Undercover lottery investigation tests store clerks' honesty

Sep 7, 2010, 9:32 am (40 comments)

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If you end up with a winning lottery ticket, you'll end up with the cash... right?

A television investigative program recently traveled to various states testing the honesty and integrity of lottery store clerks in correctly informing customers of their winning lottery tickets.

What they discovered was a mixed bag: although some clerks correctly identified wins for their customers, many did not.  In fact, several attempted to basically steal their customer's winnings by telling them their lottery ticket lost, and then redeeming the ticket themselves.

When confronted with the findings, the state lottery directors also had a mixed bag of reactions.  While the California Lottery was eager to work with the television program, the New York Lottery took a decidedly aggressive approach, warning lottery retailers about the investigation in a state-wide bulletin.

So what can you do to make sure that you get your money if you have a winning lottery ticket?  You can start by checking your own tickets at an automatic scanner, if your state has them.  Or just go on line to check the winners and the rules.  [Lottery Post publishes the winning numbers for every lottery in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom on its Worldwide Lottery Results page.]

According to Joan Borucki, Director of the California Lottery, one of the most important things that the consumer can do when they get their tickets is sign them.  "Even before you play the ticket, sign the ticket," Borucki said.

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Dateline, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

jeffrey's avatarjeffrey

I think this should be done by the police regularly. When the clerk steals, imprison the clerk and fine the store a lot. That will cut it down. Even better, put in scanners that print winning receipts.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

I can't watch the videos but if the statements in the article concerning the New York Lottery's actions in relation to this sting are definitive of the situation then heads should roll in the upper echelons of the New York Lottery.

It is unfreakingbelievable and unconscionable that the New York Lottery would give potential crooks, cheats and thieves in their network a heads-up on someone trying to catch them in the act. They should have welcomed and been actively involved and participating in this action in order to root out the scammers in their system.

Here was a chance for them to show their integrity and their determination to maintain integrity in their system and they instead went into C.Y.O.A. (Cover your own @ss) mode in an attempt to deny any wrongdoing rather than face the fact that it does exist and try to uproot it.

Lottery players in New York should be raising holy hell about this and calling for the resignation of the muckety mucks of the New York Lottery behind this scandalous and absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Kudos to Joan Borucki and the California Lottery for doing the right thing.

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

wow , guess thats an argument against min wages for store clerks.

 

personally i would stop playing in NY. see how their lotto officials like it with no job the scamming #$%^$#%$^%

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

also it states on vid the stores get a comission of %5 , stealing a $1k  win  would take $20k of sales to equal. seesm to me a retailer risks a lot 20k in sales should be done on a weekend id immagine. imagine losing your rights to sell them! big risk for a retailer

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

lol so the chances of being scammed oput of a winning ticket is higher than actually wijnning in the 1st place! interesting

liberal47's avatarliberal47

When I was in Cailfornia a year or so ago. The store clerks almost always tried to scam you out of the smallest of prizes. Every time I won entry into the TV show entry pool, the clerk would tell me it wasn't a winner. I could'nt imagine why they would try to cheat me out of such a miniscule chance of winning until I realized if this were done to 100 people a week, they would have 100 entries or more a week to send in. I was happy to see that California discountinued their TV show a few months ago. If some lottery dealers are willing to rip you off for the least of prizes, they must do it all the way up the food chain. BEWARE!

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

I'm grateful to NBC's Newsline program employees for taking the long amount of time to collect this news data last into earlier this year.  Patriot

New York Lottery Executive Director, Gordon Medenica appears to be a confused person, too, on film.  A serious filming by Newsline, is offered to be shown to him.  He says that he doesn't care to watch ... he and the New York Police don't need help and rather are enforcing to an acceptable degree ... that he KNOWS what is going on with lottery retailers in New York. Shady appearing Gordon Medenica indicates that when lottery retailer ticket clerks/owners are given winning tickets by someone who didn't actually buy the ticket that the situation is magically transmuted to "entrapment" ... such a maneuver causes the clerk/owner to BE compelled to either not check the tickets, saying that it's not a winner and giving the ticket back (even if it is a winner), or keeping the ticket while putting on a show to crumple it up and throw it on their back counter OR majestically tossing it into their "garbage" can. 

I found it interesting that most of the lottery ticket retailer thieves refused to admit that their act was theft.  And when they did "say" it, it was obvious that they didn't embrace the concept of deceipt being wrong to inflict on society.  One man indicated "I'm a good, family man."  Well, if that is good ... yeikes for his "family" and nearby society!  Most of these pathological liers/sociopaths thought that because they or their family or friend could use the winning ticket's money that it was somehow the natural, logical thing to lie and steal and lie again. They truly appeared astounded that police would have the odasity to confront them and handcuff them and put them in jail for a mere 45 days with only 3 years additional probation (is that just recompense for ruining a person's level of trust for perhaps the remainder of their physical life?). 

