When Jeffrey Hintz won the Wisconsin Lottery’s second-chance drawing five weeks in a row, some in state government got a little suspicious.
Turns out, Hintz just got lucky, an investigation concluded.
Investigators with the state’s Department of Revenue found no signs of fraud in his five-week winning streak in March and April.
Hintz and his wife, Lisa, have won almost $73,000 in cash prizes from the state lottery since 1999. More than $65,000 came from drawings.
But the couple’s five-week winning streak in the lottery’s weekly second-chance drawing raised suspicions of fraud and prompted Rep. David Cullen, D-Milwaukee, to request the investigation.
Given how many tickets they were sending in for the drawing, the odds of their winning five times in a row were 1 in 14,397, auditors said.
Jeffrey Hintz told auditors he spent thousands of dollars on lottery tickets every week and countless hours stamping envelopes with the lottery’s address so he could enter losing tickets in the weekly drawings.
Auditors estimated Hintz sent in 500 entries for the drawings each week. People are allowed to enter the drawings as often as they want, but each entry must include at least $5 worth of tickets. That means Hintz was sending in at least $2,500 in tickets a week, and postage alone would have cost $185 a week.
“It doesn’t necessarily surprise me that that someone would be that lucky,” Cullen said. “It surprises me that someone would (enter that often). They’re spending a lot of time and resources on the lottery.”
Auditors said Hintz bought most of the tickets he sent in, but players do not have to purchase all the tickets they enter. One retailer said Hintz sometimes picked up discarded tickets off the floor.
Another retailer said Hintz typically buys $30 to $100 in tickets a day. A grocery store employee said Hintz would buy $70 a day over his lunch break, and he sometimes spends $400 at a time on tickets.
Hintz told auditors he made up stamps with his name and address and with the lottery’s address on them so he could more quickly enter batches of tickets in the second-chance drawing. He said he sent the entries on different days and from different locations because he believed it would boost his chances of winning.
Hintz told auditors he was no longer entering the drawings because of news coverage. The Hintzes did not return a message left at their home Saturday by The Associated Press.
Win to often you get investigated WHHEEEEEEEW
Win to often you get investigated WHHEEEEEEEW
You said it!
Rep. David Cullen, D-Milwaukee <=== Guess some politicians just can not stand the thought of somebody being more of a crook then they are huh?
Win to often you get investigated WHHEEEEEEEW
well...guess it's better then getting your legs broken and left in the desert like it use to be in the old Vegas huh?
I suppose that must mean that if a person figured out a consistent way to predict what numbers were going to hit, and if he entered freqently to use the system, it would be considered fraud?
I'm betting those folks won't be winning again for a while, even if they have a system. Never seen a fortune cookie with a 'Get out of jail free' card inside.
Jack
I suppose that must mean that if a person figured out a consistent way to predict what numbers were going to hit, and if he entered freqently to use the system, it would be considered fraud?
I'm betting those folks won't be winning again for a while, even if they have a system. Never seen a fortune cookie with a 'Get out of jail free' card inside.
Jack
Auditors estimated Hintz sent in 500 entries for the drawings each week. People are allowed to enter the drawings as often as they want, but each entry must include at least $5 worth of tickets. That means Hintz was sending in at least $2,500 in tickets a week, and postage alone would have cost $185 a week. "
That's INSANE spending !
Depends on whether it was really all a matter of luck, and whether they won more than they lost. Or whether, if they lost, they didn't lose their shirt.
Nice thing about the lottery is that it's something the family can do together that doesn't involve talking heads and rap music, or whips and handcuffs. These folks must have spent all their time filling out slips. If they have kids, they won't remember pop sitting around watching football and slugging down beer and chips. They'll remember 'doing' things with mom and dad.
J
Quoting the article, "Jeffrey Hintz told auditors he spent thousands of dollars on lottery tickets every week and countless hours stamping envelopes with the lottery’s address so he could enter losing tickets in the weekly drawings."
And once again, "Another retailer said Hintz typically buys $30 to $100 in tickets a day. A grocery store employee said Hintz would buy $70 a day over his lunch break, and he sometimes spends $400 at a time on tickets."
I'm not too worried about possibility of fraud with them winning that much that often. I'm more worried if they will break even seeing how much they play.
How dare someone actually win the lottery!
Bad lottery player!
Bad lottery player!
Orangeman
i agree,its silly that if we win too much they do that.even if one person starts winning a lot it isn't like that one person is gonna make the lottery commission go broke,if anything the lottery ought to advertise it and that will make more players play.turn a positive into a positive.
Quoting the article, "Jeffrey Hintz told auditors he spent thousands of dollars on lottery tickets every week and countless hours stamping envelopes with the lottery’s address so he could enter losing tickets in the weekly drawings."
And once again, "Another retailer said Hintz typically buys $30 to $100 in tickets a day. A grocery store employee said Hintz would buy $70 a day over his lunch break, and he sometimes spends $400 at a time on tickets."
