A Dallas-area man who Travis County prosecutors say had his $1 million lottery ticket stolen by a convenience store clerk in 2009 has sued the Texas Lottery Commission and others in hopes of recovering all of his winnings.
Lawyers for Willis Willis, a retired Grand Prairie maintenance man, filed the suit in state District Court in Travis County last week against the lottery commission, GTECH Corp, which runs the lottery, and the owner of a convenience store where Willis bought his ticket.
Also sued was Pankaj Joshi, a college student who authorities say fled the country for his native Nepal in 2009, around the time authorities in Austin say they discovered that he took Willis' winning ticket and cashed it in at lottery headquarters in Austin.
Joshi did not tell Willis he'd hit the jackpot and pocketed the ticket after Willis gave it to him at the counter of Lucky Food Store #2, officials said.
Joshi has been indicted on a felony charge of claiming a lottery ticket by fraud. Austin police and Travis County prosecutors recovered about $395,000 from his bank accounts and a judge declared Willis the rightful owner of that money. Joshi received $750,000 after taxes were withheld.
With his lawsuit, Willis is demanding the rest of the jackpot and other unspecified damages.
Willis' lawyers have previously asked a judge to allow them to ask lottery officials and others questions under oath to gather information for a possible lawsuit. That request is awaiting a ruling on an appeal filed by lottery officials.
During a short hearing before state District Judge Suzanne Covington last year, Assistant Attorney General Gaston Broyles, who represents the Lottery Commission, said that a prize may not be paid twice, that a lottery ticket is a "bearer instrument" and that lottery officials are not responsible for lost or stolen tickets.
"Mr. Joshi was the bearer of that ticket," Broyles said.
Willis' lawyers have argued that it is absurd that lottery officials believe that Joshi is the winner while Austin police, Travis County prosecutors and a criminal court judge have ruled that Willis is the rightful winner.
"It has taken two years too long to pay Mr. Willis the money owed him," Sean Breen, one of Willis' lawyers, said in a statement. "We simply want the Texas Lottery or the store to pay him the money that its own agent stole."
While it offers no examples, Willis' lawsuit claims that the lottery "has been plagued by theft and corruption from store clerks (and) vendors/agents of the lottery."
Because they are not required to register with the state, store clerks are not scrutinized when presenting themselves as lottery winners, the suit said.
"While the Texas Lottery touts itself as secure to the public, it is not," the suit said.
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I was wondering when he was going to do that, I just seen it again on Lottery Changed my Life. I hope everything works out for Mr. Willis.
Do I detect a bit of sarcasm in Mr. Willis' photo? Dirty cholera bagging Nepalese dude.
about time Mr. Willis.....
It's a shame...but the fact of the matter is he didn't sign the back of his ticket. So the lack of solid proof that the stolen winning ticket was his is why the Lotto folk held back in paying him full.
So we have learned two lessons from this incident:
1. NEVER let another person check your ticket. The Internet exists for a reason.
However if you really can't access the Internet and need someone to check the ticket...
2. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS sign the back of your ticket!
but obviously not everyone has access nore realize thars more then a few places like thar local library offers it or feels they have any use for it and or lack the interest
as for signing the ticket thats a no brainer
While you are at it:
3. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make extra photocopies, preferrably of the SIGNED ticket.....that would definitely put a nice firewall on would be gas station clerk thieves!
Joshi has been indicted on a felony charge of claiming a lottery ticket by fraud. Austin police and Travis County prosecutors recovered about $395,000 from his bank accounts and a judge declared Willis the rightful owner of that money. Joshi received $750,000 after taxes were withheld.
During a short hearing before state District Judge Suzanne Covington last year, Assistant Attorney General Gaston Broyles, who represents the Lottery Commission, said that a prize may not be paid twice, that a lottery ticket is a "bearer instrument" and that lottery officials are not responsible for lost or stolen tickets.
"Mr. Joshi was the bearer of that ticket," Broyles said.
