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Florida grandmother says state agency's mistake cost her lottery winningsNews Story
Includes video report Bobbi Segel said she can still remember the feeling she had scratching off the winning lottery ticket. According to my children, I sounded like a teenager in high school squealing at her prom date, Segel said. Segel said she was hoping to use $1,000 she won on an upcoming family trip she had already planned. I thought, 'Woo hoo! Vacation! Party! Key West, Segel said. That was all that was going through my mind at the time of winning that lottery. She also
Jul 9, 2019, 11:49 am - Lottery News

New York seizes $20 million in lottery prizes from people on public assistanceNews Story
New York state has reclaimed nearly $20 million in lottery prizes since 2013 from winners who had received public assistance in the last 10 years. The little-known program, one of the toughest of its kind in the country, has grabbed back prizes from an estimated 30,000 winners in the last four years. At least six other states have similar programs, but New York is the only state that seizes prizes of those on public assistance, experts said. Other programs take back unpaid child support pa
Jul 5, 2017, 9:27 am - Lottery News

Tennessee bill advances to remove lottery winners from government assistanceNews Story
The Tennessee House on Monday passed a bill despite opposition from Democrats that, if it becomes law, would require the names of lottery winners to be cross checked with federal and state government assistance programs. Sponsored by Rep. Dan Howell, R-Georgetown, passed by a 73-21 near party-line vote on Monday night. The bill would make any lottery winner of prizes more than $5,000 ineligible for government assistance. Howell said federal law, which has a lower prize threshold, requires
Feb 28, 2017, 3:52 pm - Lottery News

Maine moves to disqualify lottery winners from receiving food stampsNews Story
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced a new rule to ban food stamps for major lottery and gambling winners. The new rule allows for the immediate termination of benefits when a welfare recipient collects winnings of $5,000 or more in one calendar month, the department announced in a press release. The prize will continue to count as an asset that could disqualify a person from welfare under the asset limits recently adopted by the LePage administration. A l
Oct 25, 2016, 10:08 am - Lottery News

Bill would send NC lottery winner info to food stamp officeNews Story
Legislation directing the North Carolina lottery to disclose winners of substantial cash prizes to state social services officials as an anti-fraud initiative for food stamps received initial House approval Wednesday. The chamber voted 75-38 largely along party lines for the bill, which a chief sponsor said would seek to ensure the federal benefits are going to the needy. The North Carolina Education Lottery would provide names and jackpot amounts of those people winning at least $2,250 to
Jun 17, 2016, 9:58 am - Lottery News

Some on welfare bet big on Maine lottery in pursuit of life-changing winNews Story
Murky state rules mean those who do collect larger prizes may not even lose their public benefits Maine residents on public assistance have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lottery tickets, according to an estimate based on the $22.4 million in large prizes they collected between 2010 and 2014, including eight jackpots worth at least $500,000 each. Yet state rules are so murky that the winnings do not necessarily disqualify anyone from continuing to receive food stamps and other be
Dec 16, 2015, 9:18 am - Lottery News

Brooklyn man wins court battle to collect entire $10K lottery prize that he won in 2007News Story
It took a while and a decision by the state's highest court but a 69-year-old Vietnam vet from Brooklyn, New York, can finally enjoy all his 2007 lottery winnings. The Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that state officials were wrong to claim half of Walter Carver's $10,000 lottery jackpot as a reimbursement for public assistance benefits he received years before he bought the winning ticket. We are thrilled, said Carver's attorney Susan Antos. This has been a long battle. Because Carve
Nov 24, 2015, 12:37 pm - Lottery News

NJ lottery winners still receiving welfare, food stamps, audit saysNews Story
An audit sniffing out fraud in New Jersey's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program detected 66 lottery winners who were perhaps too lucky. They were all welfare and food stamps beneficiaries who had each won more than $10,000, including one person who had been collecting $1,000 a week from the Win for Life scratch-off game prior to 2009. Ten other winners netted more than $100,000 in lottery proceeds from 2011 to 2013. All of them were still collecting food stamps this year, according to t
Dec 6, 2014, 2:52 pm - Lottery News

800+ Michigan Lottery winners kicked off public assistance in 2013News Story
More than 7,200 Michigan Lottery winners were living in households that received public assistance of some kind in 2013, and the state was able to close about 11 percent of those cases as a result. The Michigan Department of Human Services shared those findings Thursday in its latest lottery match report, analyzing the impact of a 2012 law that allows the agency to cross-check lottery winnings with public assistance programs and, in some cases, end benefits. DHS identified 7,216 lotto play
Oct 25, 2014, 1:41 pm - Lottery News

Loopholes allow some Michigan lottery winners to stay on welfareNews Story
A Michigan agency has removed more than 500 lottery winners from certain welfare programs because of a new state law that cross-references winners with recipients of some types of aid. But the Department of Human Services says many more welfare cases could be ended if what it calls loopholes were closed, or if laws were altered or expanded. The Department of Human Services on Monday issued a report that covers findings from April through December 2012. It relates to a law signed last Ap
Apr 16, 2013, 8:18 am - Lottery News