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CT Lottery workers 'getting the job done' despite agency upheavalNews Story
Editorial by Rob Raczka and Mark Negralle As state employees and union stewards at the beleaguered Connecticut Lottery Corporation, we will be the first to tell you it's extraordinarily difficult to work in an environment described by our colleagues in an internal survey as fear-based, toxic and North Korea-like. It angers us that controversy and scandal have tainted our agency and generated a seemingly endless stream of news stories exposing the questionable practices of some senior mana
Sep 1, 2019, 12:38 pm - Lottery News

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

Federal authorities investigating illegal NJ 'lottery' pool, sources sayNews Story
Multiple people, including one county employee, have been called to testify in a federal probe into an alleged illegal lottery contest that hundreds of Hudson County employees pay a $20 fee to enter, multiple sources told The Jersey Journal. The feds are looking into whether the organizers of the game, based on numbers drawn in the state lottery's official Pick 6, are taking a cut of the total pool money. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark did not return a call for commen
Jul 25, 2019, 7:35 pm - Lottery News

CT Lottery quiet as uncomfortable allegations pile upNews Story
For a moment it looked like some meaningful information might be released to the public this week about the latest upheaval at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. (CLC) this time in the form of an order Monday that lottery Vice President Chelsea Turner be placed on an indefinite leave, six days after disclosing in sworn testimony that she contacted the FBI in about 2014 with suspicions of wrongdoing by a superior. But it hasn't turned out that way. The CLC's board of directors scheduled a specia
Jul 19, 2019, 8:22 am - Lottery News

Details emerge about CT Lottery CEO secretly recording board chairman in 2014News Story
More 'dirty laundry' revealed by botched raffle draw investigation Connecticut Lottery Corp. Vice President Chelsea Turner testified Tuesday that around 2014, she and then-lottery CEO Anne Noble had such suspicions about Frank Farricker, then chairman of the lottery's governing board, that she contacted an agent she knew in the FBI which then had Noble record Farricker secretly in at least one meeting. The small recording device was concealed inside an eyeglass case, Turner testified under
Jul 12, 2019, 7:50 am - Lottery News

California Lottery director resigns amid investigationsNews Story
California State Lottery Director Hugo Lopez is stepping down immediately, he announced in an email to lottery staff on Friday. Lopez has led the department since 2015. It's been under scrutiny from the Department of Justice and the State Controller's Office since August, when anonymous employees sent a letter to former Gov. Jerry Brown's office alleging misconduct among senior executives at sales conferences. Lopez in his message said he was proud of the department's performance, particul
Jun 10, 2019, 8:18 am - Lottery News

UK Lottery refuses to pay out £4 million win on suspicions ticket was bought with stolen bank cardNews Story
UK Lottery officials have refused to pay out a 4 million (US$5.2 million) jackpot to two players who they suspect had purchased the winning ticket with a stolen debit card. Lottery operator Camelot grew suspicious of Mark Goodram, 36, and Jon-Ross Watson, 31, when it emerged neither of them had a bank account to receive the winnings. The pair reportedly could not explain where the debit card had come from, claiming it was a mystery friend named John but could not give his surname, address
Apr 26, 2019, 10:43 am - Lottery News

California Lottery official dismissed amid investigationsNews Story
A senior California Lottery executive has been dismissed from his position six months after anonymous state employees sent a letter to the Governor's Office complaining about rowdy behavior among a group of the lottery's top brass. Deputy Director of Sales James David Cole's dismissal comes amid ongoing investigations into hiring practices and alleged misconduct by senior lottery executives during a 2016 sales conference. Cole was notified Feb. 1 that his employment would be officially ter
Mar 26, 2019, 9:23 am - Lottery News

Undercover Kentucky Lottery investigation snares three store employees trying to steal prizesNews Story
An undercover operation conducted by the Kentucky Lottery has nabbed three store clerks trying to steal winning tickets. A grand jury in Louisville has handed down indictments against three individuals charged with influencing the winning of a lottery prize through coercion, fraud, deception or tampering with lottery equipment or materials, and a separate charge of providing false information to a lottery investigator. The first charge is a class B felony carrying a possible sentence between
Feb 28, 2019, 3:31 pm - Lottery News

Identical winning numbers crop up in hundreds of U.S. lotteries. Are the drawings really random?News Story
By Jason Clayworth America's popular and lucrative lottery drawings, in which computers randomly select numbers that turn a lucky few into instant millionaires, may not be as random as they seem. In dozens of the games across the United States, identical winning numbers have been generated within weeks or months of each other sometimes in consecutive drawings, a Des Moines Register investigation shows. Lottery officials, even some who have previously acknowledged concern with the nation
Jan 31, 2019, 11:49 am - Lottery News