Retailers luckier than expected, Atlantic Lotto says

Comment #11

JADELottery — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:24:27 GMT

This sounds like damage control out of fear that lottery consumer confidence may be shattered. The idea that retailers or store clerks are being deceptive could cause people to not purchase lottery tickets. Looking at a statement in the other news post, Atlantic Lottery retailers win 10 times more often than customers, We didn't find a pattern that pointed to a particular game or to a pattern of wins around one location. , as if this means that a criminal act has not occurred. That's like someo... [ More ]

Comment #10

Wintariofan — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:08:49 GMT

It's in the U-S too. The California lottery last year charged a man who had his ticket stolen by a lottery retailer. The Fifth Estate covered that story along with the Bob Edmonds one. If you go to CBC.ca/fifth/ there's information about some of the U-S lottery jurisdictions where retailer fraud happened.

Comment #9

Elizabeth03 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:53:38 GMT

I have never trusted the clerks at stores, they can appear nice to you, or honest, doesn't mean that they are. I check my tickets on the computer first before taking them to a store and I ask the clerk to show me the validation slip of what I have won as well!..

Comment #8

tony2222 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:45:35 GMT

According to people who run a convenience store i buy tickets, they have found over $1M worth of tickets thrown in the trash over the past 15 years. All the money goes to veteran oraganisations. people throw away tickets all the time i have found about $100 in ticks laying around the lottery stand

Comment #7

rdc137 — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:09:39 GMT

Before I hand the tickets over to the clerk, I tell them I'll keep the loosers. On a few occasions, they throw them out anyway, and I make them retrieve it. Doing that makes me suspicious enough to have them checked at another store. Never had one be a winner though.

I still try to check my tickets at a limited number of places, where I'm not concerned about theft. In Delaware this is less of a problem because the self-checkers tell you exactly how much you've won.

Comment #6

txwinr — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:19:13 GMT

I am convinced it shows that retailers and clerks steal from lottery buyers all the time. Absolutely. It happened to me in 1994 or 1995 in Texas. I had bought a ticket and gotten 4 of 6 right and i didn't think to ask for verification when the clerk told me i won $5. Well, went home and looked it up and it was $105!!!!!!!!!!!! She kept the hundred. Made me so mad but since i lived 50 miles away there was no way to go back and confront her. I took it to hear though, i check my numbers firs... [ More ]

Comment #5

justxploring — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:58:25 GMT

It is very important (IMO) to check your numbers yourself rather than just have a machine say whether or not it's a winner.... and read all of the fine print on the rules at your state lottery site.

djklaugh, most stores where I've been in FL have a display that shows the amount won, but it depends on howthe terminal is set up. Most players I stand behind simply don't pay any attention, so it would be very easy for someone to say Nope, not a winner. Recently I went into a Publix super... [ More ]

Comment #4

djklaugh — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:43:08 GMT

Here in Oregon if you take a big win lottery ticket (anything over $600 I think - under $600 can be paid out by anystore that sells lottery tickets) to a store other than the one where you purchased it, the verification machine does not recognize it as a winner - though it does not come back with the sorry not a winner notification. Apparently the clerks are under no obligation to tell the owner of the ticket that they need to take their ticket to the store where purchased for validation. I've... [ More ]

Comment #3

justxploring — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:12:39 GMT

Yikes. Must be because I've been working all week without much light. I thought the article said Atlanta not Atlantic even though it later mentioned Ontario. Glad I have the weekend to renew brain cells.

Comment #2

LckyLary — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:03:41 GMT

Is this just up in Canada or here too? It's theoretically possible for store owners to inside-trade somehow to know that a certain roll of tickets contains a winner worth more than the cost of the roll. It seems like 10 times is a huge ratio if it's mainly based on some cheating potential winners. It's also up to players to stick with games they understand and play the game as it is intended, and scratch everything on the ticket and double check everything. When a player wins anything they need... [ More ]

Comment #1

justxploring — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:00:33 GMT

One Sat night while purchasing my Lotto tickets, a clerk was talking about all of the employees who had won at that store, including a $10,000 scratch ticket. I just shrugged my shoulders, assuming there was little truth to his stories or they were just very lucky, but this article makes me wonder.

Retailers luckier than expected, Atlantic Lotto says

Lottery Post — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:54:01 GMT

Could massive theft and/or deception by retailers be the reason?

Lottery ticket sellers won 10 times more often than statistically they should have over the last six years, the Atlantic Lottery Corp. said Wednesday.

So far, the review hasn't shown any wrongdoing by retailers in the four Atlantic provinces, an official said.

Can I statistically explain why retailers are winning 10 times more? No, I can't, and I'm not going to sit here and speculate as to why, said Mike Randall, a corp... [ More ]