Dateline NBC, Sunday May 3, Lottery clerks Who Cheat Players

Reply #34

WWW1 — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:12:44 GMT

what amount of responsibility do players have for not being stupid? every state lottery web site has player security info / tips, or people could just read the back of the ticket. but i am new to this so i may just be nieve.

Reply #33

Coin Toss — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:51:11 GMT

jim695

Yeah, I remember those post Bob made and the controversey that went with them.

Watching his story on Dateline, I still had to wonder though, why would someone who would go home and watch a news tape on an online news site not check the numbers on the internet.

Still quite doesn't compute somehow.

(Bet ya a lot more people will be checking their own tickets now!)

/////////////////////////////////////////////

Everybody,

California undercover lottery inspector, what a jo... [ More ]

Reply #32

Kidzmom — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:29:19 GMT

I just finished watching this story on Dateline on their website. It's a shame how people prey on people like that, just think if an elderly person bought the ticket and got ripped off because its them who actually depend on the clerks to tell them the truth. This just reinforces my #1 rule....My scratchers, I make a copy of my signed ticket front and back then I go straight to the lottery office if its over 600.00. For the ones under 600.00 I make a copy and sign it anyway. For my pick 3 ticket... [ More ]

Reply #31

jim695 — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:36:09 GMT

I actually conversed with Bob via PM shortly before the kid went to court for his sentencing hearing. He's really a compassionate guy, and offered some alternative suggestions to the prosecutor because he didn't want to see the kid go to jail for one act of stupidity. It really bothered him.

Bob joined LotteryPost.com with the screen name Bob21456, but no one here would believe he was who he claimed to be. The accusations he endured were terrible and embarrassing, and they just kept coming... [ More ]

Reply #30

grandpajohn — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:59:56 GMT

Kaptainess,

I know of a store here where I live you can't play if you work there.If you want to play they have to go to another store.

The store where I play most of the time won't cheat me.For one I have known the owner for years and 2.She wants me to win big so I can buy her out LOL Every time I go in and she is there she says John you win yet so you can but this place LOL

Reply #29

Kaptainess — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:59:13 GMT

LOL! I checked my name at the Lost Money website before with the state, nada. Tonight while the show was still on TV I checked again. WoW!! I have two checks there since 1999!! Neat!

I don't know how much yet, I have to send in the forms to claim it. Guess what I'm doing tomorow?? LOL!!

Happy!!!

I checked everybody I knew, even my granparents, I'm the only one that has anything. Oh well. I thought I would get a finders fee - a kiss would do.

As for the Cheaters? Good that they... [ More ]

Reply #28

ArtVandalay — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:04:27 GMT

I've had clerks who either cheated me or were incompetent in their job. First of all, I usually go to a grocery store customer service desk to purchase my tickets. If you have a bunch of $1.00 or $2.00 winning lottery tickets, and if you mark each one with a 1 or a 2 , then it's easy for them to slip one or two off to the side and say that I handed them only 4 when in fact I had handed them 5. And what are you going to do? Cause a scene because of a one or two dollar difference? Ask to see the s... [ More ]

Reply #27

ThatScaryChick — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:33:11 GMT

Why would they warn the retailers in the first place.? If retailers and clerks are honest and not thieves, they would have nothing to worry about. It makes it look like the NY state lottery has something to hide by sending out a warning.

Reply #26

haveagreatday! — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:15:02 GMT

I can't cut and paste the warning NY state lottery sent the retailers, here's my retype:

RETAILER ALERT

Warning: NBC is trying to trick lottery retailers into stealing winning lottery tickets. If caught you can lose your license and be fined and imprisoned.

There is also a post on the internet about an email thread between the heads of NY and Ca lotteries about this.

Reply #25

diamondpalace — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:52:36 GMT

Guess they thought NBC was out to give them a bad name, but actually doing the public service in spreading awareness on bad clerks. Notifying every lottery retailers about without hearing out what NBC have to offer in full details is rather immature. LOL

I am glad other states followed CA with investigations.

Also noticed the tickets where majority are scratch-offs. They should have a scanner for them too, like they do for the printed slips.

Reply #24

Editgap — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:14:30 GMT

Good Show!

But I don't think they want a to catch a predator reputation.

Reply #23

Editgap — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:06:20 GMT

They want to maintain the confidence of players in their games which is ridiculous.

First let me say that every player is responsible for their ticket from the time they decided to purchase it to the time it is redeemed.

I DO NOT sympathize with players who get scammed out of their winnings.

If you purchased a ticket you should be smart enough to know if you win or not (How much is irrelevant)

I personally have never handed a clerk a ticket to check for me that I didn't know what it... [ More ]

Reply #22

JAP69 — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:58:30 GMT

Yeah and they notified the retail clerks about it too.

Reply #21

RJOh — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:35:19 GMT

I was surprised to hear the one retailer offering to buy the ticket for 65% of its cash value. I would have thought that in his likely tax bracket, he wouldn't make much of a profit unless he was laundering money.

