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For lottery winners, trouble followed fortuneNews Story
They won $65.4 million in the lottery, quit their jobs and bought big houses.Five years later, Virginia Metcalf Merida and Mack Metcalf are dead. Merida's son discovered her body inside her 5,000-square-foot home overlooking the Ohio River in suburban Cincinnati on Wednesday. Merida, 51, may have been dead for days, according to the Campbell County, Ky., Police Department, which is awaiting autopsy results.Campbell County Police Detective David Halfhill told The Cincinnati Post that there were n
Nov 28, 2005, 6:31 am - Lottery News

Pa. Man Charged With Redeeming Forged Winning Lottery TicketNews Story
A Pennsylvania man is accused of redeeming a forged lottery ticket.Police said Brian Scott Miller, 34, of Cumberland County, was one of 18 workers at Roadway Express who pool their money to play the lottery each week. Validation tests showed the ticket he took to lottery headquarters was forged. He was arrested once he walked out of lottery headquarters with what he thought was a valid check for $853,000.An agent for the attorney general's office, told a judge Monday that Miller was cooperative
Nov 15, 2005, 5:57 pm - Lottery News

Arizona Lottery tracks down real winner after ticket stolenNews Story
Arizona Lottery officials have tracked down the owner of a winning $1.4 million lottery ticket authorities said was fleeced by a convenience-store clerk.Officials confirmed that Cuauht moc Jose Luis Casta eda-Y nez of Nogales, Sonora, purchased the Pick winning ticket for the June 25 drawing.It's unclear when Casta eda-Y nez will receive the winnings, but the Attorney General's Office on Thursday submitted a forfeiture order in Maricopa County Superior Court to return the money to him.Authoritie
Nov 11, 2005, 6:54 am - Lottery News

Gang used winning Pick 4 lottery tickets to launder drug moneyNews Story
Federal authorities say they have broken up a cocaine-trafficking ring that laundered more than $270 million over 15 years in an operation that began in Michigan and branched out across the country.The organization, known on the streets as the Black Mafia Family, had ties to the rap music industry, and its two leaders have appeared in rap videos, said Robert L. Corso, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Detroit. They were in fact just another group of thugs who brought fear
Oct 28, 2005, 10:02 pm - Lottery News

Former lottery 'numbers' operator rebuilds life after jailNews Story
At the height of his career operating an illegal lottery called the numbers, Otis Ray was running four-digit bar tabs in his $70,000 Titans stadium suite and rubbing elbows with Nashville's elite.Now, just months out of prison, Ray, 53, is working as night watchman at a local Comfort Inn and rebuilding his life on $6-an-hour wages.Ray spent nearly 25 years working in the underground lottery. Just one month after he was sent to federal prison in December 2003, the Tennessee Lottery sold its fir
Oct 1, 2005, 9:34 am - Lottery News

Four accused in Florida lottery ticket fraudNews Story
Stuart Elvia Urieta had heard about scheme in which someone claims to be an undocumented immigrant who needs an American citizen -- and money to cash a winning lottery ticket.So the 13-year Stuart resident was suspicious when a woman asked her for $29,000 to cash a ticket reportedly worth $325 million last weekend.Urieta called authorities, who on Tuesday announced a rare arrest in one of the common lottery frauds. You know you can never find these people because they come and go so quick, said
Sep 14, 2005, 6:22 am - Lottery News

Store clerk accused of stealing $1M lottery ticketNews Story
A Circle K clerk in Nogales, Arizona is accused of stealing a lottery ticket and then collecting the $1 million winnings.The Attorney General's Office says the ticket was one of several that a man had brought in to the clerk's store to check to see if he had won anything.Authorities allege that clerk Delia Kerr returned the other tickets to the man, but kept the jackpot-winning The Pick ticket.The man didn't know he had won the jackpot, but complained to the store manager that one of his ticke
Aug 18, 2005, 5:03 pm - Lottery News

Drug dealer must forfeit lottery jackpotNews Story
Texas man wins $5.5 million in a lottery, but must give it back after drug dealing conviction.A Mexican citizen must forfeit about $2.75 million in Texas lottery winnings because of his drug-trafficking conviction, a federal appeals court said on Wednesday.Jose Luis Betancourt, 52, was arrested after making a cocaine delivery shortly after accepting $5.5 million for having the winning ticket in the December 11, 2002, lottery drawing, according to court documents.A jury convicted Betancourt, who
Aug 18, 2005, 4:06 pm - Lottery News

Spain detains 295 people in lottery scamNews Story
Spanish police have detained 295 West Africans on charges of attempting to swindle money from thousands of people by claiming they had won in a Nigerian lottery, radio reports said on Wednesday.Most of the suspects detained on Tuesday were Nigerians, while some came from Ghana. Police searched numerous addresses in the southern city of Malaga.At least two of the detainees were treated in hospital for broken bones after jumping out of a window when trying to escape. Those arrested included owners
Jul 20, 2005, 10:33 am - Lottery News

Mega Millions lottery goes on sale in CaliforniaNews Story
Today, 35 million Californians get their first chance to buy a ticket on what may become the biggest lottery jackpot ever offered -- but the odds of winning a fortune are the longest ever seen.California becomes the 12th state to join the Mega Millions lottery game, where a ticket that costs only a dollar could, in time, win $500 million. The odds for this happening, however, are an astronomical one in 175 million, apparently a world record for a lottery.Until today, the longest odds of winning
Jun 22, 2005, 6:15 pm - Lottery News