They say that Joshi was the bearer of the ticket as if to say that it's his money because his name was on the ticket, but it's obvious per the earlier paragraph where they mention that money was recovered from one of Joshi's accounts and given to Willis that they believe Willis is the owner of the ticket. I think they should just give him the $355,000 that Joshi got away with, but I do think they have a good argument in that they're not responsible for lost/stolen tickets. It's a tough situation.
Now, with all the work the lawyers did, Mr. Willis would require tens of thousands of dollars more to reimburse his lawyers. What a sad, painful, and frustrating retirement time.
I recently saw a tv show about crooked lottery clerks on you tube ( may have been dateline) but they had video from the stores cameras showing people buying the ticket and the clerk taking it. They used tickets that were they knew were winners.
They were able to prove the clerks took the ticket, the time the ticket was sold originally, and who bought it from the lottery computer system plus the stores video. I don't know why they couldn't do that in this case.
Besides signing the ticket, the best thing to do would be to ask the clerk for a print out of the winning numbers for that date and check the tickets yourself.
I would think the only way they could hold the lottery commission liable is if they knew this is a regular occurrence and they have failed to institute better safeguards. Otherwise, I think the store should be liable for the guy's money. It was their employee who stole it in the line of his work.
What could lotteries do to keep this from happening so often? I wish the machine would print a receipt every time a ticket was checked that is given to the player. That wouldn't help occasional players tho, who wouldn't know to demand the receipt. Plus I guess a clerk could keep a $2 winner receipt handy and switch it with a receipt for a bigger win. The player would only know if they checked the time stamp on the receipt closely. There's gotta be a better way.
The Idaho lottery prints a receipt for any winning tickets that are scanned, but it's not given to the player. It's stapled to the ticket and put in a box. That tells them the correct amount was paid out, but it doesn't give a clue who it was paid to. The clerk could easily take the money themselves which doesn't do a bit of good.
willis willis committed a grievous error due to his laziness and it cost him..why play the lottery if you aren't able or willing to check your own numbers. if no computer check newspaper or find store that records them on monthly sheet on lottery stand...somehow find a way to do it yourself. you can't trust an 8.00 an hour clerk who are just waiting for this opportunity...on a smaller scale it's done on unsuspecting scratch ticket players too lazy to read their prize.. they hand the ticket to the clerk he give them 20 instead of 200 for example and pockets the difference... happens every day... wake up players...
The Chris Hansen thing? I remember there were quite a few on there that would throw the ticket away then pick it out of the trash when the customer left or only give the person $2-$3.
And yea I've mentioned numerous times that people should check tickets themselves online if they have access and if not either scan it themselves in store or ask for a winning number printout (most stores have them already printed out). Personally I don't want the clerk to know that I'm the one who won so letting them verify tickets for me is a definite no. I'd still want to go there afterwards so I'd play off my win by still playing the games that didn't win (ie; play PB if MM won).
Best wishes Mr. Willis, I hope you win.
Thru the years so many store clerks have stolen lottery prizes and the state lotteries have failed to prevent it, they have not even tried, that is until now, they have put machines in the stores where people can by themselves check their own tickets.
If at the time that the ticket was stolen those machines where already there then the state lottery is clean, that is not at fault, otherwise they are at fault and should pay not just for the rest of the money, but also for interest on it and for all the trouble and anguish that the winner had to endure and also pay for all the legal fees and any other fees that apply.
Nowdays if you don't check your own ticket first, too bad, you yourself should be at fault, cause once you know that you won then you should sign the ticket, before you give it to anybody.
Idaho has the checker machines but they don't tell you how much the ticket is worth! They just say to contact the clerk. Practically worthless.
The law is an ass.
I know I am going to offend a lot of goodie-goodie folks, and so be it.
The TX Lottery does not owe this man JACK SQUAT!!!
NOTHING!!!
NADA!!!
NOT ONE THIN DIME!!!
Why should they? If anything, the TX Lottery Commission should sue Willis-Willis for being careless and lazy.
If you read the earlier stories posted here at Lottery Post, you will see where Willis-Willis gave all kinds of excuses to justify not checking his own fricking ticket.
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't all lottery tickets tell YOU to SIGN YOUR TICKET?
