California lottery retailers investigated for massive prize claims

Comment #20

majestic1070 — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:46:42 GMT

It's hard to catch these thieves since they usually give their winnings to a family member.

Comment #19

RedStang — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 18:05:48 GMT

I see a-lot of Singhs and Mohammed's on the winner list in CT. You know they don't play.

Comment #18

uprrman — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 17:48:46 GMT

yes i do

Comment #17

CDanaT — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:09:23 GMT

Along with Birthdays, Anniversaries, Graduations, Weddings, Get Well wishes, Valentines Day or any other day of celebration where a gift is given or exchanged

Comment #16

Stack47 — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 06:59:45 GMT

The other state departments and agencies expect the lottery to their work and the lotteries expect the clerks to do theirs. Nothing like a clerk asking you to prove you don't owe back child support. The worst part is the people owing back child support don't cash their tickets. Making a rule the buyer must cash the ticket will make it difficult giving scratch-offs as Christmas presents.

Comment #15

RJOh — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:41:25 GMT

The problem is catching players who are avoiding back taxes and child support doesn't improve the lottery bottom line, their payouts are the same regardless of who turn in the winning tickets. The state's tax department and other state agencies should be chasing down these people with information the lottery give them.

Comment #14

RJOh — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:32:43 GMT

Stick with muli-state games like PB,MM and hot Lotto and you'll know the payouts are the same as every other state except California. I suspect your pick3 and pick4 payouts are similar to other states too.

Comment #13

Stack47 — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:20:27 GMT

The article starts out about lucky players and some players defying all odds and then has Tacchini explaining what he calls discounting. He then goes on to say claiming a ticket that is not really yours is a violation of lottery regulations, it's not a crime. , which doesn't make much sense in the context of discounting because the ticket really does belong to the person who bought it for less face value.

Experts say they've been known to purchase winning tickets for 50 or 75 cents on the dol... [ More ]

Comment #12

TnTicketlosers — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:02:28 GMT

I wish someone could answer my question,why can some states win more than others.scratch offs and draws,,,,why can Georgia and Florida pay out so much more than Tennessee..Im so sick of losing...Everyone in Tennessee feels the same way I do.

Comment #11

noise-gate — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:58:32 GMT

You forgetting that we dealing with California Stack- things are done differently here mate. If Tacchini said anything that was not in harmony with the rules regs of the lottery out here, he will be educated on it. I do know that the lottery stresses that the bearer of his or her ticket sign the back to ensure Ownership - take that statement for what it's worth.

We have a different set of drummers out here- but you knew that already..

Comment #10

jjtheprince — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 14:35:50 GMT

The Federal government should just ban all lotteries in California. Nothing but filthy cheats...all of them.

Comment #9

Stack47 — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 04:58:41 GMT

Tacchini said claiming a ticket that is not really yours is a violation of lottery regulations, it's not a crime.

My neighbor handed me $10 and I bought him two Monopoly tickets and handed him the tickets so I'm pretty sure those two tickets are really his. How can a ticket in a player's hand and signed not be really theirs?

I'm not talking about clerks short changing players, but the players with real winning tickets that sell them for lesser amounts. If buying tickets for someone else is... [ More ]

Comment #8

noise-gate — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 01:53:25 GMT

Actually they do get out much Stack- this Tacchini guy is a pit bull. A few years back he took Chris Hansen from To catch a predator on a ride along to nail some of these rogue vendors who were not playing by the rules. They were confiscating their equipment right there and then sending a clear message to all.If l recall correctly, they were sending folks in with genuine scratcher tickets specifically manufactured with amounts of $500.00 and asking the clerks if they had won anything- some clerk... [ More ]

Comment #7

basil19 — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 01:05:25 GMT

I guess loosing most of the time is no problem and that is completely legal.

Comment #6

pickone4me — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 21:28:07 GMT

How very interesting, and unsurprising.

Comment #5

music* — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:24:43 GMT

The Lottery Commission should change the contracts too make it easier for them to investigate wrong doing. If there is smoke then there is usually fire.

Happy Halloween LP members staff. LOL

Comment #4

Stack47 — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 19:29:48 GMT

These California investigators don't get out much because we've discussed the 10 percentors in many other states for a couple of years now. And even Dateline NBC had stories on it. The accumulative totals might seem impressive, but the highest value of any individual ticket is usually way under $10,000. When a player start cashing multiple $100,000 plus value tickets there might be a story, but until then it's obvious some retailers are buying winning tickets from players at a discount.... [ More ]

Comment #3

RJOh — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 19:10:17 GMT

'Lucky,' I hear that a lot, yeah, Hertoghe said. In my experience, they're not that lucky. And if they are, they shouldn't be just retailers. They should be professional gamblers.

Sounds like anyone who wins more than $600 could classify themselves as Lucky if those calculations of what they need to spend to win are correct. I doubt players winning and spending that much would gain much of an advantage by classifying themselves as professional gamblers since they could deduct most of the exp... [ More ]

Comment #2

whiteballz — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:51:21 GMT

Garibaldi calculates that Ibrahim must have spent about $2 million on Hot Spot, which is his preferred game. $2 million to win $304,000. OMG....

Comment #1

JackpotWanna — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:05:06 GMT

Wow! 840,000 total to win 32,000. Unreal.

California lottery retailers investigated for massive prize claims

Lottery Post — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:13:09 GMT

Are California Lottery retailers beating the odds, or is there something more going on?

A local media investigation found some store owners cashing in winning lottery tickets at surprising rates.

It's one of the winningest lottery stores in the Bay Area: Dolce Espresso in San Jose has reported 212 winning tickets worth $600 or more in the past decade. The luckiest winner is owner Minh Nguyen. He's claimed 87 of them.

At the Jelly Donut in Daly City, owner Frank Huynh claimed 15 winning... [ More ]