I'm not too worried about possibility of fraud with them winning that much that often. I'm more worried if they will break even seeing how much they play.
I hope he has enough money to cover all of that plus his bills too. That sounds like a lot to me BUT it all depends on income.
it does come out to be a lot of money spent.....
Depends on whether it was really all a matter of luck, and whether they won more than they lost. Or whether, if they lost, they didn't lose their shirt.
Nice thing about the lottery is that it's something the family can do together that doesn't involve talking heads and rap music, or whips and handcuffs. These folks must have spent all their time filling out slips. If they have kids, they won't remember pop sitting around watching football and slugging down beer and chips. They'll remember 'doing' things with mom and dad.
J
No Rip, you missed the point. You don't fill out slips to enter the 2nd Chance here. For each entry you have to send in five bucks worth of losing tickets. That is why the auditor calculated that this family was spending $2,500 a week on the lottery ! That's based upon the number of entries they were making.
i agree,its silly that if we win too much they do that.even if one person starts winning a lot it isn't like that one person is gonna make the lottery commission go broke,if anything the lottery ought to advertise it and that will make more players play.turn a positive into a positive.
Depends on whether it was really all a matter of luck, and whether they won more than they lost. Or whether, if they lost, they didn't lose their shirt.
Nice thing about the lottery is that it's something the family can do together that doesn't involve talking heads and rap music, or whips and handcuffs. These folks must have spent all their time filling out slips. If they have kids, they won't remember pop sitting around watching football and slugging down beer and chips. They'll remember 'doing' things with mom and dad.
J
No Rip, you missed the point. You don't fill out slips to enter the 2nd Chance here. For each entry you have to send in five bucks worth of losing tickets. That is why the auditor calculated that this family was spending $2,500 a week on the lottery ! That's based upon the number of entries they were making.
In that case, maybe they were, and maybe they weren't .
There's a tax advantage in NM if you win any money, to having a lot of dead loss tickets. I used to know a guy in Socorro who knew every convenience store clerk in town, related to most of them, and had them save every losing ticket someone gave them to check and to throw away, then pass them on to him.
Mike was his name, and Mike could have easily shown to be spending that amount, or more on lottery tickets.
I'd be amazed if something similar couldn't be arranged anywhere in the US if a person wanted to go to the trouble of doing it.
J
This story make one think if any of those stories about people who have never won a jackpot but win enough to make a living playing the lotteries regularly were true, the lotteries would know about them.
Depends on whether it was really all a matter of luck, and whether they won more than they lost. Or whether, if they lost, they didn't lose their shirt.
Nice thing about the lottery is that it's something the family can do together that doesn't involve talking heads and rap music, or whips and handcuffs. These folks must have spent all their time filling out slips. If they have kids, they won't remember pop sitting around watching football and slugging down beer and chips. They'll remember 'doing' things with mom and dad.
J
No Rip, you missed the point. You don't fill out slips to enter the 2nd Chance here. For each entry you have to send in five bucks worth of losing tickets. That is why the auditor calculated that this family was spending $2,500 a week on the lottery ! That's based upon the number of entries they were making.
In that case, maybe they were, and maybe they weren't .
There's a tax advantage in NM if you win any money, to having a lot of dead loss tickets. I used to know a guy in Socorro who knew every convenience store clerk in town, related to most of them, and had them save every losing ticket someone gave them to check and to throw away, then pass them on to him.
Mike was his name, and Mike could have easily shown to be spending that amount, or more on lottery tickets.
I'd be amazed if something similar couldn't be arranged anywhere in the US if a person wanted to go to the trouble of doing it.
J
I used to do that. Collect losing tickets just in case I did hit a big one I could right off some of the winnings.
This story make one think if any of those stories about people who have never won a jackpot but win enough to make a living playing the lotteries regularly were true, the lotteries would know about them.
i really wonder....
Rep. David Cullen, D-Milwaukee <=== Guess some politicians just can not stand the thought of somebody being more of a crook then they are huh?
No body is more of a crook than our politicians. We just had our 3rd alderman in four years indited for campaign fraud. Nosiree, we can take pride in the Milwaukee politicians being dirty, scheming connivers. That's why they run for election.
Depends on whether it was really all a matter of luck, and whether they won more than they lost. Or whether, if they lost, they didn't lose their shirt.
Nice thing about the lottery is that it's something the family can do together that doesn't involve talking heads and rap music, or whips and handcuffs. These folks must have spent all their time filling out slips. If they have kids, they won't remember pop sitting around watching football and slugging down beer and chips. They'll remember 'doing' things with mom and dad.
J
No Rip, you missed the point. You don't fill out slips to enter the 2nd Chance here. For each entry you have to send in five bucks worth of losing tickets. That is why the auditor calculated that this family was spending $2,500 a week on the lottery ! That's based upon the number of entries they were making.
In that case, maybe they were, and maybe they weren't .
