I think there is just too much insider info being passed around and by that I mean that thousands of
people play these games and run into hundreds of clerks who hear the stories associated with playing
them. When the game itself is seemingly so large and widespread that a chance of cheating and having
an inside edge seems impossible, I'd be reconsidering that notion. If I consider my local tobacco shop
alone, there are hundreds of players that go there to buy instants and dailys...there is a LOT of talk
in that shop. I don't suspect the clerk of anything underhanded or wrong but he stocks the machines,
activates the packs, keeps the counter tickets stocked well even if he has to put the remaining 3 or so
from the last pack on top of the new pack...no tape, they just kind of hang there. He activates them,
validates them, is accustomed to ticket numbers and player preferences...which, by the way, the ticket
numbers are VERY important to some people. Being a clerk he has insight which most players don't even
think about - why would they? Most people come in, order their tickets, scratch them or take them home.
Some players come in and TALK....and they talk about what they know.
I think it gives a clerk...any clerk....the advantage of not having to play the tickets him/herself yet gain
tons of information (ticket numbers, winning amounts, winning games, losing games, etc. etc.) without
the clerk having to spend a red cent.
I just always considered it a conflict for a clerk to be able to play tickets - it seems to me that it's like
the fox in charge of the hen house. Money is a motivator in the wrong direction for some people. The
lottery has to change it's security measures once in awhile to hinder cheats...but the cheats find ways
around them. I've seen suspicious things on instant tickets already that I had to report. In some IVM's
and counter tickets, I've gotten tickets that are missing some latex here and there..AND this is on tickets
that have NO letter codes...so why and what is whoever did that to the tickets looking for?
It's a darn shame that in a game that's supposed to be totally random, you have to worry about the
not so random criminal tampering with the tickets you intend to buy and the insider information clerk
using what s/he knows and sees everyday to direct him/her to possibly the best ticket in the pack with
enough tries at it...they have the whole selection at their fingertips. And with some carefully placed tape
who is going to know? Maybe the camera that they have installed in some stores has a story to tell the
local lottery officials. I wouldn't waste any time in reporting such gross misconduct and downright thievery.
Please OP, follow through and report back.