How is this not a massive fraud by the Florida Lottery?

Reply #38

datamon414 — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 15:55:36 GMT

Flalotteryscam,

A couple of slow re-reads of your post highlighted your concern about that particular scratch game

in your state. My favorite guru here, The Most Honorable RJoh, has a point also. Investigations cost

money, unless of course, a newspaper has a vested interest in scooping this story. Your observations

and concerns might be better directed to your State Attorney General, just saying!

We play hard earn money in these games, with a hope of a return on our financial outp... [ More ]

Reply #37

LotOfJack — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:47:28 GMT

It all started when Bush became Governor of Florida. He got rid of Lottery Director, Rebecca Paul. He selected Marsha Mann as Lottery Director under his watch. Marsha Mann did not want the Lottery Bill to pass and voted against it but after being selected as the Director of the Lottery, she changed her tune and stated she loved the Lottery.

My old man had a saying about Politicians If they not a CROOK when going in, they are a CROOK when coming out

Reply #36

Flalotteryscam — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 03:14:09 GMT

The only reason the lottery page is back to its original claim on the remaining prizes page is because I have filed half a dozen complaints with various agencies and those agencies are going back to the lottery to investigate. It was not a glitch or a typo. I wonder why you are so eager to assume that everything is above board and people simply have a math impairment. Yes, people are stupid and don't do the math but that is not the point of my post. This particular lottery campaign syphoned off... [ More ]

Reply #35

Stack47 — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 22:36:40 GMT

As for the public at-large, many players don't understand the basics of statistics; much folklore. Can't fault the lottery on that. However, player ignorance makes pulling the wool over their eyes easier. Heck, some readers here, even after much explanation, don't fully understand the issue you're pointing out.

There is nothing difficult about reading the Florida scratch-off remaining prizes chart and seeing that game #1265 has three remaining $10 million prizes and 40 remaining $1 million p... [ More ]

Reply #34

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 21:08:21 GMT

Eh, probably not... after looking at their webpage more closely and seeing this, these agencies are all in bed together:

The Florida Legislature

Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability

Lottery Transfers Continue to Increase; Options Remain to Enhance Transfers and Improve Efficiency, Report No. 15-03, January 2015

Lottery transfers to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund increased by $71 million in Fiscal Year 2013-14 to $1.495 billion. To incre... [ More ]

Reply #33

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 21:03:09 GMT

An update-- I rec'd an email from this office today:

General Counsel

The Florida Legislature's

Office of Program Policy Analysis and

Government Accountability

111 W. Madison St. Suite 312

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1475

I sent them an email asking for an inquiry the day I originally posted this thread and I also contacted the Inspector General of the Florida Lottery. This email from the office listed above stated they had forwarded my complaint to the Inspector General an... [ More ]

Reply #32

Ron5995 — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 18:21:25 GMT

Politics has been sketchy for long as organized society has existed. Sunshine laws aren't overly effective - never have been. If government wants to hide something they will - local governments can be as bad, if not worse than state and federal in this regard. Special interest groups and lobbyists are often what it takes to have a chance at meaningful reforms. Shame you don't want to take it any further, but I totally understand - takes much time, effort, and money. Maybe someone else will - wou... [ More ]

Reply #31

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:29:53 GMT

I am not going to start a non-profit to combat this. The governor of Florida is a crook who bought his way to the last two elections and since his massive Medicaid/medicare fraud did not result in jail time and the state rewards slimeballs with elections to office, I have no faith that there is a single government entity that will pursue this matter. Florida is where every sex offender, crook, ex-con and carpetbagger run out of town on a rail somewhere else eventually ends up. It is the Wild Wes... [ More ]

Reply #30

Ron5995 — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:07:40 GMT

Interesting they changed the page, but didn't post any explanation. The reduced number of prizes could have just been simply a glitch. Or, perhaps, the Florida Lottery frequently quietly reduces ticket quantities / number of prizes, but for whatever reason that one slipped though. There's very little transparency regarding ticket manufacture, distribution, prize allocation, security, etc - a mystery leaving open many avenues of abuse...

Often there's little outside oversight of lotteries. In... [ More ]

Reply #29

zephbe — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 16:52:49 GMT

The lottery controls when and where the big prize tickets go on sale. That is why I don't buy scratch offs. Draw games can't be manipulated like that.

Reply #28

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 16:15:53 GMT

So, after posting my question about the disappearing prizes on the Florida Lottery Instagram account appearing on their main page, their response was not to answer the question but to block my account and drop me as a follower on the Instagram page.

I think the Florida Lottery is a huge rip off, a scam, a bogus scheme at the governmental level to suck money out of people's wallet and not deliver on the prizes advertised. The contest I refer to is their 10 million Florida Cash scratch off tha... [ More ]

Reply #27

Taurus$ — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 03:35:10 GMT

Stack i think the real problem here is not a lot of players realize the lotteries are doing a mind game on us. Just look at VA. I been playing some of their scratch offs but my god they are flooding their market with sooooo many of them. I have been looking at their charts of winners and noticed that the smaller prizes have been going out in the thousands but the tops remain moot. THAT tells me the tops are not really in circulation but with so many other scratchers top prizes they got to cover,... [ More ]

Reply #26

Stack47 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 01:41:35 GMT

My guess is the original poster doesn't understand how scratch-off tickets are distributed. And they might not understand that one ticket can only win one top prize.