Haven't this been printed on all tickets since Moses was a baby?????!!!!!
Unless there is something not revealed in the stories that has been published for the public, The TX Lottery Commission DOES NOT OWE THIS MAN A THING!!
Why didn't Willis-Willis pick up a results slip from any store he frequented? Why didn't Willis-Willis scan his ticket himself?
Willis-Willis should be grateful that he was able to recover something at all.
I am NOT condoning what Josi did. I do not approve of stealing at all.
But there is no way any responsible lottery player can justify the irresponsibilities practiced by Willis-Willis.
If the trial is held in Dallas, I would love to be on the jury. I would rule in favor of the defense (TX Lottery).
If a lottery player is not willing to be held accountable for their carelessness, then either stop playing or get used to being ripped off.
When you are too lazy to check your own tickets or too lazy to sign your winning tickets(IN INK), then you forfeit the right to complain or cry foul!!
The photo of Willis-Willis standing with his pockets turned inside out is a sham. It made me want to reach out and smack him.
The lazy puppy.......
The deli I buy my tickets from has not fixed their ticket scanner (the one that bypasses the clerk) for almost a year now, and I'm just wondering if it's because they want to check everybody's ticket for obvious reasons. One time I handed the clerk one of my $5 QP tickets and she proceeded to scan it. However, I was watching the lotto screen, waiting for "Sorry not a winner" or something else pop up like I've seen it do before. I heard it beep, but no message came up, and she told me it wasn't a winner. I was expecting her to hand me the ticket back, but she just smiled at me and I kinda wussed out and walked away. That was the first and last time I let them scan it for me because I generally scan my own tickets or check them on USAMega. Do you think I'm just paranoid? Has anyone else had a store where the check-it-yourself scanner was broken for prolonged periods of time? It just says "offline" but it's still powered on, so I'm assuming it's just disconnected from the central lotto computer. I think I'm going to ask the clerks or owners why it's not working tomorrow when I get some self-picks...
the law not the issue here
the idiot who blindly gives hes ticket away not knowing its a winner and amount before in, is also as guilty, what is he guilty of? being stupid.
as charged he stands guilty and is lucky he even got some cash back, but now hes just sharing it with lawyers inc.
the fact is the clerk a theft that deserves to die, and this idiot deserves what he got for being so stupid
if he wants he money, he can fly he beep over to home land of the theft and take part in a good old man hunt or something like that.
if i ever turned in a winning ticket without first knowing i won or not, i think i shoot my self
i guest you could say people are to tursting, trust is not a issue, being a idiot is. and he was a prime idiot
the lottery should not have to pay a penny more, Why, cease their a set amount of prize pool, if he gets hes share twice, hes a jerk to the rest of them
however the lottery has their own dirty serects, the unclaimed winners, aka left over amounts in the prize pool, instand of ever getting back to players, they just put it into their state fund atfer claiming time pasted
so its not like the money set aside for that game prize pool could not pay for hes win. but the turth is, lottery greedy , evil, and stupid"not all of them but a lot of them are when it comes to clerks and checking tickets" them self's for not having a scan your self term at ever ticket area, why wait the clerk time scaning losers for lazy idiots
god forbid people look at their instance tickets/pb/mm whatever lottery tickets and check to see if they won
their lazy and stupid and walk into a store like clock work, taking everyone's time to check ever single loser they have
ofc a clerk going to know you won and take the winner, your being a dumbass, human's are not all angles, their many thefts, and if you make it so the thefts get away free, without worry of any real justice. you have whoever tends to steal come out and do it
this clerk had a plan, and was a theft,
if a clerk scaned even a just a pb/mm winner of 3/2 bucks and tryed to rob me, i <snip>ing jump the son of a beep and if he was not fired and labeled a theft on a crimal record, i freaking do justice my self and make sure that beep never works again
you have to have a ruthless unforgiving justice to stop high amounts of people being thefts
to their real justice and fear of death for even a pity crime, stealing will real wild, so the lottery winner, and ever person easy on crime is supporting these type of stories being in the future
clerks who steal deserve death, period. but its up to people who get wronged to do the justice them selfs
in short, this idiot deserved to get stealed form, and the theft deserves to die
His 1st mistake was not signing it,the second one was that he trusted a Muslim ..Never go to a store that is runned by terrorist.Why do you think they are all over our contry with all these stores?They are not our friends..
