Florida United States
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March 22, 2015
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The Florida lottery launched a new scratch off ticket on 2/24/15 called "10,000,000 Florida Cash" or something like that. The advertising stated there were 4 winners of 10 million and 46 winners of one million as the top prizes, along with "over 11 million prizes!". Every press release the lottery put out and even the press release posted on the Florida Lottery website as late as Friday, March 20, 2015 announcing a million dollar winner indicates prizes based on the 4 10 million and 46 million dollar prizes.
I looked at the Florida Lottery "remaining prizes" page yesterday and the prizes noted for this scratch off are "2 out of 3" (not the 4 originally advertised) and "30 out of 35 (not the 46 originally advertised) are the remaining prizes. After a media blitz and selling millions of tickets at $25 a pop, the lottery has quietly removed $21 million dollars worth of top prizes, almost 25%, since this thing launched less than a month ago. The fact they could so easily take away 1 ten million dollar winning ticket and 11 million dollar tickets tells me that those tickets were never put in to circulation. How is it not massive fraud to advertise prizes that no one has any chance of winning because they were never put out in circulation? If they had been out there, it would not have been so easy for the lottery to lower the prize pool. It seems extremely unethical to advertise these prizes, sell millions of tickets to suckers like me and then find out that the lottery has taken away $21 million of the prizes available. They haven't sent out a revised press release about that!
I feel that this lottery is operating in bad faith and making fools of the people buying into a dream that they can never win. The odds page have not been adjusted since removing 25% of the top prizes, either. Certainly that large of a chunk of prizes removed is going to impact the ratios. I think they raked in all the cash they could in the first 3 weeks and now they are changing the rules and rigging the game and doing it ever so quietly while still putting out false information about the number of winning opportunities. The whole state of Florida is so corrupt but this really takes the cake. I've sent emails to news outlets asking for an investigation. I don't know how else to get this matter examined but it certainly seems like outright fraud and misrepresentation to me.
Kentucky United States
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February 14, 2006
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Quote: Originally posted by Flalotteryscam on Mar 22, 2015
The Florida lottery launched a new scratch off ticket on 2/24/15 called "10,000,000 Florida Cash" or something like that. The advertising stated there were 4 winners of 10 million and 46 winners of one million as the top prizes, along with "over 11 million prizes!". Every press release the lottery put out and even the press release posted on the Florida Lottery website as late as Friday, March 20, 2015 announcing a million dollar winner indicates prizes based on the 4 10 million and 46 million dollar prizes.
I looked at the Florida Lottery "remaining prizes" page yesterday and the prizes noted for this scratch off are "2 out of 3" (not the 4 originally advertised) and "30 out of 35 (not the 46 originally advertised) are the remaining prizes. After a media blitz and selling millions of tickets at $25 a pop, the lottery has quietly removed $21 million dollars worth of top prizes, almost 25%, since this thing launched less than a month ago. The fact they could so easily take away 1 ten million dollar winning ticket and 11 million dollar tickets tells me that those tickets were never put in to circulation. How is it not massive fraud to advertise prizes that no one has any chance of winning because they were never put out in circulation? If they had been out there, it would not have been so easy for the lottery to lower the prize pool. It seems extremely unethical to advertise these prizes, sell millions of tickets to suckers like me and then find out that the lottery has taken away $21 million of the prizes available. They haven't sent out a revised press release about that!
I feel that this lottery is operating in bad faith and making fools of the people buying into a dream that they can never win. The odds page have not been adjusted since removing 25% of the top prizes, either. Certainly that large of a chunk of prizes removed is going to impact the ratios. I think they raked in all the cash they could in the first 3 weeks and now they are changing the rules and rigging the game and doing it ever so quietly while still putting out false information about the number of winning opportunities. The whole state of Florida is so corrupt but this really takes the cake. I've sent emails to news outlets asking for an investigation. I don't know how else to get this matter examined but it certainly seems like outright fraud and misrepresentation to me.
"I feel that this lottery is operating in bad faith and making fools of the people buying into a dream that they can never win."
Millions of players willingly are buying MM and PB jackpot dreams four times a week. The "how to play" page says the odds of winning $10 million are 1-in-8,100,000. Did you miss the "*" and where it said "Denotes games that have been reordered or have been delivered to the Florida Lottery in more than one shipment."?
