Audit of frequent Pennsylvania Lottery winners draws concern

Comment #22

grwurston — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 11:47:42 GMT

The state wants to do audits, because some people cashed 50 or more tickets in a 42 month period? They're talking 17 people out of the entire state. It doesn't mean they are cashing $5,000 tickets each time. There are box wins that pay over $600. A $5.00 box win, 10 times in 3 1/2 years, there's your 50 tickets. With that bet your hitting 3 times a year. Not very frequent at all.

Sounds like a big waste of time and money to investigate this.

Comment #21

KY Floyd — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 06:59:03 GMT

This is about the current administration in Pennsylvania trying to get extra cash from the lottery by alleging that there is something suspicious about these wins.

It seems pretty clear that at least one purpose of the audit is to see if some frequent claimants are claiming prizes won by other people. In fact, the article specifically mentions that. Identifying people who are claiming on behalf of others might result in more money in state coffers, but that would be from better collection of

Comment #20

Stack47 — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 03:34:04 GMT

Every U.S. state lottery issues yearly financial reports including Arizona.

This push has players believing they have a better shot at scratch off games which cost more

You're making it sound like someone from your lottery grabs players, take money our of their pockets and force them to buy tickets.

Comment #19

spartan1707 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:13:04 GMT

When i'M FEELING a number it becomes my heavy so $10-20-40 dollars is not uncommon. Plus with taxes on winnings over $599 it is better to get it spread out to $500 per ticket. The Lottery board and companies that run state lotteries need to be audited period. They use the least drawn numbers on their draw games to to keep winner low. This push has players believing they have a better shot at scratch off games which cost more and is the reason lotteries across the nation are making Billions.... [ More ]

Comment #18

spartan1707 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:05:53 GMT

With laws in place to protect winner aka private. All state lotteries need to be audited period. The real reason they pushed for these private laws was to protect the BS rigging done by the lottery officials themselves. They used small cases of murder of large winners to say look we need this but the reality is it is rare and more winners lose their money to scam artists than murder. They went on to digitize the system and do what that dude did to win millions. He should be let free by the way f... [ More ]

Comment #17

Stack47 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 05:53:02 GMT

Yep, it sure looks like the auditor is trying to make a name for himself; probably going to run for a state office.

Comment #16

Stack47 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 05:49:04 GMT

If you're wondering why, just a month ago a player in Virginia had $20 on a pick-4 number and won $100,000. Players have bought MM and PB tickets with the same numbers and won multiple times too.

The fact that they made the effort to cash in those 68 tickets over a period of time is suspicious anyway.

It's obvious you never won multiple times or even cashed a pick-4 straight winning ticket. If you have two or more winning straight pick-4 tickets, you either take them all to lottery head... [ More ]

Comment #15

jjtheprince14 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 03:02:07 GMT

What they need to do is start investigating anyone winning over $10,000 in any lottery. Very high probability that most cheated.

Comment #14

jplayer33 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 02:27:42 GMT

Playing multiple tickets with the same number in Pick 4 or Pick 3 is not unusual and several players in many states have hit big playing that way. I always have one Pick 3 number that I play straight or in exact order on 30 to 40 tickets every day until it is drawn, however long that takes, usually about six months to a year, although I played one number for two years before I hit for $10,000 but that number I only played on five tickets until going to 40 tickets a week before I hit it. These se... [ More ]

Comment #13

Tony Numbers — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 22:54:42 GMT

Hear Hear Defend the players. We need all the help and support we can get.If our perogotive is to play multiple tickets, there should be a streamlined method of cashing said tickets, without interference from big brother.

Comment #12

FalsePleasure — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 22:04:32 GMT

To make certain that the person did infact pick a winning combination of numbers and that those winning numbers infact did fall randomly without any help from a human.

Comment #11

FalsePleasure — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 21:46:07 GMT

If they want to investigate something they should be investigating the person with the 68 winning tickets instead of if those 68 tickets was legitimate tickets.

I mean come on now...why would anyone buy 68 tickets with all 68 tickets for 1 drawing time AND have the exact same numbers on ALL 68 tickets? Maybe Rainman might or somebody thats extremely confident that those numbers would be the winning numbers for that specific draw on that specific date.