Wow, 50% of the lottery ticket clerks wouldn't even check to see if a ticket was a winner!  How cruel, malicious, and unconscionable.  Well, it is the best, after all, to go to the library once or twice a month to check past draw tickets on their freely provided public access Internet access computers.  We can check our tickets on USAmega.COM and LotteryPost.com ... then go to the official webpage of MegaMillions.com or Powerball.com to do the final check.  Fortunately, we can even go to the ticket purchased's state lottery website in order to download the CLAIM form.  No need to step foot in a store where we are "entrapping" some lottery ticket clerk to not check ticket and tell us it lost, check ticket and tell us it lost when it actually won, etc.

Gordon Medenica appears to be a person who is willing and practiced at STRETCHING  the reality of a situation too.  As the amount of retailers to lose their lottery retailer status last year -- ONLY 9 -- is ridiculously low for even a tiny state!

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

right on handing a winning ticket to a lotto agent is " entrapment " in NYC

tiggs95's avatartiggs95

When you buy a lottery ticket and go in a store so see if it's any good and don't know before hand you are just stupid..You should not be allowed to buy lottery tickets of any kind or gamble..Play checkers you big dope's...

tiggs95's avatartiggs95

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Sep 7, 2010

I can't watch the videos but if the statements in the article concerning the New York Lottery's actions in relation to this sting are definitive of the situation then heads should roll in the upper echelons of the New York Lottery.

It is unfreakingbelievable and unconscionable that the New York Lottery would give potential crooks, cheats and thieves in their network a heads-up on someone trying to catch them in the act. They should have welcomed and been actively involved and participating in this action in order to root out the scammers in their system.

Here was a chance for them to show their integrity and their determination to maintain integrity in their system and they instead went into C.Y.O.A. (Cover your own @ss) mode in an attempt to deny any wrongdoing rather than face the fact that it does exist and try to uproot it.

Lottery players in New York should be raising holy hell about this and calling for the resignation of the muckety mucks of the New York Lottery behind this scandalous and absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Kudos to Joan Borucki and the California Lottery for doing the right thing.

Move out of Tenn into the USofA so you can watch the videos ridge..You need a loan to do that??..

CutlassBob's avatarCutlassBob

I think it's Awesome that they mention "Lottery Post" in the article in a most positive way!!!

Excellent Job Todd!!

California has a bad track record, New York lottery commission should of welcomed "DATELINE" it would of saved New York money in the investigative area. I think what the New York lottery commissioner did by sending out the warning was totally wrong.

As far as the guy in Texas that had that million dollar winner stolen. I'm glad he got some of the cash and i hope they recover the balance for him in the near future.

I would love to have "DATELINE" and Chris Hanson do an investigation here in Michigan.

Cutla$$Bob

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

Anyone else notice how many of those clerks were foreigners?

They mentioned one guy may get deported.

Also, how they refused to admit they did what they did or said what they said despite the news crew having it all on tape.Diffeent cultures, different values I guess.

The one guy that rold the lady who won that the government would collect anything owed to them, even parking tickets if she went to Manhattan to cash the winner- the news team said that is called "discounting" (charging a fee to cash a ticket in such a situation) but it is also known as "sending in a beard".

tiggs95's avatartiggs95

"Sign your ticket before you go into a store if you don't check the numbers on your ticket with the winning numbers"...and if you don't check your numbers before you try to cash your ticket...Good luck you will need it...ask Willis Willis..

CutlassBob's avatarCutlassBob

Quote: Originally posted by Coin Toss on Sep 7, 2010

Anyone else notice how many of those clerks were foreigners?

They mentioned one guy may get deported.

Also, how they refused to admit they did what they did or said what they said despite the news crew having it all on tape.Diffeent cultures, different values I guess.

The one guy that rold the lady who won that the government would collect anything owed to them, even parking tickets if she went to Manhattan to cash the winner- the news team said that is called "discounting" (charging a fee to cash a ticket in such a situation) but it is also known as "sending in a beard".

I payed special attention to the ethnicity of the majority of the RIP-OFF clerks. How sad. They say they come to America to better themselfs, ya at our expence. Devious <snips> Smile

The dude that ripped of the million in Texas is proubly living it up in Mexico! Granted he's only got $300,000 but he can live like a king for a while down there.

Cutla$$Bob

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