11 more retailers suspended by Florida Lottery

Comment #35

One-Day — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:18:18 GMT

Oh no! I'm so surprised

Comment #34

bluerain — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:56:12 GMT

i dont trust any of those mid east people or those indians and pakistsnies. they are more corrupt then honest

Comment #33

Jon D — Mon, 26 May 2014 14:33:58 GMT

You're not the first to report the self-scanners giving false negatives.

Just goes to show, always know the value of your tickets yourself. Never rely on the scanners, they should just be a double-check of what you already know. I've run into many places where the scanners were not working, usually shady places. Or could they be doing this on purpose?

And NEVER rely on the clerk. They can very easily lie about the value of the ticket, and spend the whole day skimming the register by underp... [ More ]

Comment #32

savagegoose — Mon, 26 May 2014 13:39:32 GMT

call dateline or one of those tv shows that do under cover stories on lottery scams, im sure they would like to take it nation wide. bust this story open

Comment #31

rdgrnr — Mon, 26 May 2014 13:14:09 GMT

Always demand your tickets back when you win or when they tell you they're not winners.

They're your tickets, not theirs.

Comment #30

Gleno — Sun, 25 May 2014 15:10:49 GMT

Know you are angry but it's good that you doubled check your tickets. Don't know why the scanner did not work but it sure does sound fishy .

Comment #29

Gleno — Sun, 25 May 2014 15:07:39 GMT

What's up with these folks? Don't they realize they would be eventually caught

Comment #28

DDOH937 — Tue, 20 May 2014 15:42:54 GMT

Something fishy is going on here, and not just with retailers. This happened to me YESTERDAY!!! I went into a store to check some old tickets i had from Megamillions March 14th draw. Scanned all 3 of my tickets myself and all said sorry not a winner . Normally i either throw them away after or have the retailer scan them on the machine just to verify. Well i did gave them to the cashier and the tickets would not scan properly so she punched in the codes and it said not a winner . Still not sure

Comment #27

Pisces77 — Tue, 20 May 2014 13:27:01 GMT

I Was Ripped Off Years Ago By A Store Clerk Here In Galveston, Tx On A Scratch Off Way Before They Got The Ticket Scanners... I Knew I Had Won What I Thought Was 25.00 On A New Scratch Off Game That Had Just Began But The Clerk Said It Wasn't A Winner So I'm Assuming It Was Probably More Than That For Her To Want To Be A Thief... After I Left The Store Later That Night I Begin Thinking The Computer Makes 2 Different Sounds 1 Beep No Winner And Another Sound When You've Won And I Realized This Af... [ More ]

Comment #26

Stack47 — Tue, 20 May 2014 05:49:51 GMT

It's amazing how nobody working for the Florida state lottery figured out these store owners are buying winning tickets valued of $600 from players wanting to remain anonymous. It goes back to 2005 for some of these owners and if it's not legal and/or against lottery rules, they should have stopped it years ago.

Fort Pierce gas station owner Vipul Shukla has cashed in tickets 149 times, collecting $323,000, since 2006. He previously told The Post that he'd been cashing in tickets for others,... [ More ]

Comment #25

psykomo — Mon, 19 May 2014 18:18:45 GMT

SV:

the state lotto sounds like they R runnin D lottery like D VA hospital runs their laundry list 2 keep all D

state employees LOOK N GOOD^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!!!!!!

making sure all lotto employees git bonuses^^^^raises^^^^promotions^^^^ retirement on time

but, then D PB Post cums along KICK'$ their BUTT'ssss

Comment #24

JADELottery — Mon, 19 May 2014 18:14:32 GMT

This can all be fixed by allowing people to claim prizes anonymously.

That way The Post would not have discovered this and The Lottery would not have investigate these anomalies.

Comment #23

SergeM — Mon, 19 May 2014 15:51:54 GMT

I mark the winning numbers on the ticket with an orange marker and calculate the payout before.

With a bigger win, I used to calculate the payout in Excel to know how much I won.

I suppose that some machines are not working properly. I hope for everybody that nobody worked on those machines!

