I have discovered a very serious flaw in the way the scratch off's are handled in NY state. It appears that if a business in NY goesout of business of changes ownership the license to sell lottery tickets is revoked and the remaning unsold opened books of scratch off's are destroyed. The unopened books are returned and resold but the opened books of scratch off's are destroyed. In NYS, especially in the 5 boro's businesses open and close and transfer ownership so much that it is very troubling, because that means that thousands, if not tens of thousands of scratch off's are destroyed by the lottery themselves each year. Also, newly found out information suggest that thousands of scratch off's are stolen each year throughout NYS. What the thieves do is cash in the scratch off's that are less than $500 and get rid of any scratch off's that need to be paid out by the NYS lottery division themselves. and the NYS lottery knows exactly what tickets are destroyed and stolen and they also know if there are any top prizes in those stolen and destroyed tickets.
So I contacted NYS lottery division and I asked why this practise is allowed and how it can be changed. Of cause it is in the lottery's best interest that this practise is continued because it means that they can keep selling the scratch off's even if the top prizes were destroyed or stolen and they know that they will never be cashed in but it gives them the edge to keep selling the books even though the top prizes may never get redeemed.
I was told that it is in the law and the way the law is written they have to destroy any opened books from a business that goes out of buisness or transfer ownership because it is too much work to reroute open books to be sold. i find this answer very troubling because it really means that the NYS lottery is legally allowed to adjust the future of the scratch off's because they know if in fact the top prizes were destroyed.
I am thinking about writing to the local officials in the NYS senate to see if they can review this practice and change it because it is really a dishonest practice that really is not fair to the public. I would think that if more people would be publically announced as winners more people would buy tickets but apparently lotto feels that the dishonest way is the best way. what do you think.
