50,000 that would have been given to Sonny.
But when it happened, says Gee, "A small, family-owned type store could buy a new refrigeration unit, or a new oven for the bakery."
The Washington Lottery says it is planning to celebrate Sonny's 7-Eleven selling the winning $157 million ticket with a media event and some big signs for his store.
See, Sonny?
Win-win.
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That is terrible news that the Legislature snuck (probably) this through. What angers me most is that lotteries are self sufficient and the bonus would have been paid through the lottery sales, not the State.
"all bonuses"
Does that include lottery execs and employees ?
That's a lot of BS, the store owners should refuse to sell tickets until their bonuses are reinstated. They have the power since they are the conduit for tickets to be sold, no tickets equals no money for the state. In fact getting only $50,000 for selling a $157 million ticket is nonsense in itself, you should get much much more than that. I wonder how much the state would lose if all the stores didn't sell tickets for one week, heck, one day? I bet it would be a whole lot more than they are trying to steal from the store owners.
The Washington legislature should be ashamed of themselves for sneaking this law in the middle of the night.
VOTE people VOTE!!!
This kind of behavior is what makes us angry.
Awful, just awful. What the lottery Commission is saying is " We going to show up with Balloons & a Press conference to highlight your store"..Things Mr Singh can do on his own dime.
I always wondered if theses stores that sell lotto tickets get any compensation besides for selling a winning ticket. Or is it just for the enticement to get people into their stores when they advertise the lotto.
Keep the balloons and party. Give him his money.
THIS IS HORRIBLE.
What shenanigans can we expect next?
No, which state will be subject next to similar shenanigans?
Mr. MUSIC*,
I agree. Instead of laying down on the tracks, waiting for the political
locomotive to run us over, we need to be heard, and not HERDED!
Mr Groppo
This is just a disincentive from retails to support the lottery why create extra work for nothing.
Total BS! What is the incentive of selling a winning ticket if the store that sold it cant get a bonus. If I purchased the ticket at that store I would give the owner a 100,000 bonus just to spite the lottery. It's the right thing to do.
What a crock, what else is going to be cut? Payoff to the winner or holding up funds?
Wonder how many retailers are aware of this?
"This happened right at the tail end of the last session. There was never a bill or any discussion," says Jan Gee, head of the Washington Food Industry Association. "It was one of those things they did behind closed doors."
Key word "behind closed doors", standard political garbage continues....this state is getting horrible.
I agree, why should retailers get bonuses? Retailers should get commission on sales, but not anything for just selling a winning ticket. I only play by subscription, which raises more revenue, which is the reason for lotteries.
Oh, the horror.
Why does a retailer deserve anything extra for not doing anything extra?
their bonus should only be that by selling tickets they get more customers into their stores to buy their products.
I know one thing, here in the state of California, If Nirbhai Singh had a 7-Eleven store here, he would have received a bonus check for $1,000,000. California doesn't squeak when some store sells a big winning Powerball or Mega Millions lottery ticket. I know that there are states that when someone wins big in a state lottery, the selling store only gets a bonus check of $10,000.00. What a shame.
That is nice to hear. Wish your Legislature would approve Powerplay/Megaplier. Most instances the 'poor' winner with five #'s gets nowhere near $1 million, just once in a blue moon.
How convenient of the WA state Leg. branch they change the rules when they felt like it.
Also, the whole lotto system, may change its matrix. Don't forget about that. We all may have to change our play slips, again.
WHAT A HORRIBLE BUNCH OF GARBAGE.
Something about your post does NOT read right, OR you're saying Mr. Singh doesn't deserve the bonus that Washington State just 86ed.
Any convenience store that sells Lotto IS working, selling lotto tickets. Yes, that deserves some pay from the state.
They are working, to sell the tickets. So, why the hell NOT?
So, if you're saying Mr. Singh does NOT deserve anything, I say he needs to sue for it.