There's a tax advantage in NM if you win any money, to having a lot of dead loss tickets. I used to know a guy in Socorro who knew every convenience store clerk in town, related to most of them, and had them save every losing ticket someone gave them to check and to throw away, then pass them on to him.
Mike was his name, and Mike could have easily shown to be spending that amount, or more on lottery tickets.
I'd be amazed if something similar couldn't be arranged anywhere in the US if a person wanted to go to the trouble of doing it.
J
But iin Wisconsin, the state has a specific tax law against what you mention. You are not allowed to deduct your losses in gambling (even to the extent of your winnings) at all on your taxes. So this wouldn't help them. Whatever you lose on gambling in this state, you lose. No tax advantage whatsoever. I think part of the reason they passed that law was because people were doing things like you mentioned "Mike" was doing. Our politicians really, really hate for there to be any loopholes at all that could keep them out of our pockets. That's why many of us refer to our fine state as "Taxconsin". It's also why we're the 3rd or 4th highest taxed state in the nation.
Depends on whether it was really all a matter of luck, and whether they won more than they lost. Or whether, if they lost, they didn't lose their shirt.
Nice thing about the lottery is that it's something the family can do together that doesn't involve talking heads and rap music, or whips and handcuffs. These folks must have spent all their time filling out slips. If they have kids, they won't remember pop sitting around watching football and slugging down beer and chips. They'll remember 'doing' things with mom and dad.
J
No Rip, you missed the point. You don't fill out slips to enter the 2nd Chance here. For each entry you have to send in five bucks worth of losing tickets. That is why the auditor calculated that this family was spending $2,500 a week on the lottery ! That's based upon the number of entries they were making.
In that case, maybe they were, and maybe they weren't .
There's a tax advantage in NM if you win any money, to having a lot of dead loss tickets. I used to know a guy in Socorro who knew every convenience store clerk in town, related to most of them, and had them save every losing ticket someone gave them to check and to throw away, then pass them on to him.
Mike was his name, and Mike could have easily shown to be spending that amount, or more on lottery tickets.
I'd be amazed if something similar couldn't be arranged anywhere in the US if a person wanted to go to the trouble of doing it.
J
But iin Wisconsin, the state has a specific tax law against what you mention. You are not allowed to deduct your losses in gambling (even to the extent of your winnings) at all on your taxes. So this wouldn't help them. Whatever you lose on gambling in this state, you lose. No tax advantage whatsoever. I think part of the reason they passed that law was because people were doing things like you mentioned "Mike" was doing. Our politicians really, really hate for there to be any loopholes at all that could keep them out of our pockets. That's why many of us refer to our fine state as "Taxconsin". It's also why we're the 3rd or 4th highest taxed state in the nation.
Nice State, though. At least it was the last time I tubed down the Apple River, maybe 35 years ago.
But as to whether the these people spent $2500 bucks a week on lottery tickets, or merely gave the appearance of spending that much, I'd say you folks in WI must be pretty surprisingly law abiding if you're willing to assume nobody does it, simply because it's verboten in the Criminal Code of Wisconsin. You're lucky to live in such a place.
Here in NM we break all manner of laws (of which this is probably one, though I haven't checked) just getting through day-to-day life and never pause to notice. If these people were in New Mexico they'd be in grave danger of having dug those tickets out of the trash, whether or not it was a criminal offense. If they gave a free ticket for every five dead ones, but said we couldn't use the ones discarded by others we'd all be dumpster-diving and knifing one another over the proceeds down at the County Landfill.
Nice, law abiding population up where you are.
Jack
I'm not sure if you can deduct losers against NY state tax.
A surprising admission.
Jack
Nice State, though. At least it was the last time I tubed down the Apple River, maybe 35 years ago.
But as to whether the these people spent $2500 bucks a week on lottery tickets, or merely gave the appearance of spending that much, I'd say you folks in WI must be pretty surprisingly law abiding if you're willing to assume nobody does it, simply because it's verboten in the Criminal Code of Wisconsin. You're lucky to live in such a place.
Here in NM we break all manner of laws (of which this is probably one, though I haven't checked) just getting through day-to-day life and never pause to notice. If these people were in New Mexico they'd be in grave danger of having dug those tickets out of the trash, whether or not it was a criminal offense. If they gave a free ticket for every five dead ones, but said we couldn't use the ones discarded by others we'd all be dumpster-diving and knifing one another over the proceeds down at the County Landfill.
Nice, law abiding population up where you are.
It's got nothing to do with lawabiding. You can not declare any gambling losses on your state taxes here. You can have all the losing tickets you want. There is no place on the tax form for it because it is not allowed see? If you tried to write it in as some kind of deduction, you'd send up a red flag, be audited and it would be disallowed. Nobody can get away with it. If you win a million bucks and you have a million bucks in losing tickets, you can not "wash out" the win with a deduction for the losses. It is just not possible on the state taxes. Now years ago, it was allowed. Then they changed the tax law.
I save my losers, and now I keep a written record of my purchases.
good way of thinking....