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Pa. spends $1.3M to date on search for lottery partner amid fierce competition for $1B contractNews Story
The hunt for a company to service the Pennsylvania Lottery's games and gaming system for the next decade has proven to be a contentious and costly venture. Two companies are vying for 10-year lottery servicing contracts that would pay close to $1 billion or more over the life of the deal (the contracts could be extended for two to four years). It's one of the commonwealth's most lucrative long-term contracts. The firms have engaged in a heated battle over the past year and a half as this i
Oct 22, 2019, 10:18 am - Todd - Lottery News

Michigan Lottery cracks down on retailers who cheat customersNews Story
When a customer brought a Keno ticket to Nick's Party Stop in Clinton Township, retailer Don Kallo ran the ticket through his lottery terminal, declared it a loser and tore it in half. Kallo, the spouse of store operator Linda Kallo, then took the torn ticket a $2,517 winner to the Michigan Lottery Bureau to redeem it. Suspicious lottery officials investigated and learned Kallo hadn't purchased the ticket, as he claimed, records show. It was determined the ticket had been purchased by
Nov 17, 2017, 2:23 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Iowa Lottery investigation highlights difficult balance between security and profitsNews Story
For more than a year while he worked at the Brick Street Market in Bondurant, Iowa, Matthew Hinrichs quietly stole lottery tickets, cashing in at least $28,000 in illegitimate prize money, prosecutors say. When he was finally caught in 2016, Hinrichs pleaded guilty to two felony counts of fraud and was ordered to pay back those winnings, plus nearly $5,000 more. Lottery officials say their layers of security allowed them to track Hinrichs' activity, providing data that was invaluable to pr
Jun 6, 2017, 2:48 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Lottery winner Jack Whittaker's losing ticketNews Story
Jack Whittaker, a 55-year-old contractor from Scott Depot, W. Va., had worked his way up from backcountry poverty to build a water-and-sewer-pipe business that employed over 100 people. He was a millionaire several times over. But when he awoke at 5:45 a.m. on Christmas morning in 2002, everything he'd built in his life held only passing significance next to a scrap of paper in his worn leather wallet a $1 Powerball lottery ticket bearing the numbers 5, 14, 16, 29, 53, and 7. Whittaker had pu
Dec 19, 2012, 10:03 am - Todd - Lottery News

N.Y. Lottery to launch new ad sloganNews Story
The lottery that contributed Hey, you never know to the lengthy list of memorable advertising catch phrases vernacular is hoping to do it again, with a new slogan for its scratch-off games. The slogan is the centerpiece of a campaign that formally begins this week for the New York Lottery. The campaign, by DDB New York, carries the theme Be ready not to be confused, presumably, with hit songs like Get Ready or People Get Ready or the Boy Scout motto, Be prepared. The message of Be ready i
May 10, 2011, 8:04 am - Todd - Lottery News

Study finds wealthy counties get most benefit from Indiana Lottery profitsNews Story
When you play the Hoosier Lottery, the odds are against you. But if you're poor? Then, so is the system. An Indianapolis Star review of the Hoosier Lottery has found that while lower-income players disproportionately fund the lottery, the state transfers lottery profits disproportionately to the wealthiest counties. It's a quirk that seems to punish the very people the state counts on to fuel a revenue source that last year topped $217 million. It's a sad state of affairs when state po
Jun 8, 2009, 8:36 am - Todd - Lottery News

He won $19 million in the lottery — and became a bank robberNews Story
The first time Jim Hayes robbed a bank, at age 55, he gave himself a pep talk. The former security guard a clean-cut guy with silver hair and a doughy physique stood frozen next to the entrance of Montecito Bank Trust at a strip mall in Carpinteria, a mellow beach town about 12 miles southeast of Santa Barbara. Hayes had stuffed a pillow in his shirt and pulled a Zoo York cap low over his face. It was 5:15 p.m. on April 27, 2017 and he'd spent weeks researching how to pull off the heist. Now,
Sep 30, 2018, 11:38 am - Todd - Lottery News

The man who cracked the lotteryNews Story
Crime story: A recounting of the biggest lottery scandal in history The file landed on Rob Sand's desk with something less than a thud. Despite holding the contents of an investigation still open after more than two years, the file was barely half an inch thick. Happy birthday, his boss said. It was not Rob Sand's birthday. His boss, an Iowa deputy attorney general named Thomas H. Miller, was retiring in July 2014 after nearly three decades of prosecuting everything from murder to fraud. H
May 3, 2018, 2:49 pm - Todd - Lottery News

TV station investigates repeating Kentucky Lottery scratch winnersNews Story
Is it luck or something else? The Kentucky lottery sells hundreds of millions of dollars in scratch off lottery tickets each year. While it's difficult to hit the big one, people beat the odds time and time again. WHAS11's investigative reporter Adam Walser traveled the state, trying to discover how some people repeatedly get so lucky. For thousands of Kentucky residents, playing the lottery is favorite pastime. Sometimes players win big, but usually, the outcome is not so lucky.
Jul 29, 2009, 2:56 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Record lottery winner's wealth cost him dearlyNews Story
It was coming up on Christmas, and Brenda-the-biscuit-lady was inexplicably happy as she walked to work in the predawn darkness. Brenda didn't just make biscuits over at the C L Super Serve for $6 an hour. She served up good cheer. How you doin', honey? she'd greet customers, with such enthusiasm that they had no choice but to smile back. Dad-gonnit, you are growing up on me! she'd call to schoolchildren, just to see them grin. What grade you in now? At 39, Brenda Higginbotham didn't have muc
Jan 31, 2005, 9:36 am - Todd - Lottery News