What is his incentive, if he sells tickets the public and is not re-imbursed?
the bonus is just for a winner, their bread and butter is the sales commission. cutting it form 6-5% and %7-5%. is acctually reducuced pay, for the same job.
its a %16.6 pay cut for the retailers. on all sales, not just the jackpot winner.
lets see all state pollies take a %16 paycut. id suggest a boycott on 16% of lottery tickets sales, ie for next 2 months no sales. see of the state wants to continue.
Wow, that's sad-
I suppose the next thing would be a 5% handling charge of all wins over $500, on top of the taxes they already take out....
Greed States never have Enough $$$ They Must not teach How to Budget Money in School any more
It would be nice to see All store's selling any kind of lottery tickets, stop selling for 1 week. But i don't think that would happen. Then it would be nice for people to stop buying in that state for a week but again doubt that would happen. Next election vote those people out that made this happen, again doubt this will happen, so we are left with State getting away with this and other States will follow, until all states steal this money for themselves. And I thought in the USA the people voted on how things work or run, Oh yeah thats how it is supposed to be, but not in real life. SAD just plain SAD
Thinking more on this topic.. taking this from the stores, which have to not only stock all these tickets/machines/tv's /paper/ trash in barrels/ and personel to sell them. What happens to all the Profits that each State makes after selling lottery tickets after payouts. I have yet to see any state not making huge money of selling lottery tickets. yes store did nothing different selling tickets that are winners but neither did the state, yet did not reduce what the state takes out of each game or winnings. plain GREED..
This doesn't surprise me and causes me upset with all these changes that the states lay claim to nowadays.
So the legislature decides to get rid of bonuses in Washington and just keep taking from the lottery playing public and people like Singh who owns the
store that won the ticket, even when they are clearly wrong for doing so. No wonder people are angrier with government.
I had played the lottery in the past when it seemed less contrived and rigged.
I hope lottery players are angry enough not to play to slump Powerball and Mega Millions sales. The truth is there to see. The MUSL changed the Powerball
odds to 1 in 259 million; the odds weren't better before (1 in 175 million) but are extremely bad now with even more states cooking up more participation
and higher numbers and ticket prices. Remember when the ticket was $1?! Where did that go?!! I know they changed that some time ago and it's high
time they changed it back.
And the lottery commission headed by Gary Grief (please feel free to besiege
him with your complaints), decided to give people the impression that we want to win smaller prizes. I've heard people complaining that they want smaller
prizes. Well wish granted. Now we might be lucky to get that $4 we all hoped for!! Not the million or PowerPlay that you want of course.
Guess what folks? It has been thru some obscure allocations and crazy math that this isn't even possible. So now the lottery playing public is funneling more
money to these greedy commissioners and states who seem to steal money from people's pockets these days more than ever before.
Please let them lower the odds, numbers and ticket prices. They are too much even for Mega Millions and Powerball. Boycott these games please!
Only when these games fail will they realize what a horrific mistake they have made. People need to be enlightened. I'm here to help with that.
And the larger jackpot is but a mirage they want the public to buy into; such was the case with the 1.3 billion jackpot in January 2016.
That is the lottery commission's claim to win it all. The win is purely for them and not for the lottery playing public.
i remember one particular convenience store when the billion dollar lottery was selling tickets, I was talking to the owner/clerk on how the sales were going. She said all her store was selling was lottery tickets and nothing else. Which meant no money was being made off the tickets. I could be wrong but I dont think so.
The greedhead politicians have infiltrated the lottery, whats next. I agree we need to find out the individuals who made these decisions and vote them out. It will continue into every facet of life if it is not stopped.
And it does surprise me, with all the disgust by Americans for the actions of ALL government officials that these jerks have the nerve to pull this off albeit on the q.t. How stinking lousy are their actions.
I realize that some of you expect the state to hand out something for nothing (despite bitching about your taxes and the other ways the government spends money), but why do you think a retailer should get something extra for selling a big winner? What did retailers do when they sold somebody a big winner that's any different than what they did when they sold people all of the small winners and all of the losing tickets?
I know that a lot of you could be the poster child for the "lottery players are bad at math" campaign, but what percentage of lottery retailers do you suppose this will affect? If you're not bad at math and have a bit of common sense it should be incredibly easy to get an answer that's within 2 to 3%. Why should those retailers be awarded differently than all of the other retailers?
