MegaMillions ticket reprint fraud by a store associate?

Reply #23

winoneday — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 00:37:37 GMT

Not true. Read the original post.

Reply #22

Brock Lee — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:42:13 GMT

all the tickets were $0 losers, rendering the issue moot.

Reply #21

hypersoniq — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 16:55:06 GMT

I do not remember the name of the game played in Pennsylvania many years ago, but when you bought a ticket, there was a random chance the terminal would play a tune and you would instantly win $10 in addition to getting your printed ticket for the draw.

Literally the first store I went to to give it a try, the clerk had a big stack of pre printed tickets, so obviously they took the chance at an instant win away. I remember walking out and describing the obvious scam in an email to the PA lot... [ More ]

Reply #20

GiveFive — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 16:51:22 GMT

Not to mention all the people stuck in line behind you giving you dirty looks....

I absolutely hate it when someone is at the counter has a lot of tickets and they want the clerk to check and see if they won a prize. What do they think that little scanner on the counter is for?? I hate that more than some guy buying $100 worth of tickets. All I do is go someplace else (like the liquor store next door to the grocery store) and buy my crummy 5 bucks worth of Florida Fantasy5 tickets.

A we... [ More ]

Reply #19

GiveFive — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 16:38:35 GMT

Just bumping this post in this thread up a little higher. No answer to the question i submitted to the Florida Lottery yet. But then it's the holidays. G5

Reply #18

Brock Lee — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 01:30:13 GMT

i prefer the self service lottery machines because they don't give you the side eye when you buy a hundred dollar's worth of tickets.

Reply #17

KY Floyd — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:54:00 GMT

Lottery ticket machines are something I never use. That's mostly because they don't give change.

I do my best to avoid them. On the rare occasions that I have I had some sort of problem that required me to abandon a machine with a couple of bucks of my money in it to find an employee (very nearby, at least) to unjam it, and a machine at a Sheetz that couldn't do what I wanted after putting money into it. That one at least gave me a ticket good for a refund from a clerk. OTOH, I did have suc... [ More ]

Reply #16

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 22:05:47 GMT

Funny you mention that. The lottery machine at my store does that too. You have to bend way over and look for the ticket. It doesn't drop out, it sticks up there. Pain in the keister.

Reply #15

Wavepack — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:16:50 GMT

You should get a refund of $50 for tickets never received.

This reprint functionality between kiosk and cashier lottery machine opens up the possibility of a clerk being able to see the numbers chosen by any customer.

BTW, the last lottery ticket that I bought via kiosk did not show at the output tray. The store manager came over, and after explaining my story, he reached up into the output tray and pull out a ticket hidden from standing view.

Reply #14

GiveFive — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:37:11 GMT

On The Florida Lottery's website I found a way to submit a question to them via email.

Here's what I wrote in my email -

Hello,

Does a Florida Lottery retailer have the capability for a recently purchased ticket (before the drawing) to be reprinted?

If I bought an online draw games ticket from a lottery vending machine, and the printing on the ticket was of such poor quality so as to render my ticket illegible, or the machine simply mangled (crumpled up) my ticket when it was bei... [ More ]

Reply #13

GiveFive — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 16:08:19 GMT

Sorry for replying to my own post. Something occurred to me after I had posted, and the ten minutes alloted by The LP for the post's author to edit a post had elapsed. I felt that I should have included what I'm about to write below in my original post.

Obviously the large ' R ' printed on the ticket is there for a reason. I can't think of anything better for it to mean other than reprint . As I said above, I do wonder if it's something new or not. Maybe it's been in the original lottery ter... [ More ]

Reply #12

GiveFive — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 09:04:47 GMT

I'm in Florida. I've no idea if Florida Lottery software has reprint functionality included in it or not. This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing, but I can see why it might be necessary and potentially have a positive use(s). I might ask a few clerks here in Florida if they've ever heard of it, or maybe I'll just send an email to The Florida Lottery and ask them if they have reprint functionality in the software. (I might even do both!)

I'm also wondering if the ability to re... [ More ]

Reply #11

Boneknuckleskin — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 20:24:37 GMT

Very peculiar. Definitely get to the bottom of it and come back and let us know what happened.