Whoa there greeneye. You're being prejudice and ignorant. Being Muslim does not automatically equate to being a terrorist. I didn't read anything about Mr. Joshi's religious beliefs and I am pretty sure the dominant religion in Nepal is Hinduism, not Islam. Apparently grammar and spelling aren't your friends either. It's because of people like you that I gotta take s**t from folks in NJ when I tell them I'm from the south.
this is incident has been exposing more and more latly . is getting scary to trust the lottery clerks specialy at areas where you dont know them or even know them . is good that ny lottery provide the ticket check machine so you can check it yourself instead of handing it to the clerk . however some of them places i see they dont have them and that makes me suspicious . what we all should learn from all this always check your tickets either DIY units or online or if no option then get the ticket back from the clerk and check somewhere else to be sure about it.
I doubt if Willis will be successful filing a suit this late after the drawing. If he is, it could change some of the rules lotteries now have to protect themselves and the retailers selling their tickets.
For example the rules that any claims must be made within a year or less of the drawing and that tickets will be treated as bearer instruments that should be signed by their owners after purchase.
Whoa,greeneye, here take a brown paper bag and breathe in and out of it slowly before you hyperventilate, wow! You have a bone to crush with somebody much? And, for the record, I am not Asian (yes, Nepal is IN Asia) but even I know Joshi is NOT an arabic name (note, the names are arabic not muslim just like christians claim that the bibilical names are christian rather, they are of Hebrew origin, mostly but I digress). But green, take it easy, no body is after you, believe me, enjoy life and work hard......no need to hate on people different THAN you.
Crazy, on behalf of all southerners, I apologise profoundly, we have a few crazy eggs in the nest. Do ignore them, please.
Perdue,I must agree with you on this one, Texas Lotto needs to sue for defamation to say the least. Let's say he cannot/does not know how to check his own lotto tickets, the least he could do is SIGN the darn piece of paper!
It boils down to "anyone can sue anybody for anything" but they have to convince a jury.
This jury will probably hear the Texas Lottery acted irresponsible by not having the amount won by the player visible in plain sight to the customer and/or that the clerk is indirectly employed by the lottery. They might include precedents where the Lottery has suspended agents from cheating customers in the past. If they can convince a jury, the plaintiff will awarded the rest of the prize.
I don't know how or if the Lottery investigate large winners, but had they asked for "place of employment" or for "citizenship", they might have seen a red flag worth investigating. When I first read about this several months ago, I wondered why the Lottery would risk bad press by taking a chance he could win his case and opening the door for other lawsuits.
It will be interesting.
"I didn't read anything about Mr. Joshi's religious beliefs and I am pretty sure the dominant religion in Nepal is Hinduism, not Islam."
I believe the predominate religion in Nepal is Buddhist, but religion is not a factor unless Joshi's religion has a "thou shalt steal" commandment.
Let me say this - there are some clerks that are nice people. And I know that some store clerks happen to be the owner(s). But the majority of people working as store clerks are doing so for a good reason, and that is that they could not find employment elsewhere (tell me, when the teacher asked what people wanted to be in life, how many kids raised their hands and said, "I want to be a convenience store clerk!!!"). If not the owner but instead are just employees, they are likely earning minimum wage, supporting a smoking habit, drive a beater, and probably working another gig just to make ends meet. And in the case it is the owner, you don't know how business is going for that person. Things could be tough and they could be looking for available options for cashflow. So why in the world would ANYONE trust such a person to check a potential 5 figure, 6 figure, 7 figure, or 8 figure winning ticket is beyond me!!! For all the people who read this and think they can trust their local clerk, I would say you might as well just go to the store and give the clerk whatever amount of money you planned to spend on lottery tickets because you are doing exactly that when you hand over an unsigned, unchecked ticket to such a person. Sure, many states are installing those machines that make a noise when a winning ticket of any size is run through it. But for scratch-ifs, the clerk must enter the code at the bottom in order for that to sound. So if anyone is playing a confusing (to them) scratch off game and not really know if it is a winner or not, then you could still be had by an unscrupulus store clerk.