It's all chance OK? For you, me and everyone that plays.
Also for the many convenience stores that sell the tickets.
It's all a chance game, hosted by the states.
If one person wins, and the other doesn't, too doggone bad.
Welcome aboard, new member.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying. But please, no boycott of either game.
And yes, we had discussions here, recently regarding how they gouge the top prizes. I'm not happy with that at all.
Billion dollar jackpot? Really? Where? When?
How much did each winner of that prize actually take home?
What a laugh! ! !
But, I for one will still play, because I know I can play with my head on my shoulders. I just want to win 1.2 million dollars.
I don't need any more.
And, I feel sorry for Mr. Singh. With his 2 7/11 stores, having brought his family over from India, which started with Mr. Singh delivering pizzas.
There are millions of laws made at local,state and federal levels that we will never
know what they are till they start enforcing them. This one poped-up and BIT this
7-11 retailer before he had a chance to "KNOW ABOUT IT" What Difference does it make
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
That's so wrong!These people who work at these stores print out 1000s and 1000s of tixs a day!They deserve something....wow!if i were them I would just get rid of the lottery machine in the store.that is a shame...that is so fowl to reduce these commissions to the stores...if it were not for these stores and the employee's who work in them the lottery would be out of business!
This new law of not paying the store owners for selling their tickets goes along with the same B/S laws that came down when the state decided to stop using the numbered balls and went to the random number generator. And all of that is the same B/S of a story of the Eddie Tipton Story. He was the guy who was the head securities director for the Multistate Lottery Commission and was arrested for fraud after putting a virus into the computer that calls the lottery numbers. This virus allowed him to figure out which numbers would be called and although he wasn't suppose to be playing, being part of the lottery commission, he now has 10 years for a felony conviction. There are 37 other states looking to file other chargers. Now, one can only wonder the real reason why the state stopped picking the numbers with the balls and went to the random number generator! They claim that not enough people was watching to pay for T.V. time and that the number machine and balls were to expensive. No one wants to talk about the fact that once the sales of tickets are stopped at 7:45 and the game is called at 8:00pm there is a 15 minute time laps for them to compare numbers that the people bought as oppose to the numbers that they call. I wrote to the governor and the state congresswoman and did not get any reply!!! I wonder if one can file a Class Action on this matter!!!
Unbelievable. This has to be the first time in the history of Lotto that a Patel was ripped off.
good one red.
just think if the states went to online sales, they could keep all the sales commissions for themselves
Google the simple question, "how many laws are there".........this popped up>>>>>>>about 468,000,000 results, therefore bet they
have thousands of laws governing the lottery, playing the lottery or claiming lottery prises and jackpots. More are passed each
and everyday and that 7-11 retailer stated he never had a chance to "know about it" ......but it cost him.......DIDN'T IT???????
so WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?????? cause "I" or "ME" don't kare cause it didn't cost me nothing, did IT??????
Politicans are dam SLIMMEY and GREEDY!!!
Wow that sucks, especially since Washington wins more MM and PB jackpots than New York, Florida, and California combined. Perhaps it's time to ban Washington from multi state games?
I can tell you in texas they earn 5 cents for every dollar in commission and up to 1% with a cap of 1 million on the national and state jackpots. No commissions on instant jackpots unless they are $1 million or more. Pretty sure if that changes they can kiss it good bye.
I also don't see why they should get a bonus. They get a comission on sales and traffic to their stores. Why should they be rewarded for somebody else spending money?
I play by subscription because I ran into one too many store clerks who act like printing a single lotto line is beneath them.
Why should they get a bonus? It's incentive to sell/partake/push the games. It's a promise of a big jackpot for retailers too. They have costs involved in selling lottery tickets also, and 5 cents of every dollar isn't exactly great, but it's a commission plus the promise of a payoff. I don't mind, it doesn't come out of the winner's share. I agree on the clerks - too many out there act like it's a bother to do the lottery. If I saw that as store owner I'd not be a happy camper. That's possible lost revenue. Had a clerk tell me once - You know you can't win, right? ugh.