It's not about retailers always having the cash; it's about some retailers that never have the cash. It's not about accepting a money order as form of payment, it's about being told they can't or won't cash the ticket they sold us.
Albertson’s and Publix cash personal, payroll, and IRS refund checks, but some times run out of cash and will put up sign. There are probably many small stores that keep cash on hand to pay lottery tickets under $600 that run out of money too. And they either put up a sign or the clerk will tell you when you try to cash the ticket and maybe give you the option of taking a check or money order.
"What if 3 or 4 people walked into the store that day?"
Let's say last night you won and the ticket is worth $150 so tonight you decide to buy some extra Fantasy5 or Lotto tickets with your winnings. So you go to the store where you bought the ticket, buy the tickets, and hand the clerk the winning ticket as payment and he tells you he can't cash tickets over $100. Hopefully you'll have enough cash to pay for what you bought and take the ticket somewhere else.
Cashing a ticket means handing it to the clerk for payment and if money orders are a form of payment, why don't the tickets, lottery websites, or the stores tell us that before we buy or try to cash the ticket?
With the price of gas I can understand why clerks don't want to payout cash to lottery winners. It cost over $30 to fill up a small car and after filling up and I hand the clerk a $50, I don't want the change in money orders.
"I wonder if people who only want cash are afraid of having some sort of paper trail??"
That's assuming the store has money orders; some don't. It's pretty easy to put up a sign saying "lottery winnings between $100 and $600 will be paid by money order" and if people have a problem with that, they can go somewhere else.
I'd be happy to get a money order but the store still has to have the funds to pay for it. I think that and/or not wanting to wait for reimbursement by the lottery is why some stores won't cash tickets.
That is a problem between lottery advertising and their agents but the players get caught in the middle. If money orders are form of payment, fine; then all the stores should do that, but they tell us they can't cash the ticket and go somewhere else.