A fail safe option for those choosing to continue to let store clerks check the tickets is to tell them you want your tickets back for tax purposes, especially the losers. Just be sure to keep an eye out for the sly clerk that may have a stash of known losers right by the machine ready to make a swap of the loser for your "unknown" winner. So again, just go to the particular website or call the lottery number for the winning numbers (I was going to say check the newspaper but they have been known to make a mistake with the winning numbers). If you insist on going to the store for the winning numbers, JUST request a printout of the previous (or applicable) winning numbers. That can be done WITHOUT handing your ticket over to the clerk. I only hand over tickets for which I know how much I have won and can only redeem those winnings from an authorized lottery retailer. And yes, I sign the ticket before handing it over.
"Hinduism is the major religion of Nepal. In the 1991 census, approximately 89.5 percent of the Nepalese people identified themselves as Hindus. Buddhists and Muslims comprised 5.3 and 2.7 percent, respectively. The remainder followed other religions, including Christianity"
-South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
I understand this is 20 year old data, and there very well may be more Buddhists per capita since then, but I doubt it's still enough to overtake that huge margin.
This would be a dangerous precedent to set as it would open the door for many frivolous lottery claims. You would probably have people camping out around lottery headquarters anytime they read that on the website that a $200K powerball or $250K Mega ticket was purchased from their neck of the woods. When they see person arriving at lottery office to claim winnings, they could concoct a story of how they lost the ticket and saw that particular person scavenging around in the area of where they lost the ticket. I think the way things are currently are nice and simple...each ticket is a bearer instrument. You bear it, you won it. You don't have it, you're out of luck unless through the investigative work it is revealed you were the likely purchaser of said ticket. But I don't think I would want to leave such a matter up to the wonders of lottery HQ investigations.
It is also unrealistic to have every clerk register with the lottery due to the high turnover of such a job. Beside, what would it serve in doing that since any clerk and even the store owner can still purchase tickets and if they win, claim the prize.
"I do think they have a good argument in that they're not responsible for lost/stolen tickets. "
They have a rock solid argument that they're not responsible. Willis voluntarily handed a bearer instrument to somebody and let that person make his decisions for him. Lottery tickets are just like cash. It's too bad Wilis was ripped off, but he's either confused about who's to blame, or he's willing to steal from the people of Texas to replace what was stolen from him.
"the Texas Lottery acted irresponsible by not having the amount won by the player visible in plain sight to the customer"
Don't forget everybody in line behind the customer. I guess you've decided it's a good idea to tell as many people as possible every time somebody wins a lottery prize?
Thank you sandia but you don't have to apologize for Mr. greeneye. I was born in the same state that he's representing on LP, Charlotte, North Carolina, and I was raised virtually my entire life in Georgia. I am proud of my southern heritage, and if I ever win the lotto, I'll be moving back to Georgia for good. It's just that folks from up north become irritably condescending when I tell them how Georgia forever stays on my mind. And it's because of this relatively small minority of ignorant people (whom unfairly become the representation of the south for the rest of the U.S.) that do nothing to uplift the already naive image of our region. I am Korean American, so I am used to it after growing up around the racism, but I've met enough fine folks such as yourself to understand that I shouldn't let the few bad peaches spoil the whole cobbler pie.
Did McDonalds corp pay that old lady many years ago millions of dollars for the spilled hot coffee or did the owners of a McDonalds fanchise where it actually happened?
After I posted that I wondered if I confused Nepal with Tibet and it looks like I did. Thanks!
If this went to trial and I was on the jury, I would vote to give Mr. Willis NOTHING unless and until it was recovered from the clerk.
