Includes video report
TAMPA, Fla. — Authorities say a Florida convenience store clerk was cashing in by cheating, while selling customers worthless lottery tickets.
Lottery officials say he got greedy and tried to cash in too many big winning lottery scratch-off tickets at the Tampa Lottery District Office.
One major red flag was when he tried to claim a $500 winning scratch-off ticket that hadn't even been scratched.
For more than a year, lottery officials believe an employee of a Radiant convenience store on North Dale Mabry Highway stole from the lottery and customers.
Emad Faragallah was arrested last night for allegedly "micro scratching" tickets.
The process involves using a small blade to scratch off part of a lottery ticket, exposing a number that can be read by a lottery terminal to determine if it is a winner.
Records show Faragallah cashed in at least seven winning tickets valued at $1,000 each.
Each had odds of winning of between 1-in-1,153 and 1-in-2,069.
In order to guarantee that many wins through buying tickets, Faragallah would have had to have purchased more than $250,000 worth of tickets in a year-long period.
Police believe he didn't pay his employer for the winning tickets, but cashed the smaller wins in at the store.
He was required by law to redeem wins of more than $600 at the Florida Lottery District Office.
"Makes people like me not a winner, I guess, because I haven't gotten anything more than five bucks, said Eric Varsalona, who frequently bought scratch-off tickets at the store.
Officials got suspicious when Faragallah tried to cash in a $500 ticket that hadn't yet been scratched, and began an investigation.
A police report says investigators found evidence of micro scratching on other tickets at the store and observed Faragallah on surveillance video "micro scratching tickets, checking them on the terminal and placing tickets back into the display case to sell to customers."
"He took all that opportunity of that lucky strike completely away from them. That's pretty harsh these days," said Jeff Zolna, a customer at the store.
The store immediately fired Faragallah and cooperated fully with state lottery investigators.
"If someone can figure out how to get around the system, it's obviously a flawed system to some extent," said Varsalona.
For the past three years Florida media outlets have been reporting how lottery retailers won big prizes dozens of times despite tiny odds.
Some had their privileges suspended, but the lottery won't say if micro scratching was involved.
Lottery officials encourage players to report any suspicious activity immediately, because the sooner it is reported, the easier it is to investigate.
A lottery spokesperson released the following statement:
The Florida Lottery's Division of Security was made aware of an incident in which micro scratching was potentially occurring at a Lottery retail location, Radiant 1275, in Tampa. Micro scratching occurs when a small portion of a ticket is scratched off to identify the ticket's VIRN number. A VIRN number can be used by a retailer to identify a winning ticket.
Maintaining the integrity of our games and the trust of our players is a top priority of the Florida Lottery. If players notice any suspicious activity involving a Lottery retailer or Lottery purchase, they are encouraged to contact their local law enforcement agency or the Lottery's Division of Security immediately. The earlier suspicious activity is reported, the easier it is to investigate.
The Lottery will continue to take aggressive and meaningful steps to thwart unlawful activity, protect our players and ensure that we are being vigilant in upholding the integrity of our products and games.
Lottery officials say players should make sure tickets come off the roll and they should immediately check them for any markings, no matter how small, since that could be a sign of micro scratching.
VIDEO: Watch the report
Florida Players: Carefully Inspect Your Scratch-Off Game Tickets.
Good luck EMAD being prison "Bubba's" new best friend..............
Bubba is always waiting for a new 'girlfriend' in the cell block.
Let's see, today is 6 JAN 17 and here we are with a stupid, greedy person trying to beat the system.
Time for my IGT to make this not happen, obviously this technology is dated since you only have to microscratch to check for a winner.
Just had to Google what those funny looking square gizmos are that can be scanned. They are called QR=Quick Response. Believe you me, since I'm a small time investor in IGT that produces many lottery tickets, I'll e-mail them with this fix. This will eliminate microscratching because I believe the who QR box would have to be scratched off. Funny I noticed @ work scanning the kids with barcodes sometimes the laser is nowhere near the barcode and it still beeps OK.
"he tried to claim a $500 winning scratch-off ticket that hadn't even been scratched."
Oops.
Maybe he read previous LP News Stories: https://www.lotterypost.com/news/247863
Seriously, mind you...he also walked into a lottery district office to cash in that $500 winner. Lottery offices have different protocol they follow when cashing in a ticket such as having people sign the back of it (even if it is a small winner and isn't a claim ticket). If he would have went into a grocery store to cash it in, he probably wouldn't have been flagged for suspicion.
Additionally, this would be an easy investigation due to the fact that claim tickets ($1000 or more) also send a notification/banner to stores to display to show they had a big winner. Making the connection between an employee claiming all those tickets makes for a fairly easy investigation. I'm glad this guy was caught, and hope he gets some decent jail time.
.
THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE SUCK, THESE DAYS.
THERE IS NO HONESTY THESE DAYS, AND ALL YOU HAVE IS THESE GREEDY 'PEOPLE'.
I HATE THIS SYSTEM. I CAN'T WAIT FOR GOD TO HAVE HIS DAY OF ANGER AND WIPE OUT
ALL THOSE KINDS OF PEOPLE. MAYBE I'LL BE ONE OF THEM TOO, BUT I KNOW I CAN'T CONTINUE
TO PUT UP WITH PEOPLES' GARBAGE.