Reply #25

Stack47 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 01:29:50 GMT

The states never sell their top prizes on scratch offs all at once so lottery taking possession of cards in batches doesn't make much sense.

And that's probably is why the Florida Lottery distributed three of the four top prize winners. From the website: PLEASE NOTE: Prizes, including the top prizes, may be unavailable at time of ticket purchase due to prior sale or other causes occurring in the normal course of business.

the winners are staggered throughout the lifecycle of the game.... [ More ]

Reply #24

Ron5995 — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 01:25:41 GMT

To echo your sentiments about pulling entire batches. No need, they could just pull the specific packs containing the big winners. I've heard too many stories over the years, including from lottery clerks, of lotteries instructing packs to be removed immediately, or more rarely, a lottery rep showing up to personally retrieve specific packs with little to no advance notice. Could be tall tales, but not so sure given the desperation of lotteries to generate and grow revenue.

To digress a bit,... [ More ]

Reply #23

duckman — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 01:01:02 GMT

Exactly...

Unless there is only 1 top prize for a game, all the top prizes are never in play all at once because all groupings of tickets are not in play at the same time. If the lottery does not release one grouping, or batch, then the odds are exactly the same as they were with more or less groupings.

That being said, I can also understand what the original poster was saying about advertising and promoting a certain number of top prizes and then changing it to fewer top prizes. The... [ More ]

Reply #22

maringoman — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 22:17:47 GMT

I'll ignore that part of money growing on trees.

The states never sell their top prizes on scratch offs all at once so lottery taking possession of cards in batches doesn't make much sense. The algorithms they use when printing out the winners and distributing the top prize winners ensures that the winners are staggered throughout the lifecycle of the game. They don't have to hold back on one $10M and the 11 prizes $1M because even the three $10M and 35 prizes $1M will not be won early on the... [ More ]

Reply #21

Flalotteryscam — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 21:38:29 GMT

REPLY TO dc3149

I filed a complaint with the Inspector General listed on the Florida Lottery website and I also sent a complaint to a different state regulating agency and I also contacted several news outlets asking them to investigate. I don't think there is any misprint. I think it is outright lies and deception. They did a big blow out marketing campaign when this contest launched on 2/24/15 and they did it to generate ticket sales. They sold millions of tickets since the program la... [ More ]

Reply #20

duckman — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 16:25:29 GMT

Rarely do they decrease the number of prizes. Wonder if the original numbers were incorrect? It wouldn't be the first time numbers on the stats page were not right.

The odds of winning a major prize will not change because of the way the tickets are created and distributed. If there are 4 top prizes, each top prize is divided among 4 ticket groupings. Groupings are distributed one at a time, so you will never see all 4 top prizes won in the same time frame because all 4 top prizes are neve... [ More ]

Reply #19

RedStang — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 15:35:10 GMT

This is a common problem with the scratch offs that they know most players don't look at. They should only be allowed to advertise what's available. Even if they printed 50 prizes, most of them would be sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

Reply #18

dc3149 — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 14:36:44 GMT

Hi, I've been playing the new $10,000,000 scratch off for the past few days and I also noticed EXACTLY what you had said!! The top prize went from 1 of 4 to 2 of 3. I thought it was a misprint or something!! I sent an email to the Florida Lottery yesterday and here's their reply this morning, which I don't think really clarifies anything:

Hi, I CHECKED THE TOP PRIZES REMAINING THIS MORNING TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015 AND THE FOLLOWING WAS LISTED

$10,000,000 Florida Cash 3 of 4*

$10,00... [ More ]

Reply #17

Stack47 — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 03:53:37 GMT

Why can't they take possession of the entire tickets for that game like most states do and keep them in their warehouse?

That makes sense if state lotteries have money trees growing in their backyards, but since they don't somebody has to pay for those $10 million and $1 million prizes. How many people will play if all the top prizes are gone the first month of sales?

It's not just Florida, but most state lotteries delay top prize distribution on the high jackpot scratch-offs. Players can... [ More ]

Reply #16

maringoman — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:31:52 GMT

The least anybody ready to criticize this guy could do is first of all read the complaint and do some basic investigation.

Florida Lottery still has a webpage informing players that there are 4, $10M prizes and 46, $1M prizes on the game $10,000,000 Florida Cash. At the bottom of the page that has the info on Top Prizes remaining there is a Note: Games may be reordered, and top prizes may increase proportionally.