Florida United States
Member #164,996
March 22, 2015
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It doesn't seem that anyone replying to this thread can read for comprehension. Also, the highlighted section about having more than one shipment is totally irrelevant to the fact that 21 million in prizes have disappeared and were never available to be won.
White Shores- California United States
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December 12, 2012
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Quote: Originally posted by Flalotteryscam on Mar 22, 2015
It doesn't seem that anyone replying to this thread can read for comprehension. Also, the highlighted section about having more than one shipment is totally irrelevant to the fact that 21 million in prizes have disappeared and were never available to be won.
....Say What?
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* People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it- George Bernard Shaw.
Florida United States
Member #164,996
March 22, 2015
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They did not increase the number of prizes, they decreased the number of prizes. Can anyone reading this forum read for comprehension? No, they can't. This game has been in play less than a month and the prizes have been reduced 25% after they have sold millions of tickets based on false information on the number of prizes available.
Wyomissing, PA United States
Member #161,043
November 15, 2014
481 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by Flalotteryscam on Mar 22, 2015
They did not increase the number of prizes, they decreased the number of prizes. Can anyone reading this forum read for comprehension? No, they can't. This game has been in play less than a month and the prizes have been reduced 25% after they have sold millions of tickets based on false information on the number of prizes available.
Shame so many missed the point of your post. I did some looking around on the Florida Lottery site, and something seems amiss. Could be a glitch of some sort, but the most likely explanation appears to be what you've suspected ... tickets have been taken back. That's not unusual, though usually one has no idea it's happening until suddenly a game is difficult to find / gone.
The procedure on how tickets are pulled off the market (assuming they were printed in the first place) is a mystery in most lottery jurisdictions. Since the lottery vendor / lottery knows the location of every winning ticket, it's conceivable, if sales are slow and/or big winners are being claimed at a faster rate than anticipated, to selectively pull a bunch of tickets that contain big winners back.
As lotteries expand and become more aggressive, procedures are becoming slipshod; less regulatory oversight.
Florida United States
Member #164,996
March 22, 2015
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Wow, Ron, thank you for reading my post and understanding what I was saying. Yes, something is "amiss" alright. They promoted this contest and sold as many $25 dollar tickets as they could with the initial wave of publicity, and then quietly altered the "remaining prizes" information with absolutely zero publicity. This lottery promotes itself as having "integrity" and being "transparent", but reducing the prize pool and putting out inflated prize information to sell tickets is anything but demonstrating integrity. Personally I think they owe people the option of asking for their money back since they invested $25 on a ticket based on thinking there were a certain number of big winning tickets out there while the lottery held back and didn't even put them into circulation. It's an outright fraud.
Cordova,Al. United States
Member #104,478
January 15, 2011
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Quote: Originally posted by Flalotteryscam on Mar 22, 2015
The Florida lottery launched a new scratch off ticket on 2/24/15 called "10,000,000 Florida Cash" or something like that. The advertising stated there were 4 winners of 10 million and 46 winners of one million as the top prizes, along with "over 11 million prizes!". Every press release the lottery put out and even the press release posted on the Florida Lottery website as late as Friday, March 20, 2015 announcing a million dollar winner indicates prizes based on the 4 10 million and 46 million dollar prizes.
I looked at the Florida Lottery "remaining prizes" page yesterday and the prizes noted for this scratch off are "2 out of 3" (not the 4 originally advertised) and "30 out of 35 (not the 46 originally advertised) are the remaining prizes. After a media blitz and selling millions of tickets at $25 a pop, the lottery has quietly removed $21 million dollars worth of top prizes, almost 25%, since this thing launched less than a month ago. The fact they could so easily take away 1 ten million dollar winning ticket and 11 million dollar tickets tells me that those tickets were never put in to circulation. How is it not massive fraud to advertise prizes that no one has any chance of winning because they were never put out in circulation? If they had been out there, it would not have been so easy for the lottery to lower the prize pool. It seems extremely unethical to advertise these prizes, sell millions of tickets to suckers like me and then find out that the lottery has taken away $21 million of the prizes available. They haven't sent out a revised press release about that!
I feel that this lottery is operating in bad faith and making fools of the people buying into a dream that they can never win. The odds page have not been adjusted since removing 25% of the top prizes, either. Certainly that large of a chunk of prizes removed is going to impact the ratios. I think they raked in all the cash they could in the first 3 weeks and now they are changing the rules and rigging the game and doing it ever so quietly while still putting out false information about the number of winning opportunities. The whole state of Florida is so corrupt but this really takes the cake. I've sent emails to news outlets asking for an investigation. I don't know how else to get this matter examined but it certainly seems like outright fraud and misrepresentation to me.
