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Florida Lottery admits error, winner collects two years laterNews Story
Includes video report A Florida man finally has his lottery prize after a local media investigation exposed a state error. I can't believe I have the money, Joel Strickland of Winter Haven said. When Strickland won $1,000 in the lottery in 2017, state officials seized the money, saying he owed the state $5,300 to settle an old unemployment fraud claim. Strickland insisted there was an error and that he didn't owe anything, but the state's case was closed. Officials not only took his
Aug 26, 2019, 9:08 pm - Lottery News

Some Oregon lottery tickets printed with wrong dateNews Story
By Todd Northrop Oregon residents who purchased Powerball lottery tickets over the weekend will want to double check the draw dates after a computer glitch caused some tickets to misstate which date the winning numbers will be drawn, lottery officials said Tuesday. Advance 24-draw quick-pick Powerball tickets printed between Friday, Aug. 10 and Monday, Aug. 12 listed incorrect dates for the Oct. 26, 29 and Nov. 2 draws, the lottery said in a statement. While the dates on the tickets are o
Aug 15, 2019, 8:30 am - Lottery News

Man who won millions from lottery during divorce case must shareNews Story
A suburban Detroit man who was in the middle of a divorce when he won more than $30 million must share the lottery windfall with his ex-wife. The Michigan appeals court says a marriage isn't over until it's over. It means Mary Beth Zelasko can keep $15 million awarded by an arbitrator, although she and Rich Zelasko had been separated for two years when he bought the Mega Millions ticket in 2013. Their divorce wasn't final until 2018. In a court filing, an attorney for Rich Zelasko said, Ri
Jun 20, 2019, 7:14 am - Lottery News

Audit of California Lottery finds over $305,000 in improper or dubious spendingNews Story
California Lottery officials tallied more than $305,000 in improper or questionable spending over the last four years that included travel, food, gifts to employees and entertainment expenses, a state audit concluded Tuesday. Among the improper expenses, the lottery agency spent $21,666 to give staff logo-branded swag such as T-shirts, backpacks, lip balm and iPad cases, labeling the purchases learning aids and training tools, according to the audit by state Controller Betty Yee. The finan
Apr 11, 2019, 9:32 am - Lottery News

Former security chief grilled by CT Lottery lawyer at hearingNews Story
Fallout from 2018 botched raffle draw continues A hearing on an ex-lottery official's whistleblower complaint grew heated Wednesday over the question of why a Connecticut Lottery Corp. drawing team entered the wrong numbers into a computerized random number generator on Jan. 1, 2018, in a million-dollar blunder that required a do-over drawing two weeks later and has never stopped causing trouble since. Wednesday's heat arose from lottery lawyer Jim Shea's cross-examination of Alfred DuPuis
Apr 4, 2019, 10:32 am - Lottery News

Illinois Lottery glitch causes trouble for retailers, including overpayment to winnersNews Story
The Illinois Lottery's transition to a new central gaming system has caused trouble for some retailers, including overpayments to winners. The ticket validation issue was discovered Feb. 20 and resolved the same day, said Illinois Lottery spokesman Jason Schaumburg, who didn't know how much extra money was awarded. Stores that paid out incorrect winnings can be reimbursed if they submit a written account of the error to the central lottery office in Springfield, said Bill Fleischli, the ex
Mar 4, 2019, 3:20 pm - Lottery News

NM Lottery Pick 4 computerized drawing glitch made many tickets worthlessNews Story
Players can get a refund IF they held onto losing tickets By Todd Northrop When the New Mexico Lottery introduced its latest lottery draw game, Pick 4, in early February, players had no idea that many of the tickets they purchased were completely worthless with no chance of winning. That's because the game's computerized drawings were incorrectly programmed, making combinations with repeat digits impossible to be drawn. Only combinations in which every digit was different were able to b
Feb 21, 2019, 7:25 pm - Lottery News

CT Lottery all-in on sports betting in stateNews Story
The Connecticut Lottery is making a big push to include sports betting across the state. Sports betting is a top priority for this year's General Assembly session and Governor Lamont is on board with the concept. One year after a big blunder with a special New Year's super draw game in 2018, which has been attributed to human error, the new president and CEO of the Connecticut Lottery is touting that last budget year, the lottery games made $345 million for the state and gave out about $80
Jan 17, 2019, 8:13 pm - Lottery News

DC Lottery to payout $127K for reporting wrong winning numbersNews Story
The D.C. Lottery says it is paying out tens of thousands of dollars to people who have losing tickets after the lottery reported the wrong winning numbers due to human error. The mistake is limited to the evening drawings of the DC-2, DC-3, DC-4 and DC-5 games on Dec. 12, 2018. According to data provided by D.C. Lottery, 773 losing tickets were designated as winning because of the error. The total winnings for those tickets is $127,505. As of Tuesday, 443 of the tickets had been redeemed
Jan 11, 2019, 8:07 pm - Lottery News

Connecticut Lottery considering switch to computerized drawingsNews Story
Apparently new CEO looking to make things even worse at beleaguered lottery By Jon Lender The Connecticut Lottery Corp. (CLC) is quietly examining possible changes to the drawing procedures by which it selects winning numbers in its various games from the daily Play 3 game on up and one option under consideration is to discontinue live TV drawings that have been broadcast on local stations since 1977. Another option could be that, in addition to taking the drawings off TV, the lottery w
Dec 30, 2018, 10:04 am - Lottery News