I"M DISGUSTED BY THE WHOLE LOT OF THEM THAT HAVE TO DO THOSE SORTS OF THINGS.
to the lottery commission:
you need to profile the people to whom you give permission to sell scratch offs.
check their backgrounds. if a certain store sells them, you need to boycott the entire chain, from selling
scratch-offs, because that chain obviously doesn't care what kind of people they hire.
you need to TOTALLY re-vamp your intended lottery agent campaign, with ads that will make applicants RUN AWAY, rather than applying, and "taking a chance". your ads should read:
Wanted: store clerk, state lottery licensed and HONEST. if not honest, don't bother applying. dishonesty to ANY degree will be dealt with
IN THE COURTS. . . .
Now then, how many people do you think will apply for such jobs then?
I know one such person, but I'm not looking for a clerk-type job, OR a job in that kind of setting.
Mr. Groppo
(groppo, it's useless. this whole world is becoming increasingly corrupt. do a youtube on north korea. previous leaders weren't as bad as this new guy kim jong un)
Message sent to IGT via FB. They might be bound to the contract with the various states and you know they won't change anything mid-stream. That would involve putting those special scanners in unless the ones they have can be upgraded. Not my speciality.
Hmmm...
"Records show Faragallah cashed in at least seven winning tickets valued at $1,000 each."
In order to get that many wins "Faragallah would have had to have purchased more than $250,000 worth of tickets in a year-long period."
OH Boy!!! Doesn't that just make you want to run out and buy those scratchers?
Yup i have seen that in miami fl
I have recieve tickets like that several times!!
One of the reasons I buy from vending machines
Cant trust clerks. At both places I buy my tickets I have seen tickets loaded into machine and they have never been out of order so there is clearly no fraud
It doesn't matter how "good" you have been cheating people who are trying to win the honest way- sooner or later it all catches up to you.
WHY didn't he just scratch off that $500 winner? It doesn't take a genius to do that! Betcha he's kicking himself right now!
That's why I don't play scratchers I have always suspecteded in the clerks I don't trust them especially after all I have read in the lottery news.
Ha ha... exactly what I was thinking... Think!
That's the story within this story...
i agree. I don't play scratchers either.
Thats one dumb f_~k.
As you live you will learn that should learn him!
Really you got <snip>y and wanted it all...crime does not pay it penalize!!!
Im pretty sure this happens in NY and many many other states.
Crime really does not pay unless its mafia style.
Records show Faragallah cashed in at least seven winning tickets valued at $1,000 each.
Each had odds of winning of between 1-in-1,153 and 1-in-2,069.
In order to guarantee that many wins through buying tickets, Faragallah would have had to have purchased more than $250,000 worth of tickets in a year-long period.
What he did for one year or longer was nothing at all compared to what that state lottery has been doing who knows for how many years.
Imagine having to buy $250,000 worth of tickets to maybe get $7,000 and that is a big maybe.
Did somebody say "Grand Theft"?
Crime does pay all-right and also "Legal Crime"
Money doesn't just rain down from the sky, it has to come from somewhere (not from the sky).
Anthony"gaspipe" Casso may agree or disagree with that remark Dd. His in his 70's and is serving a 455 year prison sentence.
When people commit shaddy and criminal activity and get away with it, eventually they get too confidence and start mistaken their luck in not getting caught with "skill", and that eventually catches up to them and leads to their downfall.
I feel the same way! I am very concerned about the integrity of all scratch offs due to micro scratching and any other scheme these criminals may use.
This story just made me check my scratchers that I just bought.Wow..never heard of this..I will be definitely checking my tickets for micro scratches from now on..
There are many states this is prolly happening in, maybe not the micro scratching....there are other ways too I sure. I know one store where the clerk watches what people scratch and no winners he is in there grabbing tickets and only scratch off bar code....he most generally hits a winner quick. i seen this done often. Then the clerks also check in the lottery machine of winners of what tickets have hit and then watch those too and go in and take advantage.
These clerks know when tickets are ready to hit by not paying out any winners for a while. Prolly best place to buy is out of a vending machine...but sometimes thats a hassle if you dont have correct amount because the machine does not give any change back... you have to spend it in machine what you put in.
I knew it. I knew that stores did that. I have seen tickets that have a little scratch on them before. I have seen owners scratching tickets hardcore one after the other right on top of the terminals before. I knew it. Those cheaters and scammers. How dare they. Scratchers cost a lot of money to play. A lot.
UNBELIEVABLE! Bet nobody ever accused him of being SMART!
What an IDIOT, didn't even bother to scratch off the TICKET, MORON!
DUH!
Am I the only one here who thinks the Biggest Criminals are the Lottery Runners? WTF In order to get $7K you have to spend $250K. Are you kidding me?
Is it really difficult to have a a system that can not be beaten by cheaters?
First the Powerball Hot Lotto scam and now this.
I never scratch my tickets in a store.
Wow SMH!! This is very discouraging to those who play scratch offs, hopefully the thug gets jail time.