Reply #20

diamondpalace — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:31:09 GMT

Can't believe NY Lottery commission rejected the investigation from NBC...they may be afraid of losing sales from it.

Reply #19

dopey7719 — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:26:41 GMT

Just finished watching it. I'm not surprised. U can't trust anyone

Reply #18

MaddMike51 — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:20:38 GMT

There is no way of knowing if they were American born or here on a visa.They may be naturalized citizens for all we know.

Reply #17

Texas Joey — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:15:06 GMT

Saw the show tonight and was impressed until Donald Trump came on it.

I did noticed that a lot of the sales persons were not American born!! When they catched them stealing why don't they just councel the Visas??

I hope all states follow the California as an example that has been set

Reply #16

MaddMike51 — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:09:44 GMT

The thieving clerks got off with a slap on the wrists.If they had made the punishment fit the crime you would see a lot less of this stuff happening.Sign those tickets and the clerks won't bother trying to steal the big tickets and probably not the smaller tickets either.

Reply #15

Classic47 — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:43:28 GMT

Don't they have those scanner things that scan the barcode of the ticket and tell you how much you won? I had an instance when I thought I won 500 dollars on a scratch ticket because 500 showed up as a prize amount, but it turned out the 500 needed to show up as a winning number to be a winner. Since I wasn't sure if I won, I asked the clerk and she scanned it, handed me back a slip telling me I didn't win anything. :(

I ususally tell them how much I think I won so I don't get ripped off. The... [ More ]

Reply #14

MaddMike51 — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:18:23 GMT

Thanks for the reminder,Coin Toss.

Reply #13

Coin Toss — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:05:31 GMT

It airs tonight 6:00 PM CDT.

The Cable guide says Chris Hansen investigates lottery scams, so it might be more than that one case with the clerk telling the winner he won $4.

Reply #12

Tnplayer805 — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:24:02 GMT

I have my DVR set. Should be an interesting report.

Reply #11

Coin Toss — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:12:27 GMT

Just bumping this as a heads up since it will air Sunday night.

Reply #10

TnTicketlosers — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:59:34 GMT

They might want to check the ceo in Tennessee and make the program worth watching....

Reply #9

ca-dreamin* — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:36:09 GMT

I think it's a good idea to check your own tickets anyway. I had thought about starting a new thread but I'll post my story here......

Years ago I had a winning Fantasy Five ticket. (I checked the numbers in the paper) On the way home from work I stopped at a liquor store to cash it in. When the clerk scanned the ticket he said sorry it's not a winner and handed it back to me. I thought maybe it was his machine so I stopped at another liquor store. Same thing only the clerk started to rip the... [ More ]

Reply #8

Coin Toss — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:10:16 GMT

lotocalgal

That might indeed be the case as they specifically mentioned the clerk saying the player had won $4, or maybe it's some kind of update on the case.

The theme of the show is finding people that didn't know they had money coming.

Reply #7

lottocalgal — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:22:32 GMT

Hey Coin, is that going to be a new show or a recycling of the E! true Hollywood Story curse of the Lottery, where Robert Sehested almost got taken for $500k from a clerk when he was told it was only a $4 dollar winner? It was In Camarillo CA and they only found out by some video that was sent out to find the true winner. I hope its a new show. Everyone broadcast the same lottery shows since as early as 2002. There have been many winners since then, many Non- Anonymous winners to build a show ar... [ More ]

Reply #6

DC81 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:47:31 GMT

I'm sure NBC.com or Hulu will have it up, if they don't already... Looking at the site they do have something up, don't know if it's just previews or the whole story, I'd check but I don't have enough time.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600

Reply #5

Coin Toss — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:52:30 GMT

It's Dateline on NBC ( regular NBC)

Last night it was on from 6:00 - 8:00 pm CDT, not sure of next week's time, it varies.

Maybe something like this will get players to check their tickets themselves a little more closely.

Reply #4

MaddMike51 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:15:10 GMT

Is this on NBC or one of those cable networks that only show reruns?What time is it on

Reply #3

ThatScaryChick — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:44:45 GMT

Looks like it might be interesting. Thanks for the heads up Coin Toss

Reply #2

KY Floyd — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:17:44 GMT

I expect it will be as much warning as sending somebody to jail for any other crime. A few dishonest clerks will think they can get away with it, and odds are they'll be right.

Reply #1

diamondpalace — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:50:59 GMT

Don't have TV. Wonder if they will have the video recording online after.

I hope this segment be a warming to other clerks out there who continue to cheats the players.

Dateline NBC, Sunday May 3, Lottery clerks Who Cheat Players

Coin Toss — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:23:57 GMT

Dateline had a program tonight, You Might Be Rich, about tracking down people who had money coming through inheritances or other means.

They previewed next weeks program and there's going to be a segment on lottery clerks who cheat. On the preview they showed a clerk telling someone they had won $4 when they had actually won much more. Might be intersting.