This is crazy. Why can't they take possession of the entire tickets for that... [ More ]

Reply #15

Flalotteryscam — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:08:27 GMT

Ron, just the opposite-- the Florida Lottery had record breaking sales of scratch off tickets for two weeks in a row and they have posted press releases to that fact on their website. The record breaking weeks were the week after this 10 million dollar scratch off was announced. They had two really good weeks of ticket sales and they've sold millions of tickets. The prizes were reduced after that initial marketing push that resulted in these record breaking sales. Obviously 25% of the prizes wer... [ More ]

Reply #14

Ron5995 — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 23:57:09 GMT

Since it's a related, but different topic, replying separately ... generally, as you point out, when the top winners are sold out, the game is pulled. However, there are instances in which multiple top prizes remain and the game is pulled. Did that occur simply due to low sales, or did an uneven claim distribution factor into the decision... Who knows other than the ticket vendor / lottery. That's what I'm getting at - there's a lack of transparency...

Heck, it took many years for lotteries t... [ More ]

Reply #13

Ron5995 — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 23:44:06 GMT

When more tickets for a game are ordered, the number of prizes increases. In this case, the number has decreased! Never seen that before. Maybe there's some innocent explanation, but is still bizarre. To be clear, some press releases say there are a total of 4 prizes of $10 million, but the prizes remaining page says there is a total of 3 including already claimed. How and why did the total, again to be clear, including claimed, decrease from 4 to 3?

Found an older press release dated March 9... [ More ]

Reply #12

Stack47 — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 23:21:57 GMT

Shame so many missed the point of your post.

The only point is someone with an agenda or conspiracy theory joined LP yesterday so they could vent about a Florida Lottery scratch-off game.

I did some looking around on the Florida Lottery site, and something seems amiss. Could be a glitch of some sort, but the most likely explanation appears to be what you've suspected ... tickets have been taken back.

*Denotes games that have been reordered or have been delivered to the Florida Lotter... [ More ]

Reply #11

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 21:06:38 GMT

I am talking about 21 million dollars, 25% of the top prizes. If you want to spend $25 on a ticket without a chance of winning the advertised prizes, be my guest. It is suckers like you, suckers who keep hoping and living life with their blinders on that keep this fraud going.

Reply #10

cbr$ — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 20:42:38 GMT

There is no proof that massive fraud is being done about these scratch of tickets. You are just talking about the top prizes. We here read about winners not coming coming fore right away to claim the prizes. Someone out there may all ready have a few of large prize tickets. May be using a adviser advice.

Reply #9

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 17:35:13 GMT

Wow, Ron, thank you for reading my post and understanding what I was saying. Yes, something is amiss alright. They promoted this contest and sold as many $25 dollar tickets as they could with the initial wave of publicity, and then quietly altered the remaining prizes information with absolutely zero publicity. This lottery promotes itself as having integrity and being transparent , but reducing the prize pool and putting out inflated prize information to sell tickets is anything but demonstrati... [ More ]

Reply #8

Ron5995 — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 07:18:39 GMT

Shame so many missed the point of your post. I did some looking around on the Florida Lottery site, and something seems amiss. Could be a glitch of some sort, but the most likely explanation appears to be what you've suspected ... tickets have been taken back. That's not unusual, though usually one has no idea it's happening until suddenly a game is difficult to find / gone.

The procedure on how tickets are pulled off the market (assuming they were printed in the first place) is a mystery in... [ More ]

Reply #7

Flalotteryscam — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 01:14:02 GMT

They did not increase the number of prizes, they decreased the number of prizes. Can anyone reading this forum read for comprehension? No, they can't. This game has been in play less than a month and the prizes have been reduced 25% after they have sold millions of tickets based on false information on the number of prizes available.

Reply #6

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 01:04:51 GMT

It does say on the website that games may be reordered and top prizes may increase proportionally.

As stack stated, there is an asterisk denoting that there are more tickets on order.

Reply #5

noise-gate — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 23:32:00 GMT

....Say What

Reply #4

Flalotteryscam — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 23:03:57 GMT

It doesn't seem that anyone replying to this thread can read for comprehension. Also, the highlighted section about having more than one shipment is totally irrelevant to the fact that 21 million in prizes have disappeared and were never available to be won.

Reply #3

noise-gate — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 22:31:08 GMT

l wonder what your gripe is going to focus on, given that your name is now married to Florida

Reply #2

Stack47 — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 22:15:42 GMT

I feel that this lottery is operating in bad faith and making fools of the people buying into a dream that they can never win.

Millions of players willingly are buying MM and PB jackpot dreams four times a week. The how to play page says the odds of winning $10 million are 1-in-8,100,000. Did you miss the * and where it said Denotes games that have been reordered or have been delivered to the Florida Lottery in more than one shipment.

Reply #1

RJOh — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 21:32:17 GMT

Investigations cost money and it's unlikely a news paper is going to do one just because you didn't win a jackpot.

How is this not a massive fraud by the Florida Lottery?

Flalotteryscam — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 18:26:56 GMT

The Florida lottery launched a new scratch off ticket on 2/24/15 called 10,000,000 Florida Cash or something like that. The advertising stated there were 4 winners of 10 million and 46 winners of one million as the top prizes, along with over 11 million prizes! . Every press release the lottery put out and even the press release posted on the Florida Lottery website as late as Friday, March 20, 2015 announcing a million dollar winner indicates prizes based on the 4 10 million and 46 million doll... [ More ]