No evidence of couriers involved
By Kate Northrop
When an Idaho Cash lottery jackpot jumped up $126,000 overnight to $877,800 and was subsequently won, the Idaho Lottery had a suspicion a bulk buyer was at play.
On Tuesday, Sept 30, the Idaho Lottery witnessed their Idaho Cash draw game jackpot reach a record level of $877,800, the highest prize the in-state draw game has ever seen. Based on sales figures, familiar signs from other similar recent activity, and reports from local Idaho Lottery retailers, there may have been a bulk ticket buyer at work.
Lottery couriers have been the hot topic of the gaming industry as of late, with a recent $95 million Texas Lottery jackpot buyout and subsequent political fallout triggering other states to propose rules and regulations to regulate couriers, ban them outright, or instead focus on mitigating bulk buyer behavior. Couriers were targeted by Texas Legislation after lawmakers erroneously promoted them as the root cause for a jackpot buyout.
None of the sales data for the Idaho Cash draw, however, implies that a courier was at all involved. In fact, there is evidence from the Idaho Lottery to suggest that whoever had caused sales to spike had opted to visit physical retail locations in person to buy a large quantity of tickets, and that there may have been multiple individuals at work in a coordinated operation.
Bulk ticket buyers — people who buy all possible combinations of tickets to guarantee a jackpot win — typically make arrangements with companies operating lottery courier services, because the couriers usually maintain the number of lottery machines necessary to print the many thousands of tickets needed.
In a memo that was sent out to retailers after the jackpot was hit, Idaho Lottery Director of Lottery Security Tony Pittz said there were reports of individuals they believe "were part of an organized effort going to retail locations in an attempt to make abnormally large purchases of tickets."
"It was reported some of these individuals were pushy and argumentative when told by retail staff they did not have the capacity to fill the ticket order," Pittz continued in his letter to retailers. "Consequently, the Lottery had retailers questioning whether they were required to sell the requested tickets or if they would be risking their Lottery certificate by refusing."
For reference, state rules and regulations say that retailers are obligated to sell tickets during all hours of operation, but the Lottery has the authority to make prevailing interpretations of that rule.
"The Lottery agrees every effort should be made to sell any ticket requested, provided it is in inventory at the location," Pittz clarified. "However, sales are not intended to disrupt the retailer's normal course of business. If fulfilling any order would cause the retailer undue hardship, the sale may be declined with no consequences from the Lottery."
As they would with any non-lottery customer, retailers are also allowed to refuse service to those they believe are "ill-mannered" according to their own business practices.
There were also no communications records, email or otherwise, between the Idaho Lottery and a potential bulk buyer leading up to the event, the Idaho Lottery informed Lottery Post. It means that the Lottery had no knowledge leading up to the draw that a jackpot buyout attempt would be taking place.
While the Idaho Lottery did not have public records available that would confirm how many unique number combinations were sold for the drawing, one more bit of evidence to suggest a bulk buyout event can be gleamed from sales data.
The top selling retailer in the drawing was KJ's at East 50th Street in Malad City, which sold $96,014 for the Idaho Cash drawing on Sept. 30. The second-most selling retailer for the draw was CJ's Travel Stop on South 2000 East in Malad City, a little over ten minutes down the road from the first. That retailer sold $30,514 for the drawing.
Considering the Lottery received reports of multiple individuals acting at various retail locations, plus the unusually high sales numbers at the drawing's top-selling retailer, it's likely that this is where much of the suspected bulk buying activity would have taken place.
However, the Idaho Lottery cannot reveal the name and address of a retailer that sold a winning ticket until the prize is claimed, nor will they notify a retailer who sold a jackpot winning ticket prior to the ticket being validated.
In closing the memo, Pittz made clear that the Lottery will support retailers in their network by allowing them to conduct business and accept customers according to their day-to-day procedures, but it is the retailer's responsibility to ensure they are stocked with the "adequate resources" to complete ticket orders prior to accepting them, such as paper stock and employees.
At the same time, the Lottery will "make no additional accommodations to facilitate these bulk purchasers." That could mean either supplying additional terminals to individuals who the Lottery believes are about to attempt a bulk purchase, should the Lottery become aware of one in advance of a drawing.