There is no proof that massive fraud is being done about these scratch of tickets. You are just talking about the top prizes. We here & read about winners not coming coming fore right away to claim the prizes. Someone out there may all ready have a few of large prize tickets. May be using a adviser advice.
Florida United States
Member #164,996
March 22, 2015
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I am talking about 21 million dollars, 25% of the top prizes. If you want to spend $25 on a ticket without a chance of winning the advertised prizes, be my guest. It is suckers like you, suckers who keep hoping and living life with their blinders on that keep this fraud going.
Kentucky United States
Member #32,651
February 14, 2006
10,301 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by Ron5995 on Mar 23, 2015
Shame so many missed the point of your post. I did some looking around on the Florida Lottery site, and something seems amiss. Could be a glitch of some sort, but the most likely explanation appears to be what you've suspected ... tickets have been taken back. That's not unusual, though usually one has no idea it's happening until suddenly a game is difficult to find / gone.
The procedure on how tickets are pulled off the market (assuming they were printed in the first place) is a mystery in most lottery jurisdictions. Since the lottery vendor / lottery knows the location of every winning ticket, it's conceivable, if sales are slow and/or big winners are being claimed at a faster rate than anticipated, to selectively pull a bunch of tickets that contain big winners back.
As lotteries expand and become more aggressive, procedures are becoming slipshod; less regulatory oversight.
"Shame so many missed the point of your post."
The only point is someone with an agenda or conspiracy theory joined LP yesterday so they could vent about a Florida Lottery scratch-off game.
"I did some looking around on the Florida Lottery site, and something seems amiss. Could be a glitch of some sort, but the most likely explanation appears to be what you've suspected ... tickets have been taken back."
*Denotes games that have been reordered or have been delivered to the Florida Lottery in more than one shipment.
Not all the tickets were distributed, but three $10 million prizes issued and 30 of the 35 $1 million prizes issued. The rest of the tickets will be distributed as needed. The Kentucky Lottery basically says the same thing.
*Your chances of winning a prize and the actual number of prizes remaining in a game, including top prizes, will change as tickets are sold, prizes are claimed, and games are reordered and distributed.
"The procedure on how tickets are pulled off the market (assuming they were printed in the first place) is a mystery in most lottery jurisdictions."
There is no mystery when players stop buying a scratch-off after all the top prizes are sold and no mystery when the PA Lottery reordered tickets for their *Lucky Valentine game.
*This game has been reordered to meet player demand. This has increased the total number of tickets available and top prizes remaining, but does not change a game’s overall odds.
Wyomissing, PA United States
Member #161,043
November 15, 2014
481 Posts
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When more tickets for a game are ordered, the number of prizes increases. In this case, the number has decreased! Never seen that before. Maybe there's some innocent explanation, but is still bizarre. To be clear, some press releases say there are a total of 4 prizes of $10 million, but the prizes remaining page says there is a total of 3 including already claimed. How and why did the total, again to be clear, including claimed, decrease from 4 to 3?
Found an older press release dated March 9th, and it states:
"The $25 game, $10,000,000 FLORIDA CASH, features more than 11 million winning tickets and more than $624 million in total cash prizes! There are 45 $1 million prizes and four $10 million prize remain to be won. The game's overall odds of winning are one-in-2.88."
Emphasis mine. So again, why does the total say there is only a 2 out of 3 $10 million prizes instead of 2 out of 4? I'm assuming there's some misunderstanding / accounting reason, but doesn't make sense to me. Generally, adding more tickets increases the total prize count, including already claimed, not decrease it.
Wyomissing, PA United States
Member #161,043
November 15, 2014
481 Posts
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Since it's a related, but different topic, replying separately ... generally, as you point out, when the top winners are sold out, the game is pulled. However, there are instances in which multiple top prizes remain and the game is pulled. Did that occur simply due to low sales, or did an uneven claim distribution factor into the decision... Who knows other than the ticket vendor / lottery. That's what I'm getting at - there's a lack of transparency...
Heck, it took many years for lotteries to publish stats of remaining top prizes. Some lotteries were knowingly selling tickets that had no top prizes left until there was a lot of negative publicity. And even then, the stats provided were extremely lacking though that's improved. The way tickets are added and pulled is still generally a mystery - few lotteries explain in detail how the process works.