Audit finds 'ticket cashers' remain problem for Mass Lottery

Comment #15

time*treat — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 03:12:24 GMT

Why not? For a while pets were receiving credit card offers.

Comment #14

Mil$Winner! — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 03:28:52 GMT

As an admitted liberal, I see nothing wrong with tax avoidance. Of course, people will try to minimize their tax liability. There's nothing illegal about that, nor should it be illegal. Avoiding child support payments is entirely different. People should take care of their little ones.

Comment #13

Jake — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:23:57 GMT

This is the tip of an iceburg that will eventually melt down, I believe, and wreak havoc for lottery players. As far as the official designation professional gambler - you don't have to choose this. Win the right amount, and the IRS will happily sign you up! So, the govt creates a problem and now has to get creative and get out of it. Absolute power indeed.

My opinion on the coming meltdown: I believe ultimately lottery states are going to require the winner of every lottery ticket to sign/a... [ More ]

Comment #12

JonnyBgood07 — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:42:28 GMT

I can't believe they whine....they get their cut regardless.The Lottery Comission is permanently in a win win situation

..I've heard here in Connecticut alot of folks just use their grandparents 68 or older)to cash their winning as they get it tax free.

Comment #11

HaveABall — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:28:11 GMT

Wow, being a ticket cashier sounds like an interesting business. How do they obtain clients, does one simply create a website and offer a competitive rate (perhaps 8-10% of the pre-taxed jackpot) to cash a client's winning ticket?

After setting the appointment to meet the potential winning ticket holder, how does a ticket cashier determine, during the appointment, that the ticket is authentic (even the lottery headquarters admit having to administer several tests on a submitted ticket before... [ More ]

Comment #10

Nino224 — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:59:13 GMT

Get ready for pets showing up to cash winning tix, lol

Comment #9

Goalisamillion — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:45:27 GMT

So are they going to audit all the people who lose thousands of dollars every year and give them back a complete refund or make gambling loses a complete TAX write off???????????????

Come on, let me hit a jackpot and find an honest(funny isnt it)person who will pay me a % of my ticket so UNCLE SLAM your pockets wont take their unneccesary share. I would not have no problem selling my tickets

Comment #8

PERDUE — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:13:30 GMT

Bottom line here is what's on the books. The Massachusetts State Lottery is in the process of putting a law on the books that will limit the number of winning tickets a person can cash. So if you are a lucky S.O.B. then get ready to limit the number of your wins.

Comment #7

sully16 — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:05:23 GMT

Yep.

Comment #6

joker17 — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:08:46 GMT

It always amuses me when I hear the Govt. complaining about corruption....lol

Comment #5

petergrfn — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:41:14 GMT

It's the state of Mass fault for having such huge taxes .....People will always figure out a way to avoid paying too much taxes. These type of people see ALL MONEY as the GOV'T's MONEY first....How dare these greedy people take the Gov'ts money! When it's the Gov't and their programs that waste money are STEALING from the American People. They can change the laws all that want people will still figure out a way to avoid paying..... It's funny that these same people never figure out that by LOWER... [ More ]

Comment #4

Coin Toss — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:19:05 GMT

Mass. has also had a lot of wiseguys hit jackpots.

The OP says certain people keep cashing these tickets in.

Coincidence

Comment #3

RJOh — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:53:46 GMT

How can buying winning lottery tickets as less than their face value and cashing them in for their face value be considered gambling while buying lottery tickets with odds of 1:10 or worst or winning anything is not? Seems like the state needs to change their definition of gambling.

Comment #2

ttech10 — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:18:57 GMT

I really don't know how to feel about this.

The winner of the ticket gets their money that's due and the lottery still gets to take out their chunk of change to go towards their charity (usually education). It doesn't seem to really hurt any part of the lottery, just the main government, which really is just being greedy and reaching into your pocket (and I say that because of the other countries whose governments don't tax the winnings).

I guess there's some good and bad feeling... [ More ]

Comment #1

LckyLary — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:10:04 GMT

It's a shame that for every dollar played by the average player, 50 cents of it is returned and that's before taxes. That takes about 1/3 of the winnings. So every dollar on a taxable jackpot such as Pick 4 STR returns only about 35 cents.

Audit finds 'ticket cashers' remain problem for Mass Lottery

Lottery Post — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:50:20 GMT

Allow winners to avoid paying taxes, support

The Massachusetts State Lottery continues to have a widespread problem with ticket-cashers'' who claim prizes valued at millions of dollars, apparently allowing the actual winners to avoid taxes on their winnings, the state auditor said yesterday.

An audit released yesterday, as well as prior reports, found numerous instances in which certain people were claiming hundreds of prizes worth millions of dollars,'' State Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci's o... [ More ]