IMO, he has no case against the Lottery. If I'm not mistaken, I saw a story that said it was the Lottery that contacted Mr. Willis and determined that he had purchased the winning ticket. If they hadn't followed up on a tip from other employees of the store, Willis would still be in the dark about having lost $1mil. I would say the Lottery has gone above and beyond for Mr. Willis. If he can't wait for the money to be recovered from the clerk, he should sue the store. The clerk worked for the store not the Lottery.
Sign your tickets!!!
I just wonder who the IRS gave credit for the taxes that were paid?
"the Texas Lottery acted irresponsible by not having the amount won by the player visible in plain sight to the customer"
I did start with "anyone can sue anybody for anything" and that's one example of something the plaintiff might use. I'm not making an argument, just discussing some possibilities.
This case will begin with the fact the Texas Lottery declared Willis the ticket owner when paid him the remainder of the winnings and they'll probably will throw in many things like the clerk being the only one seeing the value of the ticket when it's validated. They might have a parade of witnesses saying they were riped off by clerks too.
I'm not making any guesses how this jury should or will rule, but considering a jury ruled McDonalds was negligent for several million because a woman put hot coffee between her legs while driving and eating a sandwich, an out-of-court settlement may be the wiser choice.
"I guess you've decided it's a good idea to tell as many people as possible every time somebody wins a lottery prize?"
State lotteries do have a screen facing the customer showing the value of the ticket so it's obviously a good idea in some states.
The Texas Lottery shouldn't have to pay this guy's winnings. Winners need to sign their tickets! If the Texas Lottery pays this winner back, a precedent has been set for all Lotteries and these types of retailer fraud stories will come up even more than they do now. Sorry Willis, keep playing...maybe you'll win $1,000,000 again!
There was a some what similar case in Ohio a few years ago when Ohio had Buckeye5 which paid $100K per winning ticket and had a cap of $1M if there were more than 10 winners and it was printed on the back of each play slip.
A player bought 20 lines of the same combinations and won and had to share $1M with another player only getting 20/21 of $1M. He sued claiming the retailer hadn't made him aware of the $1M cap or he wouldn't have bought 20 lines of the same numbers so the lottery and the retailer should pay him the difference of what he won and the $2M he thought he deserved.
The court ruled players had a reasonable responsible to know the rules and to protect their own interests if they played lottery games.
If anyone is responsible for Willis lost, it's the store owner who hired the dishonest clerk but I'm sure any insurance he carries doesn't cover that.
i agree with tabtastic, if these lazy beeps don't even want to check to see if they won, and waste the clerk time Checking losers, they should get off their lazy beep and sign the back
the only time you don't sign the back when you hand your ticket to a owner human being and it leaves your view
, is when winning a major jackpot, to form a trust to stay out of public eye
only hand a ticket unsigned to a lawyer who claim it for you, and for god sakes get something like your iphone 4 out and record it, and make him admit he taking temp ownership of what he belives to be a winning ticket of said jackpot. for x trust as a truste, a lawyer being paid a ton of money has no issue with going on video for your own records .
besides that sign the ticket idea for major wins
, clerk can sure rip you off for small wins thro! so always check the ticket your self
, but if their so lazy as not to check winners, at lest no one , but someone named the Same as you "your evil clone" can claim it at a lottery office for major wins think 600+ bucks in must case's
. i guest the fact is, clerks ever day around this nation, sadly abuse these retarded people who play the lottery, not checking or putting any real effort to see if they won these people get robbed and their very little we can do to prevent stupid people form being robbed blind, stupid just can't be fixed its a curse stuck with majority of humanity in 1 form or the other LOL.
and i don't buy the " i don't understand how the game works crap", its on the ticket how, ever lottery website has online website with how to sometimes, Hell ,when their lost, their always lottery post, they can scan the ticket, post a scaned phote of it online, or link to game on lotter website, ask us for help even!
say they don't understand whatever X means, and am sure their be people to help them understand , or they could always ask help of humans next to them in real life, form people they trust how said game works
the fact is, this guy was a lazy idiot, and so is ever other player who gets robbed majority of the time,
want to be a lazy person, and a idiot not to sign your ticket, will you just got robbed blind thanks to it. he should of signed the ticket, and lottery should stop being so nice, i also think the legal court in this nation have a major flaw in lawsuits being allowed at all.
