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Uncle Sam Wins Your LotteryNews Story
Attention, lottery players: If you win a nice big prize, opt to take it as a stream of payments and then change your mind and wish you had taken it as a lump sum, don't expect any special tax benefits if you sell your annuity for immediate cash.Over and over in the past few years and especially since capital gains tax rates were lowered in 2001 lottery winners have sold their rights to future payments and tried to treat what they got in exchange as capital gains.Since capital gains are now t
Nov 28, 2005, 9:12 am - Lottery News

Gullible woman bilked out of $100K in lottery scamNews Story
A Tucson, Arizona, woman who said she was playing a free Internet lottery game was bilked out of nearly $100,000, according to sheriff's officials.The woman contacted the Sheriff's Department on Oct. 20 and told deputies about the lottery game called Universal Swiss Lottery, which she said she had been playing on the Internet. The game required no money to play.In March 2004, the woman said, she was contacted and told that she had won 2 million euros, according to the Sheriff's Department, which
Nov 3, 2005, 1:18 pm - 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

Lottery 'syndicate' is a pyramid scamNews Story
Every week, Tony Hetherington of This is Money (UK) replies to readers' letters, adding comments, advice and the results of his enquiries. If you think you are a victim of financial mismanagement, or want advice before investing, write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS. Sorry, but he cannot give personal replies. Please send only copies of documents - if these are relevant to your enquiry. We regret that they cannot be returned.A. W. writes: I attended a present
Oct 24, 2005, 9:12 am - Lottery News

Intralot Signs Deal With Montana LotteryNews Story
Greek gaming operator Intralot said Wednesday it has signed a seven-year contract with the state lottery of Montana to supply a new online and instant gaming system.The contract will begin March 31, 2006, and includes the possibility of three one-year extensions.Intralot said the total deal, including the possible three-year extension, is worth $25 million. The company will install gaming equipment, software and related services.It said it will install a minimum of 750 of its Coronis terminals a
Oct 12, 2005, 9:04 am - Lottery News

Lottery Winner Sentenced For Failing To Pay TaxesNews Story
A big lottery winner from Chevy Chase, Maryland, has been ordered to serve six months of home confinement for failing to report his windfall to state tax collectors.It's part of a three-year suspended sentence for Faegh Ansari-Jaberi. The state attorney general's office said Ansari-Jaberi, 57, failed to file state tax returns between 2000 and 2002.Ansari-Jaberi admitted to having received more than $158,000 in lottery winnings between 2000 and 2002 none of which he reported to the state.Additi
Oct 6, 2005, 10:33 am - Lottery News

GTECH may enter supreme court hearingsNews Story
A former Texas lottery official, who claimed that then-Gov. George W. Bush's desire to cover up his National Guard record helped steer decisions about a key lottery contract, said he wants to talk to senators about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' possible role in that effort. If I were to be subpoenaed to come to the thing, I would come, said Lawrence Littwin, who filed a lawsuit after he was fired as the lottery's executive director in 1997. I would say the committee, I think, would be i
Oct 5, 2005, 11:57 am - Lottery News

Lottery winner hangs self 7 years after collecting winNews Story
Seven years ago, Gerald Muswagon was all smiles as his troubled life took a fairy-tale turn when he won a $10 million lottery jackpot.On Sunday, Mr. Muswagon hanged himself in his parent's garage.It was a shocking end for a man who appeared to have the world at his fingertips, yet clearly never could grasp the instant fame and fortune he was handed through his lucky $2 Super 7 ticket. People are very upset, and this is all very surprising, said his cousin, Mike Muswagon. But he had been very d
Oct 5, 2005, 9:31 am - Lottery News

Former Texas Lottery Director is Bush's Pick for Supreme CourtNews Story
Harriet Miers proved to be a tough, no-nonsense administrator during her five years heading the Texas Lottery Commission, firing two executive directors to stamp out scandal but leaving unexpectedly amid lagging sales and player interest.President Bush tapped Miers on Monday for the Supreme Court, a nomination that prompted closer scrutiny of Miers' years in Texas as a private attorney, a member of the Dallas City Council and chairwoman of the three-member commission that oversees the state's lo
Oct 3, 2005, 3:07 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