The winning numbers in the Idaho Cash drawing on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, were 8, 10, 14, 15, and 35.
At this time, the winner of the $877,800 Idaho Cash jackpot has not come forward with the winning ticket, the Lottery told Lottery Post. Details of an unclaimed prize are not considered public information and are exempt from disclosure for Idaho Lottery security purposes.
Well this is interesting. I play Virginia Cash 5 when the JP is high and it was averaging a 60 k increase. It jumped by 930 k just before the jp was won.
Solution is very simple .
Number one payout on hold pending full investigation. Number two history of the winning number if that number was played regularly or only when the sales spiked. Number three extra Fifty percent tax for fraudulent purchases. Number four what is the normal sales spike and fraudulent sales spike . Number five whoever has the winning ticket needs to undergo FBI investigation plus pass FBI polygraphs. And actually ten different polygraph test to see if they are consistent lol. 😝
This is ridiculous. So what if one person, or a bunch of people, buy a huge number of lottery tickets? It's not fraudulent. They are playing the game by the rules.
I can only imagine how the cashier's felt in those two locations.
Not as a result of the individuals being pushy or any of that.
But just the fact that they were holding such an unusually high amount in cash.
My mind would be all over the place, wondering now that we have sold all these tickets, is the next stage a coordinated armed robbery?
I paid $10 for that Idaho Cash jackpot. Granted i didn't win it and the odds were the same, but it could have rolled over naturally and i could have tried next time. These bulk purchasers are a major threat to the lottery in my opinion.
Some people say they are following the rules and the answer to that is No they are not following the rules . Fraud is fraud be it insider Job or outsider Job. If they are following the rules then the state of Iowa can say ok let's buy the tickets for our state. Or the president of North Korea can say we too are joining the rules. Or Russia 🇷🇺 can say ok we are on sanctions but we follow lottery rules. So people doing this are aware they are not following the rules so let's be clear. A fraud detected is a fraud detected be it inside Job or out side Job investigation is automatically triggered. Left to me l will use Ai after the draw ✍️ is won to investigate fraud you be surprised Ai will map the plan perfectly on the map lol 😝 🤠🙏🇺🇸👍😎👌
Left to me to Teach all those fraudsters a lesson l will actually let five different groups buy all the tickets so they all share the pot and loss and the states win 🏆 in this case no investigation needed all Good 👍 😎
It is not fraud on any level. Money was exchanged for tickets. Now it could raise a question about couriers or some entity buying thousands of tickets, for subsequent drawings only, if that is applicable to the states
it happened in Massachusetts and the Game was discontinued. So the reality is ruining it for everyone 🤠
How the game was exploited
But that did not involve fraud. Lotteries can discontinue games. Good for them exploiting a legal loophole.
What about the Australian group and the Virginia lottery some years go?
Buying a lot of tickets is not fraudulent even with other people. The Fraudulent part is when you wait for the jackpot to exceed maximum level at the point you spend $500,000 or $1,000,000 to buy the Pot. Don't make a mistake they are not talking of people spending $500 or $10,000 this people sometimes bet millions to Buy all possibilities. To Buy all possibilities for Powerball you need $600,000,000 minimum and to buy all possibilities of Mega miliions You need $1,500,000,000 yes you heard me right $1.5 Billion. Here is the interesting part. If l go to a lottery store and say Sell me $1.5 Billion of Mega millions Quick pick that is not fraud. But on the other hand if l bet every single possible combination for $1 5 billion that guarantees l steal the pot that is how Ai can flag fraud 🤠👍. So if l pick all my Numbers and bet $1.5 billion that buy itself is not the fraud. The fraud starts when l make a print out of every possible number and simple buy the Pot from everyone else that Could be flagged. I play in Las vegas and sometimes they kick you out because you win too much that is the reality of life and gamble they are not selling it for less lol if we say it is not fraud what is next people at Wall Street will start buying all the Powerball and mega millions they are doing it already on our Homes and farmlands lol The Games will loss integrity . Why play a game if someone else already Bought it makes no sense
Buying every combination is not by itself fraud.
waiting until the jackpot reaches a certain amount before playing isn't fraud.
the fraudulent stuff is when courier companies get their own dedicated machines to print off lottery tickets in a way that a regular member of the public can't access. that's what was going in in texas with one of the couriers who set up a fake "store" where they just printed tickets all day long or some such.
if a group of friends decides to take a day off work to drive around to a bunch of convenience stores to purchase a butt load of tickets, and they aren't being abusive to the retailers and making too many demands on their time and resources, what's the problem? they are bulk purchasing in a fair and square manner that anyone can replicate.