if anyone sues you, and they LOSE they should Have to pay for your defence, you did not wrong and had to pay for your defence! and wasted your personal time
its wrong in so many ways for this player who got robbed to sue the lottery office, it was hes mistake, hes idioticness that made him lose that money, the lottery should not have to pay a peny in legal costs defending them selfs in court vs this guy and hes greedy lawyer. wrongly taking it out on lottery office
at lest they discovered the fact Atfer it was claimed, and letted him know a crime taken place,and even got a little cash back thanks to law enforcement doing their job and frezzing whatever money they could find.
if anything hes a ungrateful son of a beep to that lottery, it was hes mistake and hes alone, if anyone walks in to lottery office with a unclaimed winning ticket for a major prize, and he signed it,or it was not signed, then ya he may of stealed it, but lottery must pay
if anything, the theft was a idiot, i know how clerks can get away with stealing a major pb.mm winner.
use the same trick people use to remain anonymous , lucky thefts don't have brains as big as their evil morals.
my fear,1 day some idiot see a major jackpot , ether does not check the ticket right and thro it away. lose's it" then all that jackpot prize pool the states claim for them selfs atfer x time runs out and we players just been robbed 100s of millions when a major pb/mm jackpot prize unclaimed should be put back first thing into next jackpot roll!
, or just blindly gives it to wrong clerk , sense hes a trusting person and knew to playing the lottery, hands the clerk hes ticket, he only buyed thanks to long lines, etc major amount marketed 300m + or something catched hes eyes to it for first time, and the clerk knows winner was sold near by or their , and omfg luck would have it, he gets hes hand on it form the real winner,
gets the winner, scans say a 2/3 buck winner , just 1 pb/mm match winner ticket, he didn't cash in yet, ,tricking the newb player with term going you Won , going congrats you won. something, and that player leaves thinking sweet i won something!, walks away being 100% clueless he just got robbed insane amount of money.
then said thef clark, gets a lawyer, hides behind many trust's being anonymously , and sense using many diff trust's tactic, a trust within a trust etc, not even lottery would know, the irs would , that's about it, who really getting all that money. and the beeps get away stock free
lottery sure asks when did you buy the ticket, and all the lawyer has to say is my cilent told me he buyed many diff tickets thro out the week, each time he seen the jackpot get upped" as major jackpots do" and is not sure when said ticket was buyed form all the others
sense they lowball high jackpots , and up it thro out a 300+ run thro out the week, this would be easy to do, and lottery has to go with it, and they can't have real names of even the winner, as their having to play by their own rules of talking to the lawyer who just handed them the legit winner , demending he and hes cilent get their jackpot, their not going to force the issue of proof, other then making sure the ticket legit. and not signed , so they have to give it to the lawyer, or their ass will be in court.
in short, a clerk really can get away with it, must do on small amounts, and the only thing really effectice on stopping it, is if ever lottery state puts in self scaner at ever outlet that sells tickets, , 1 it save everyone time, even the clerks checking LOSER tickets, and then they only have to brother with cashing winners majority of the time, and theft goes down, time saved etc, everyone wins
but to ever lottery seller has a self ticket scanner that's their in the open, easy as hell to use, just quick self scan term, with a you won sound and amount or tells you to go to HQ on it, you won big time, , we are going to have this issue of repeat clerk theft form dumb players happening
for god sakes i hope this madness ends, and a pb.mm winner never is a clerk who theft, as that would be right up their as all the state lottery's keeping the prize pool of say 100+ cash form a pb/mm jackpot that went unclaimed for them selfs, then rerolling the amount back INTO the next jackpot draw. sense the dumb player lost hes winning jackpot ticket/destoryed it whatever, dog ate IT rofl/
hell the only time someone has a right in my mind to go to Law court and sue the lottery
is if you say won PB/MM and their was 2 winning tickets , you claimed your share in time, , but the idiot with the other winning ticket Didn't claim at all, time ran out
and I think, regardless of what the lottery rules are and try to get away with, , as you are the Only claime of said major jackpot, that other 50% that was not claimed, Belongs rightful to you and not back to , and not the states, that's the only time i think you could legit go to a court, and the jury would Hand you the other 50% share,
hell i even bet the lottery would try to get away with it, but would settle must likly and give you the other half even, IF you was not going for it, Demanded your 100% share if no one claimed by you!
