$85M sought for "defective" Virginia lottery tickets

Comment #17

flamarko — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:52:02 GMT

Here is the only statement when you go to Florida Lottery Website on specific scratchers

*Prizes, including the top prizes, may be unavailable at time of ticket purchase due to prior sale or other causes occurring in the normal course of business.

No public list or anything else to tell what TOP PRIZES have been taken.

Maybe their definition of a top prize could be $27 ?

For this reason, I do not buy into this deceptive advertising.

Comment #16

flamarko — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:35:53 GMT

Good!

Scratchers are a BIG waste of time and money for:

State to produce ...

customers in line for Lotto or Numbers games..

and most of all for all the poor suckers who buy them.

I once saw a mexican laborer in a Circle K store here in Florida blow through his $400 weekly cash salary on the $20 scratchers and come away with nothing.

The guy next to him (a coworker) told me that was his only money for the entire week.

It's a BIG SHAME!

And yet the STATE government doe... [ More ]

Comment #15

flamarko — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:30:28 GMT

From a legal point of view, proving defect instead of fraud may prove to be a much easier suit to win on several levels.

A defect suit could possibly contain an onus (or burden) on the State to prove or dissprove.

It could contain a mutli-prong test in which if just one burden is not overcome from the defense (State) could be a victory for the plaintiff. Or in this case, all the players of scratch offs.

I always had a problem with the retail level deceptive advertising here in Flor... [ More ]

Comment #14

Texas MadMan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:18:48 GMT

I guess this is sort of interesting. I DO believe that the advertising should be changed, but I would be hard pressed to believe that anything much will come of this in court. Afterall, a TON of profit is generated by scratch tickets and I don't really think that any judge that hears this case is gonna do much to change that. I think the deep pockets of the lottery commisions for each state in question will have more to do with the outcome of the lawsuits than anything else, don't you? I'm sorry... [ More ]

Comment #13

ThatScaryChick — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:23:54 GMT

I agree. There is no way that the state lotterys will get rid of scratch offs. I think there are a big section of folks who only play scrath off games and not the other lottery games. They would lose a ton of money.

Comment #12

RJOh — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:52:59 GMT

The only thing that will change is the way they're advertised because these type of games are some of the states biggest money makers.

Comment #11

justxploring — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:23:29 GMT

I just went to the list for FL scratch-offs and none of the active games have 0 top prizes. Some have only 1 left, but I don't see any zeros.

Comment #10

Think — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:57:52 GMT

If enough people win enough of these lawsuits then bye bye sratchers

Comment #9

Todd — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:51:14 GMT

I think it probably has to do with what kind of case would be easier to prove.

As I understand, it can be hard to prove fraud, whereas there are probably much different standards to prove a defect. He must have weighed his options along with his risks and decided that defect would be easier to prove.

Comment #8

time*treat — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:03:05 GMT

Any difference in tickets and you will have crooked clerks fishing through the rolls for those lower tier prizes. You've just increased the amount of muck.

Comment #7

JAP69 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:36:14 GMT

To solve all this mucky muck about top prizes being gone they should operate like the raffle drawing.

Payout the lower tier prizes on a ticket. These will not have a raffle number on them.

All tickets that are not winners for a lower tier prize will have a scratch area for the raffle number. These are kept by the players until the end of the game.

After all scratchers are sold for that game they will have a raffle for the top prize(s).

Do not lose those raffle drawing tickets while w... [ More ]

Comment #6

Coin Toss — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:27:52 GMT

There was a case- Texas maybe- where tickets were still being sold for a game with all the top prizes already paid out.

Someone complained or filed suit and after that whatever state it was (and some others) take all the tickets for that game back when the top prize is no longer available.

Just my opinion, but anything else is false advertising.

Comment #5

justxploring — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:29:16 GMT

I agree with RJOh that it's the structure of the game. I would not call it fraud unless nobody won the top prizes. Up to means that even if you win, you might still get a smaller prize amount.

I think most people who buy scratch tickets are aware when a game has been around for a long time. Still, that doesn't mean there isn't a nice prize still available.

These aren't raffle tickets, they're scratch tickets. If there were no prizes at all left, then it would definitely be fraud. But the... [ More ]

Comment #4

Stack47 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:58:43 GMT

The practice among state lotteries is widespread, said Rob Carey, an attorney who has filed similar challenges in Arizona, California, Colorado and Washington state.

Unless the last ticket sold in every scratch-off game is the highest jackpot winner there will always be tickets sold after it was won. I think it would be more of fraud if the lotteries knew which tickets has the jackpot prizes and withheld them until most of the other tickets were sold. It looks like Rob Carey has stumbled on

Comment #3

RJOh — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:36:04 GMT

In order to pay the top prizes and have a profit of 50% of sales, lotteries must sell all the tickets including all the losers. That is the structure of those types of games.

Players who buy scratch-offs know the only prizes they have a chance at winning are the ones on the roll of tickets from which they buy their tickets and that doesn't change regardless if the top prize is sold or not. The top prize is on one of many of rolls of tickets sold and only the players buying off that one roll h... [ More ]

Comment #2

ThatScaryChick — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:16:30 GMT

I agree. I don't think it's defective. I think it is fraud. Most people play for the chance to win the top prizes and when the lottery officials know that the top prizes are won and don't say anything...well, there is something wrong with that. I think all states who sell scratch offs should have to tell the public that the top prizes are gone. This way players can choose to still play if they don't mind playing for lower wins.

Comment #1

DC81 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:53:59 GMT

I think this is more of a fraud issue than a defect issue because the tickets weren't defective, just that the states were still selling tickets after all the top prizes were won and not telling people they were gone and still advertising that they could win the top prize.. They could very well be found guilty of fraud if this actually goes to court and if they are they're going to paying a lot more than 85 million. They'd be in their best interest to settle...

$85M sought for "defective" Virginia lottery tickets

Lottery Post — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:48:27 GMT

Man sues Virginia Lottery for selling $85 million in defective scratch-off tickets

A lawsuit by Washington and Lee University professor Scott Hoover seeks reimbursement for purchasers of an estimated 26.5 million tickets over the past five years. He asserted that the tickets had no chance of winning the top prize promised on them.

John Fishwick, a Roanoke attorney for Hoover, on Monday released copies of a lawsuit filed in Richmond Circuit Court. It seeks an $85 million judgment and an inj... [ More ]