Disportionate Scratch-Off Winners in Southern Part of State

Reply #11

Artist77 — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 12:32:48 GMT

Great info. It sounds right to me. Based on my unofficial monitoring, I thought it was near 90%.

Reply #10

Ron5995 — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 01:20:59 GMT

Great info! If you're able, group the winners by county. Then determine, from census data (easily found on internet), the population of each county. Basically, do an analysis not just on geography, but also population. Density, per capita, etc.

PA Lottery doesn't break out winners in fine detail (such data is public, but spread over numerous winners lists), but does publish a breakdown of winnings paid out by county. Of particular note is the first column:

https://www.palottery.state.pa.us... [ More ]

Reply #9

nevereverwinner — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 23:36:07 GMT

As a follow-up, I've started to see if there was any truth to my hunch that large winning scratch-offs were primarily in the southern part of my state (Virginia) and it's bit time-consuming as I have to go through each winner's story for each of the large scratch-off winners and make note of the city where the ticket was purchased, when, and how much was won.

What I've come up is that up until October 9th (when I was collecting the information) there were a total of 80 scratch-off winners wit... [ More ]

Reply #8

Ron5995 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 20:05:34 GMT

Regarding:

Of the nation's 45 state lotteries, ten states (Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Connecticut, California, Idaho, Minnesota, Washington) say they don't systematically monitor frequent winning.

Ignorance is bliss for lotteries long as it's not costing them any money. It's important to distinguish the various types of monitoring. Frequent claimants for tickets purchased throughout a wide area is easy to identify, and often are people who cash tickets for others seeki... [ More ]

Reply #7

nevereverwinner — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 13:16:56 GMT

Thanks for the replies -- I was wrong about one thing -- you can go back on the VA lottery website for press releases about big winners back to 2009 but no earlier.

Yes, I will send in a FOIA request to the VA Lottery and see if that goes anywhere. And they do have a page where they briefly explain what a FOIA act request is and is not. In my case, I'm not requesting any personal information on anyone -- I don't care to know the winner's name, just the cities within Virginia where large prize... [ More ]

Reply #6

Raven62 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 08:06:08 GMT

So much for: government of the people by the people for the people

Reply #5

Freedom777 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 00:22:21 GMT

I wish there was more transparency on the VA Lottery website. It would be helpful to know where winning tickets are sold. In order to get any information, you have to submit a request. It's not easy because they ask all kinds of questions about the data you're seeking and talk about long it take to provide pull it . I gave up trying to get info, such as pre-draws results.

They make it difficult on purpose in my humble opinion, so you won't ask for it. Information is power. If there is a store... [ More ]

Reply #4

Artist77 — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 17:21:29 GMT

So send a regular non-FOIA letter first. I would ask for the winner names and cities of all top prize scratch off games $10,000 and above from 1997 to the present time. This would include all current and/or no longer sold scratch off games during this period. This info is supposed to be publicly available and I would mention that fact. Mention that you are a long term VA resident and cc your state reps. If they do not respond within 60 days, take it to the media.

Reply #3

Ron5995 — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 17:04:33 GMT

I just took a look around the Virginia Lottery website, and just wow, talk about lack of transparency. In their help section, they even mention filing FOIA requests to get further lottery details. My hunch is your suspicion is spot on! Instant tickets are not necessarily randomly distributed. Presumably, top prizes are spaced out across a print run to ensure they're not all sold too soon. A lottery and/or its vendor(s) know what packs contain top prize winners and where every pack is located alo... [ More ]

Reply #2

Artist77 — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:34:42 GMT

I agree 110%. I live in the northern part of the state so never buy scratch offs. I never even heard of most of those small towns with big winners. Since there is government oversight of the lottery, you might be able to try to FOIA the info.

Reply #1

MillionsWanted — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 23:02:30 GMT

Go to the newspapers with your findings.

Disportionate Scratch-Off Winners in Southern Part of State

nevereverwinner — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 22:44:36 GMT

I'm new here and it's my first post but it's because I've noticed something that seems peculiar but I have no way of proving it, unfortunately.

It seems, in my state - Virginia -- the lottery news has a preponderance of scratch-off winners from the southern part of the state. It's as though more of the larger jackpot winning tickets are distributed there than in the northern part of the state. Granted, it may be because sales of tickets are higher there than in the northern part but it seems... [ More ]