and taken them to court for other 50% share of whatever major jackpot, the greedy beeps are trying to keep them selfs, they know its bad press the sec the lottery winner takes them to court over it.
as the lottery knows , so do the people in the jury know bullcrap greed the sec they tryed to steal your rightful jackpot form you and They know rightful ownership when they see it
as the jury would see it as, will he was the only one that claimed it, he rightful won, he should get all the jackpot then,and they think to them selfs " if i was in hes shoes, i want full jackpot TOO" , if the other ticket winner never claimed,i should get that full jackpot
my point being, is in my head, i know the lottery people , and their ways are not perfact, like i listed above, they really think they have a Right to unclaimed major wins, would try to steal a unclaimed jackpot of pb/mm of 300+ if given the chance
if it went unlciamed by a major winner who never cashed it in time
but in this case, it was player being a idiot, and not the lottery idiotic ways of not having a ticket checker in ever ticket outlet in clear view, Check your tickets here, "save us all Time you lazy beeps" i like to add but never go on such signs, , the lottery should not never even have to pay for legal defence vs this bs lawsuit form this guy, and if their ever a jury on this issue, should 100% side with lottery as they did what they had to, the theft had winning ticket, as hes story did have odd/redish flags, that made them later review store video, and find out a major theft has taken place, they Had to pay the winning ticket that appeared at time of claiming to now belong to what we know as the theft in this case. and legal costs for this bs lawsuit should lay with lawsuite and hes lawyer paying for the lottery legal defence,
i sure think lawsuits are nonething but act's financial Terrorist agiant people and company's when everyone with a brain"i like to think" knows whatever lawsuit about just bs
its thanks to united states ways that we created a form of financial Terror anyone can do to a other human being who does not deserve it.
The deli I buy my tickets from has not fixed their ticket scanner (the one that bypasses the clerk) for almost a year now
I don't know if it will help anything but you could try writing your state's lottery comission. They might end up contacting the place telling them they need to get it fixed or face some type of consequence. It couldn't hurt anything.
Yea that's why I was saying it's a tough situation.
It has been declared that Willis is the true owner of the ticket and he has been awarded money for it from the winnings given to Joshi. There's also the issue that the lottery commission has to protect their rule of the ticket being a bearer instrument and whosever name is on it is the owner. Of course this case has the fact it's been proven Joshi stole the ticket.
I guess this could have been prevented if the lottery made sure that Joshi was the true owner of the ticket by reviewing the stores cameras for when the ticket was purchased they could see a customer was there at the counter at the time and that Joshi himself was a cashier who has the opportunity to take someone elses ticket. I'm not going to blame him for not putting his name on the ticket because how many of us don't put our names on the ticket because we want to claim via a trust? With a name you're stuck claiming without any privacy. If Texas allowed anonymous claiming then yea it would allow everyone to write their name on the back to prevent situations like this, but that's not the case.
Is there a law against someone who's not overly intelligent playing the lottery?
Do they prohibit people with low IQ's from playing?
The answer to both questions is no.
If the state isn't going to pay this less than intelligent person simply because he acted less than intelligent, they should start requiring IQ tests to play the lottery.
That money was rightfully his and the state should give it to him and go after that filthy Nepalese dirtbag themselves.
I read about Willis and saw him on the news. I like the guy. I would slam beers and tell tall tales with him.
Yeah, he ain't the smartest knife in the light bulb drawer and he was guilty of being too trusting and vulnerable but he trusted the Texas Lottery Commission to do the right thing and be fair and honest. But they didn't and they're not. One of their representatives ripped him off.
Texas oughta do the right thing and give him his dam money.