Fraud. I tried to find a simple definition but it is far more complex than most people think. As Brock lee said, buying a ton of tickets is meaningless. I could hire 100 people to spend days running to various retailers. The purchases are legal.
Key Elements of Fraud (according to Black's Law Dictionary):
False Representation: The act involves a false statement or the suppression of a truth.
Material Fact: The false statement must be about a fact that is significant to the transaction.
Intent to Deceive: The person making the representation must know it is false or be aware they are making a false statement and intend to deceive the other party.
Reliance: The victim must actually rely on the false representation.
Damages: The victim's reliance on the false representation must cause them some form of damage or injury, such as financial loss.
The difference between Las Vegas casino games and rolling lottery jackpots is that casinos will quickly kick you out for winning too much *house money*. They don't care as much if you win too much *player money*. They still make money on every bet placed on progressive jackpots no matter how big it gets.
Lottery rules make it almost impossible to win too much house money. But every single rolling jackpot game has the potential to turn a ticket from a gamble into an investment, and investors will continue to jump in until the lottery discontinues the game.
The state either needs to stop whining when something completely predictable actually happens, or change the rules so that jackpots hit more frequently and thus do not climb to the point that buying all combinations makes any financial sense. They can't have it both ways.
On the topic of fraud ....
Making a bologna sandwich and passing it off as OLIVELOAF minus the olives is FRAUD.
Serving wet dog food and passing it off as pot roast is also FRAUD .
During one of the previous buying frenzies, I went to a store near my home to get tickets and was told I had to wait because they were printing 1000 tickets for a customer. I wonder if they were thinking the same thing.
that's annoying for sure, but it's hard to argue that either the customer or the retailer are doing anything unethical if the bulk buyer just so happened to get to the store before you did. 1000 tickets might take at most an hour to print?
it's more of a gray area when a group contacts a store manager ahead of time and offers them extra money if they will dedicate the whole day and all their machines to printing off tickets just for their group.
You are correct that no one did anything wrong in buying the tickets because they broke no existing law.
However the point is that everyone should get an equal chance and the game should be such that the number of tickets sold per draw has a reasonable chance of winning. That can be deduced by looking at the historical number of tickets per draw. The Texas Lotto, Lotto America, Montana Cash and Idaho Cash fail in that respect.
As an example, recently it took Lotto America (2) entire years for the jackpot to be won. The reason is that the odds are 1 in 25,989,600 and no matter the jackpot level. ticket sales are anemic.
Yesterday's draw only amounted to some 32,000 total winners as only some 300,000 tickets were sold. So the jackpot rolls until someone with $26,000,000 buys all the number combinations at let's say a $50,000,000 jackpot. Total Federal Taxes owed = $8.880,000. The buyer nets $15 million. Not bad.
The biggest scandal is on the horizon.
When Megamillions jumped the ticket price to $5.00, ticket sales crashed. The jackpot tonight is $650,000,000 and they haven't even cracked 10 million tickets sold since the jackpot started at $50 million. At this rate you can potentially see a $3.5 billion jackpot. Odds are 1 in 290,000,00 and $1,450,000,000 buys you all the number combinations.
After tax winnings: Around $1 billion after deducting the $1,450,000,000 tickets costs.
You still may see nothing wrong with this legally and you are correct, but to say everyone has an equal chance at winning is nonsense. The game at that point is rigged. Maybe you like rigged games but I'm guessing most of us here do not.
Can you imagine if someone spends $1,500,000,000 to win $4,000,000,000 Mega jackpot only to find out they will share it equally with two other people that spent $5 and $10 ouch 🤕
Every *ticket* gets an equal chance. Buy more tickets, get more chances. That's how lottery games have always worked. It isn't socialism.