The fact that they made the effort to... [ More ]

Comment #10

TheGameGrl — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 20:49:27 GMT

Keep in mind the PA lottery wouldn't want to scrutinize itself. Thus why we have a division to audit it's procedures and funds.

Lucky numbers (movie), triple six fix , come to mind on how the lottery deserves being monitored and fine tuned.

I detest the new CASH5 change. From payout tier change to the increase in play .

A person would have to have very rose colored glasses to think certain players are above board.

Have yet to see any player play one number for 68 ti... [ More ]

Comment #9

Todd — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 17:26:51 GMT

It's important to remember that it is not the PA Lottery that is causing the extra scrutiny. In fact, they are defending their players, who they say in each case are legitimate wins/claims. This is about the current administration in Pennsylvania trying to get extra cash from the lottery by alleging that there is something suspicious about these wins. Government being meddlesome and grabby. Which is basically government being government.

Comment #8

Tony Numbers — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 14:36:17 GMT

Often you read stories here about lucky people who win jackpots 2-3 times.People play low odds games pick3 pick4,with multiple tickets. They want to cash anonymously. The taxes are being paid. So why this extra scrutiny

Comment #7

winterhug — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 11:29:53 GMT

No, the article does not say how much the 68 winning tickets were worth. I am going to assume the tickets were a straight win played for $1 each.The win would be 5K per ticket. This would have given the winner $340K spread out over the 68 tickets. This would be half of 340K is the tickets where played for 50 cents instead. I just wish I knew someone who would share there secret for winning pick 4 with buying lots of same number tickets

Comment #6

Bleudog101 — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 10:58:29 GMT

We're 'lucky' to have a progressive lottery in Kentucky. Months ago they added Pick 3 and 4 to the on-line mix. Already had Cashball 225 which I'd think is similar to your Cash 5??

As mentioned before, on-line instant games are different then the scratch tickets @ the retailer.

Nothing wrong with spreading out 68 winning tickets over a period of time...am curious as to how much each one was worth

Comment #5

dartiger — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 10:38:33 GMT

Agree why not pick 3 4 5 and cash5 and match 6. I have asked

Comment #4

KY Floyd — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 06:03:01 GMT

the Lottery concluded that every single claim has a reasonable explanation

Is that reasonable explanation that PA is the only state where people don't claim prizes on behalf of others who don't wamt to claimthier own priozes for some reason

Comment #3

Stack47 — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 05:54:12 GMT

As far as the frequency of winning, it's something that caught our attention, DeFoor said. It kind of defies the odds and warrants [the state Department of Revenue] to investigate this further.

I get a W-2G every time I cashed a ticket worth over $600 so it's odd that DeFoor would call for an investigation into something the PA Department of Revenue should already know. Maybe someone will tell him the reason some people frequently cash ticket is because they are buying the tickets from the a... [ More ]

Comment #2

Mata Garbo — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 05:01:55 GMT

It's a lot easier to check on crooked retailers, than to try to figure out the playing habits of millions of people who play every day

Comment #1

winsumloosesum — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 04:05:12 GMT

Why the Auditor General is conducting this investigation which it seems some people are finding a loophole in the system or in fact abusing the system how about doing an investigation into the iLottery scam of their bonus programs.

iLottery and the Pennsylvania lottery seem to be 2 different entities and their is no control of what the iLottery does from the state of Pennsylvania.

Stupid games, no online Pick 3 or Pick 4 games, no online Cash 5 or Pick 6 online play.

Audit of frequent Pennsylvania Lottery winners draws concern

Lottery Post — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 00:28:35 GMT

Lottery pushes back against stricter auditing processes for potential fraud

By Kate Northrop

The Pennsylvania Lottery is butting heads with Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor on whether stronger controls are needed to monitor frequent lottery winners.

An audit conducted on Pennsylvania Lottery winners of prizes between July 1, 2017 through Jan. 26, 2021 revealed that the Lottery gathers data on players who claim prizes of $600 and above solely for tax-related purposes but does... [ More ]