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Georgia Gov. signs bill allowing lottery winners to remain anonymousNews Story
By Todd Northrop Georgia has joined a small but growing number of states that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. On Monday Georgia governor Nathan Deal signed a bill allowing lottery winners with prizes over $250,000 to keep their identity secret upon request. Prior to this point, Georgia state law required disclosure of big lottery winners' names and hometown be disclosed if requested under the state's Open Records Act, but did not require them to take photographs with oversize
May 12, 2018, 8:47 am - Lottery News

Georgia Senate passes bill that would give lottery winners anonymityNews Story
A proposal that would allow Georgia lottery winners to remain anonymous took an important step forward Monday. The state Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that allows any Georgian who wins more than $250,000 in a lottery to keep their name from being disclosed. The bill's proponents have said eight states have laws that allow winners partial or complete anonymity. The legislation now goes to the state House of Representatives. The lawmakers who drafted Senate Bill 331 said the legislatio
Feb 6, 2018, 8:33 am - Lottery News

Georgia bill would allow lottery winners to remain anonymous — for a priceNews Story
The Georgia Senate's higher education committee voted in favor Tuesday of allowing a bill to move forward that would allow lottery winners to remain anonymous but they would have to pay for that privacy. Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 331, said the legislation is aimed at protecting multi-million dollar lottery winners from scam artists and other criminals. It could put you at risk, Henson said during Tuesday's committee meeting. Henson said eight
Jan 31, 2018, 8:12 am - Lottery News

Georgia group fights to prevent lottery winners from claiming anonymouslyNews Story
An open-government advocacy group has denounced a bipartisan proposal being considered by the Georgia Senate that would allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. The Georgia First Amendment Foundation said in a statement that the proposed legislation raised transparency concerns. Clearly, letting a government agency hand out millions of dollars to private citizens with no public record is a bad idea, the group's statement said. Democratic Sen. Steve Henson of Stone Mountain, who sponsored
Jan 29, 2018, 8:30 pm - Lottery News

Georgia Lottery denies millions in prizes to winners of scratch-off gamesNews Story
The Georgia Lottery Commission has refused to pay more than $17.1 million in scratch-off game prizes since 2014 the year lottery officials instituted a policy of investigating big-money winners. The lottery has issued 270 denial letters to winners of $1,000 or more in the past four years, citing a variety of suspicions that could be fraud: people who claim multiple winning games in a relatively short period of time; winners who can't identify where or when the game was purchased; or individua
Dec 20, 2017, 7:13 pm - Lottery News

Georgia Lottery gets new director Jan. 1News Story
Georgia Lottery President Debbie Alford, who has headed the agency that raises money for the HOPE scholarship and prekindergarten classes since 2012, is retiring from her post. Gov. Nathan Deal announced Tuesday that he is nominating Gretchen Corbin, the commissioner of the state's technical college system, to replace Alford. Corbin was previously commissioner of the state's Department of Community Affairs. The lottery board will vote on the recommendation, but the vote is typically a formali
Nov 28, 2017, 9:23 pm - Lottery News

Georgia court awards Alabama man $1 million lottery winNews Story
This is the tale of a ticket a lottery ticket, that is. It began on a February day in 2013 and it ended last week in an Atlanta courtroom, leaving an Alabama man $1 million richer. Gadsden attorneys Jack Floyd and John Floyd represented Attalla retiree Larry Payne when a Gadsden woman claimed a winning lottery ticket belonged to her. Jack Floyd recounted details of the case. Larry's hobby is restoring old vehicles. On Feb. 13, 2015, he and his cousin, Jimmy Payne, went to Jasper, Tennessee
Jul 31, 2017, 9:33 am - Lottery News

Lottery winner gets 21 years for financing drug trafficking operationNews Story
Ronnie Music Jr., a Waycross, Georgia man who sank part of $3 million in lottery winnings into methamphetamine trafficking, will spend the next 21 years in prison on drug conspiracy and firearms charges. Last July, the 46-year-old Music admitted his involvement in multi-state drug trafficking, including a ring being run from a Georgia prison that he fronted with lottery winnings. He also pleaded guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. (See Lottery winner invested $3M i
Apr 4, 2017, 5:28 pm - Lottery News

Judge rules whistleblower suit against Georgia Lottery can go forwardNews Story
A whistleblower lawsuit claiming a Georgia Lottery executive was fired after refusing to support inflated sales projections should go to trial, a Fulton County Superior Court judge decided this week. Kenneth Knight, former vice president for financial management at the Georgia Lottery, argued that he was pressured by Lottery President Debbie Alford and his boss to present the lottery board with flawed sales projections in April 2014. Knight says in the lawsuit that he told his boss about prob
Mar 22, 2017, 9:13 am - Lottery News

Georgia Lottery to add extra Cash 3, Cash 4 drawingsNews Story
By Todd Northrop Georgia Lottery daily numbers games players will get extra opportunities to play every day starting Sunday. Beginning on Feb. 12, the Georgia Lottery is adding an additional Cash 3 drawing late at night, and an extra Cash 4 drawing in the early evening. The new drawings mean that a total of three Cash 3 and Cash 4 drawings will be held every day, at the same times. The current drawing schedule is a bit odd, with Cash 3 and Cash 4 both holding a midday drawing at 12:29 p
Feb 10, 2017, 11:49 am - Lottery News