Michigan Lottery has few options to stop players who spend millions

Comment #26

darthfury78 — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 03:20:02 GMT

You are right.

Comment #25

Stack47 — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 02:45:01 GMT

Been saying it for years, if a pick-3 game is paying out 50% of their sales, somebody must be winning lots of money. Don't see as cracking a game , but there are many sound playing strategies.

Comment #24

darthfury78 — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 03:55:58 GMT

There are a lot of players like Viktor Gjonaj. Most of them keep a very low profile. They start off small and increase their winnings from there. It's not easy playing a lot of tickets. I am sure that it took Viktor a very long time to perfect his craft, whereby he lost big in the beginning. If there is a person who knows how to crack the lottery system, no one would believe them..

Comment #23

Stack47 — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 19:23:33 GMT

The Michigan Lottery had a daily $5000 terminal limit in 2011 when the Gerald Selbee and his wife bought $614,000 worth of Cash Winfall tickets in three days. Some of the stores requested and were granted limit increases to accommodate them. The problem then and today is because of the large number of tickets being printed, other players can't buy tickets.

You're correct about contributing to the economy; we need more players like him

Comment #22

faker-tracker — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 22:59:07 GMT

After MI Lotto put $5,000 per terminal limit, he's hired peeps to play on his behalf to get around the obstacle.

He's still winning and even contributing to the local economy by creating job opportunities. This guy is a real winner

Comment #21

Stack47 — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:36:12 GMT

did a lousy job of writing an article that has to do with the lottery.

The headline is players but the article only mentions one player. Apparently it happened in 2017 with no follow up on what the Michigan Lottery is currently doing to limit how much a player can wager on a drawing.

to try to slow his gambling by limiting terminals to $5,000 in play per day.

And it looks like they are confusing how much one player can spend and cumulative purchases by many players. If someone buys $50... [ More ]

Comment #20

KY Floyd — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:47:46 GMT

Sounds like the Mi. lottery is trying to do some spin.

It sounds like a reporter who doesn't know anything about the lottery did a lousy job of writing an article that has to do with the lottery.

The only problem I see here is using investors money to play the lotto

It's a lousy article and you've only seen a tiny part of the story. Based on some other reports it sounds like the guy was ripping people off and either laundering the money through the lottery or just feeding his addicti... [ More ]

Comment #19

Think — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:25:07 GMT

I frequently read the Big Winners section on the Michigan website and noticed that for some time now there have been twenty to fifty hits on the same number from the same various stores around the state. I bumped into someone up here who bet multiple tickets on the same numbers for the same draw but didn't see any wins listed on the website for that store.

The most I have ever done is $10 on the same Daily Keno numbers because the prize (10x$250,000 or $2.5 Million) is near the same as a... [ More ]

Comment #18

ThaRock1 — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:13:56 GMT

This made my day don't get mad at the player lottery you like to rig the game he just found a way to beat you at the game #Simple

Comment #17

onenumber — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 11:28:14 GMT

The article says the terminals were limited to $5000 daily, not specifically his play. That's why he had someone working full-time purchasing lottery tickets for him.

Comment #16

onenumber — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 11:11:52 GMT

In Illinois, it's called limit liability,. However, I'm not sure of what the limit is but certain numbers like 1010, are sold out almost every day by noon. Michigan could have done the same instead of setting a cap on terminal play.

Comment #15

Stack47 — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 07:41:52 GMT

He caught another large hit betting $800 on pick-4 number. But the article said they are going to limit his play to only $5000 every drawing and with two draws a day that adds up to $3.65 million a year. If he's showing a profit bet it's lower than even money.

Comment #14

Nikkicute — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 06:37:58 GMT

The only problem I see here is using investors money to play the lotto, if it were his own money, let the man play!!

Some were owed millions, with Gjonaj allegedly having used their investments to fund his lottery addiction, and he had no way of paying it back. The Daily 3 and Daily 4 winnings had dried up

Sounds like an up and coming episode of AmericanGreed.