When I don't see a payout when I expect one, I ask to check the ticket again or ask the ticket back. I suppose that some crooks just throw it immediately in a box with hundred tickets and say, sorry... [ More ]

Comment #22

txwinr — Mon, 19 May 2014 15:13:29 GMT

Data is meaningless without someone to read it. I had a clerk steal 100 from me once - before I knew to check payouts, I knew I had 4 of 6 correct, but she told me I won $5. After I cashed out it seemed low so I checked online and found it was 105. Lesson learned. I do think some of the self serve machines could provide payouts, if they redesigned them. I love the self scan on the machines. Clerks suck.

Comment #21

ghoste833 — Mon, 19 May 2014 05:00:18 GMT

This problem can be solved considerably by letting customers play online or on mobile phones like EU lotto tickets and cutting the middle man out.

Winnings are deposited directly to customer's bank account and also customers never looses winnings due to a misplaced ticket.

Minnesota is planning to have online scratch off games and then the idiots in legislature intervened and killed the idea.

Give people want they want and politicians should stayout from meddling in profitable businesse... [ More ]

Comment #20

MonEl — Mon, 19 May 2014 01:53:35 GMT

The chances of winning any lottery prize worth $600 or more are remote. Only one in every 8,700 scratch-off tickets sold is worth that much, and the rate is far worse for online games such as Play 4.

Mathematicians calculated that many of the top winners would have to spend millions to have a low chance of winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

-----------

They seem to be telling people that they are wasting their time and money playing the lottery;

That you would sooner get hit

Comment #19

Pingu — Sun, 18 May 2014 22:17:09 GMT

Not surprised. Last month, I had a female clerk at my favorite store jip me around $10 twice. My sight is pretty bad so I figured I miscounted. However, I felt something wrong. So the last time I went in to cash out, she tried it again. But this time I also had a friend verify and sure enough, she tried to short me $30 this time. Glad there was a line of folk behind me as I called her out. Of course she apologized over and over and promised she wasn't trying to jip me. Not sure how true she was... [ More ]

Comment #18

DDOH937 — Sun, 18 May 2014 18:23:08 GMT

My sentiments exactly

Comment #17

Jon D — Sun, 18 May 2014 13:29:13 GMT

Yep, their hands are definitely dirty. They want all that extra revenue from clerks/owners playing and are reluctant to give it up.

And remember how all this started. Not from their own internal audit or the goodness of their heart, but by an investigative story by the Palm Beach Post. This is all a reaction to the negative publicity of that story. They can negate this in the future by allowing all winners to claim anonymously. That way the pesky nosey newspapers can't go around doing investi... [ More ]

Comment #16

savagegoose — Sun, 18 May 2014 11:36:23 GMT

the state lotto is partly resposible, if after knowing some dodgey dealing is goibg on, refuse to prosecute and allow stores to continue, thebn what are store owners to do?? they will here form store successfully scamming players, ge4tting away and join the fun.

if ther state allowed a store owner to continue 200+ thern prosecute on the4 next one? whos fault is that 201st crime

Comment #15

RedStang — Sun, 18 May 2014 00:18:59 GMT

I was wondering how the Patels upgraded their Taxis.

Comment #14

RJOh — Sat, 17 May 2014 22:32:44 GMT

If clerks gave customers back their losing tickets then they wouldn't have any reasons to lie. I don't buy ticket at place where clerks keep your losing tickets.

Comment #13

LottoMetro — Sat, 17 May 2014 22:21:45 GMT

But can you make a profit for 7 years running, like some of these winners? I think that's what raised alarm here. Yeah, people get lucky every now and then, but not that lucky. If it were possible for lottery players to profit over the long-term then the lottery would go broke.

It's obvious these clerks were either swindling winners out of their tickets or cashing them in for them to avoid taxes, child support, etcetera.

Comment #12

ONEDAY — Sat, 17 May 2014 22:02:54 GMT

The chances of winning any lottery prize worth $600 or more are remote. Only one in every 8,700 scratch-off tickets sold is worth that much, and the rate is far worse for online games such as Play 4.

that above statement from the lottery scares me a little..