Reply #10

KY Floyd — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 02:39:39 GMT

Totally guessing at how lottery reality works, but it makes an awful lot of sense to be able to reprint tickets within some short window in case there's any kind of problem. You'd hope the machine knows if it's out of paper, but knowing that a ticket is illegible is a much bigger ask. Whatever causes a problem with the original ticket, the obvious solution would be an ability to reprint recent tickets. Slapping a great big R on it would be an easy way to identify the ticket as a reprint without... [ More ]

Reply #9

ilya — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 23:14:47 GMT

maybe you'll get lucky in win a double prize

That depends ( apart from a lot of luck for this to happen, of course ) on how the lottery system handles these reprints - given that the reprinted ticket has all the different LK/RK values on it, I bet the system works in a way that if a reprint is requested, the failed ticket ID / barcode is invalidated in the backend (as it is assumed that it was stuck in a printer or something similar), so we technically don't have double tickets.

It... [ More ]

Reply #8

Brock Lee — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 23:02:32 GMT

i guess you're stuck with the duplicates for this drawing, but maybe you'll get lucky in win a double prize. lesson learned, just buy them all at one machine and maybe avoid that store from now on. good luck to you.

Reply #7

ilya — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:32:35 GMT

why did your group's designated buyer buy some of them at the machine and some of them with a human clerk in the same store? why didn't she use one or the other for the entire purchase?

Mmm... no specific reason, I guess. I also buy some tickets for this pool and I sometimes do the same thing. Kind of a sense of better randomization this way. I sometimes buy $50 at one store and $50 at another one across the street (instead of just buying $100 at the same place

Reply #6

Brock Lee — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:22:47 GMT

ok i see what you're saying, thanks for the picture to clear things up. i didn't know clerks could reproduce a set of quick picks that came from a self-service machine. hope you get some answers from the lottery office.

by the way, why did your group's designated buyer buy some of them at the machine and some of them with a human clerk in the same store? why didn't she use one or the other for the entire purchase

Reply #5

ilya — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 19:34:51 GMT

No, she used QP at the machine, we never use playslips. I posted the pic above for reference. Thanks

Reply #4

ilya — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 19:25:26 GMT

I am not surprised by this functionality per se - I once had an issue with a ticket at a self-service machine - it probably ran out of paper (or the printer malfunctioned), but - long story short - the store manager was able to reprint the failed ticket. I don't remember exact details, but I am not surprised this functionality exists for this exact reason.

She will be calling the lottery commission today, just wanted to double check we are not missing something here.

And no,... [ More ]

Reply #3

Cmoore50 — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 18:15:46 GMT

You need to use a wheel from this site. Especially if your buying 50 tickets.

Reply #2

Brock Lee — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 18:13:19 GMT

if the tickets are quick picks, they will have qp next to each line. if you do not see qp next to a line, it means the purchaser picked the numbers with a playslip. what probably happened was your friend used the same playslip with her self selected numbers at both the self-service machine and at the counter with the clerk.

Reply #1

Cmoore50 — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 18:02:40 GMT

I didn't know the clerks lottery machine had anything to do with the self service machine. That's crazy. I'd go back and say something to the manager of the store.

So you didn't give the clerk any cards whatsoever. But he printed out the same numbers. He still has to account for the tickets from his lottery terminal. So I'm not sure how he would pocket the 50 bucks. Unless he had a way to cancel the tickets. If he printed out the same numbers. Somehow they were on his screen. So to cancel th... [ More ]

MegaMillions ticket reprint fraud by a store associate?

ilya — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 17:14:04 GMT

Hi all lottery gurus,

We ran into a weird situation yesterday and I'd love to get your take on it, please.

We run an office pool when jackpot hits 1BN, and this drawing is one of those we normally play. Our pool reaches $700-800 most of the time and we usually buy ~$100-150 in tickets at multiple stores. Yesterday, my friend came to one of the stores and first went to a self-service machine. She bought $100 worth of tickets - twenty $3 entries and twenty $2 entries. They got printed out... [ More ]