Comment #13

welington — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 01:41:16 GMT

The lottery hate to see people win.when you loose big it's cool .Just win and it's maybe you cheat,or could be a scheme.Dont get me wrong nothing is wrong with lottery officials investigate any activity or huge wins to make sure it's legit. But when they find out it's legit back off greedy lottery officials. I am happy this guy game the system. Hope the pozi scheme is false or the lottery trying to destroy the guy because he out played the odds. Congratulations Viktor Gjonaj on your winnings .... [ More ]

Comment #12

grwurston — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 01:20:34 GMT

We can play Pick 4 combo bets here in Md. It would be cool to know how much he won on singles vs doubles. Straights with doubles would be a lot easier than singles, if he was picking his own numbers.

Comment #11

Todd — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:55:52 GMT

He's probably wheeling straight bets if he's playing so much money. Same as box, but with higher risk/reward.

Comment #10

grwurston — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:24:13 GMT

It's not known how Gjonaj was able to win so frequently in a game that can have 1 in 10,000 odds of winning a maximum $5,000 prize. The way Gjonaj played, however, improved his odds to 1 in 416 and 1 in 833, according to the lottery.

1 in 416 odds is for a singles box hit, and 1 in 833 odds is for a doubles box hit. It's written on every, How To Play Pick 3 - Pick 4 pamphlet, that every state lottery puts out.

The same exact odds for any Pick 4 player. Sounds like the Mi. lottery is trying... [ More ]

Comment #9

Stack47 — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:16:25 GMT

purchased at Picolo's Liquor Deli in nearby Shelby Township.

A few years ago while visiting near Shelby Township, Michigan, the MM jackpot was near a record and bought tickets at a gas station across the road from where the winning ticket was purchased. Might be a lucky area.

Comment #8

Bleudog101 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 22:45:45 GMT

Just read on cnn that a guy was pulled over with expired tags in Louisiana---23 years late.. Tag #493...lucky numbers

Comment #7

Cmoore50 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 20:18:10 GMT

Great story. This guy was winning big and they tried to put a cap on his play. What the heck? He wasn't doing anything illegal, so why the cap? They said he owes investors but they haven't taken legal means yet. So how do they know what's actually owed. They're trying to paint a bad picture of the guy. Someone who lowers the odds to 416-1 on a 10,000-1 game is doing pretty good.

Comment #6

TheGameGrl — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 18:47:08 GMT

True.

My state does it by county. So it ratios by county. So if you are lucky to live in Philly or Pitt, you can buy more of the same #''s.

Statewide it has a cap.

I don't think the fellow is mentally ill or whatever they are labeling him with. He found the loophole in the mist of him dodging his investors. ...why he is presidential material

Comment #5

Big Joey — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 16:40:38 GMT

Louisiana sells out of numbers all the time. They only have a set amount of each available number set. You have to buy what you want early in the morning when the terminal turns on basically.

Comment #4

Bleudog101 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 16:04:58 GMT

This article put a big old smile on my face.

Comment #3

faker-tracker — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 15:32:27 GMT

Wow, he had 500 winning P4 ST8 tix. Good for him. To win that much and often, he must have some mad skills and loot to play that much.

This article indicates that MI Lotto can't stand perfectly legal highroller winners and they are trying to stop it.

Comment #2

EZ Money — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 15:17:50 GMT

I have always been told that most, if not all lottery states, have what is called an insurance cap or a certain maximum number of tickets that can be bought on any one number in pick 3 and pick 4. For example, the number 463 in pick 3 or 6228 in pick 4 cannot be bought more than 150 times in a given draw. I was always told that lotteries have this special law included in their rules of the game set by the state legislature or whoever enacted the lotteries in their states so that a person couldn

Comment #1

Raven62 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 14:08:25 GMT

Thay want You to Play the Games, but they Don't Want You to Win

Michigan Lottery has few options to stop players who spend millions

Lottery Post — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 13:23:45 GMT

In June 2017, Viktor Gjonaj walked into a sleepy retail strip on Dequindre Road in Sterling Heights.

He wasn't heading for the massage parlor, or the small Indian and Pakistani grocery store or restaurant or the hair salon. Instead, he went into the Michigan Lottery claim center at the northern edge of Sherwood Plaza.

There, he showed his driver's license and Social Security card, completed a claim form, and left $2.5 million richer with a check cut to him as the prize for the 500 winning... [ More ]