I don't know about scratch offs..but pick 3 and pick 4 players can win more then $600 more often then they think..they also mention in the article it be hard to make a profit..BS..I did even play much last year and made a profit,... [ More ]

Comment #11

rdgrnr — Sat, 17 May 2014 21:53:14 GMT

Exactly.

The states know this is going on but if they do anything about it the corruption is exposed and they look bad. They'd rather let it continue than make themselves look bad. Thank God a newspaper is willing to do their job for them every once in a while or nothing would ever be done.

I would bet that this is epidemic throughout all the states and they all know it.

Buncha useless, incompetent, corrupt bureaucrats.

Comment #10

HEHATEME — Sat, 17 May 2014 21:15:55 GMT

I DO BELIEVE SOME STORE CLERKS HAVE A MEETING

OF THE MINDS AS SCRATCH OFFS ARE SOLD AND

OWNERS FROM STORE TO STORE,ABOUT HOW THE

CORNER NUMBERS DISTRIBUTION AND STUDY IT

JUST LIKE ANY OTHER GAME. THEY ALSO OFFER TO CASH

THEM IN FOR BUT FRAUD AND JAIL TIME AND CAMERAS

TELLS THE ENTIRE STORY.WHEN COMES RIPPING THE

COSTUMERS THAT'S STILL GOING BECAUSE MAY COSTUMERS

DON'T UNDERSTAND THE TICKETS.OKAY SELF SCAN

YOUR TICKETS.

Comment #9

Drenick1 — Sat, 17 May 2014 21:07:55 GMT

So the fraud is not the winning ticket itself but the act of cashing it in for the true winner? I thought that perhaps these retailers were doing something with the bar codes on scratch offs to pre-determine which were winners.

Comment #8

dallascowboyfan — Sat, 17 May 2014 21:00:20 GMT

People always trying to cheat the system i.e. deadbeat parents instead of paying for their kids

Comment #7

LottoMetro — Sat, 17 May 2014 20:19:26 GMT

Pick 4 constituted a substantial portion of the fraudulent winners.

Comment #6

mrcraft — Sat, 17 May 2014 20:18:38 GMT

What I don't like about this story is how the FL Lottery and their auditors likely turned a blind eye to this entire situation for years. The data is right there, staring them in the face. It was only after the Post's article was published that their legislature demanded an investigation, and now suspensions and terminations are moving at a fast pace.

Comment #5

mypiemaster — Sat, 17 May 2014 20:09:51 GMT

Here we go again, with the misadventures of dishonest store clerks and owners. That loophole he found, must be his gaping A-hole, that he just pulled his head out of. Jail time is in order.

Comment #4

Goteki54 — Sat, 17 May 2014 19:52:55 GMT

If people just sign their tickets, they can't be scammed by the clerks right

Comment #3

hearsetrax — Sat, 17 May 2014 19:10:49 GMT

time to set the entire state adrift into the Atlantic

Comment #2

dr65 — Sat, 17 May 2014 19:05:04 GMT

If you don't scan your ticket yourself and are handing it over for the clerk to do it AND believe them

when they say:

SORRY NOT A WINNER...

chances are, some of those SORRY NOT A WINNER replies should have been:

CONGRATULATIONS!! Here's your claim form.

Why stay in your own country and suffer when you can come here and prosper

Comment #1

Drenick1 — Sat, 17 May 2014 19:04:19 GMT

Just another reason why I don't play scratch off tickets.

11 more retailers suspended by Florida Lottery

Lottery Post — Sat, 17 May 2014 18:13:35 GMT

Includes video report

The Florida Lottery, suspecting fraud, has suspended sales at 11 more stores, bringing the total to 14 since a Palm Beach Post investigation revealed startling patterns of winners.

Two of the stores were owned by winners profiled in The Post's investigation.

Amit and Nita Thakker have owned or operated various stores in and around Gainesville for years. Since 2005, they've cashed in 226 big lottery prizes worth more than $560,000.

Lottery officials seized equipm... [ More ]