Investigators claim Calif. Lottery paying out jackpots it shouldn't to avoid bad press

Oct 30, 2016, 9:03 am (34 comments)

California Lottery

Includes video report

LOS ANGELES — Two California Lottery insiders claim the lottery sometimes chooses image over integrity.

CBS2's David Goldstein previously reported on a man who collected a nearly $2 million Powerball check, even though he said he lost the ticket.

And the chief Lottery investigator said in her report he couldn't provide substantial proof that he was the winner, which is required by law.

Insiders say it's not the first time that people have been paid when investigators say they shouldn't have. All, they say, to avoid bad publicity.

They produced a Lottery report of a San Francisco man who won a $750,000 Scratcher this year. According to the report, the investigator concluded that the claim be denied because there were conflicting statements in relation to who purchased and play the winning ticket.

But it was eventually determined the claim be paid even though it allegedly violated Lottery regulations.

And the Lottery sent out a press release announcing the new winner, never mentioning any conflicting statements.

They also claim the Lottery has taken a passive approach to cracking down on retailers who may be breaking the rules in order to avoid bad press.

They say one way to do it is known as "pinning", where retailers carefully scrape off the bar code on a Scratcher to see if it's a winner. If it's not, it goes back on the shelf and they try to sell it to unsuspecting players.

Helen Brean, the former chief Lottery investigators, was fired after filing an internal complaint about the $1.9 million Powerball winner who took home the prize after she alleged he didn't have substantial proof.

"They didn't really like us going out and doing a lot of enforcement," Brean said. "It was kind of, 'Keep everything quiet, we don't want people to think that ... there's any negative aspect to the Lottery."

Lottery officials in the case of the $750,000 Scratcher said the decision to pay the prize was based on the investigator's initial findings. The Lottery said it makes decisions regarding payment of prizes based on the law and the facts in each case.

VIDEO: Watch the report

CBSLA, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Wow i never knew all this was going on. Thanks for the Story.Smiley

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

I've always said, "If you have a law/rule in the books that you are not willing to enforce uniformly, then take it off the books". This story has two sides though: if you genuinely lost your winning ticket, you pray that you get paid but if you are just a scammer, then this can potentially be a huge BONANZA.

LottoAce's avatarLottoAce

The lottery office should have stood thier ground. everyone knows that if
you lose a ticket, you may lose a worthless piece of toilet paper, or you may
lose millions.
Can I sue N.C. for 110 million for not getting the MegaMillions game in our state?
when I had the numbers...?....I don't think so.

music*'s avatarmusic*

The California Lottery wanted to avoid bad publicity. Now they have what they feared.

 The Governor should investigate the Lottery Board.  How high did this go?

 Another reason why I do not play scratchers, pinning. I only play PB & MM.

 

Dance

Redd55

Correct me if Im wrong but the lottery immediately show up where the winning ticket was sold and takes the video. 

If they know the time the winning ticket was sold and you are seen buying it, why wouldnt they give you the prize? I understand some video, actually digital, tape may not be clear. However the ones I've seen at my local 7/11 were in color and very clear. 

noise-gate

l want to know more about that $1.9 mil payout without a ticket. We have been told time and time again" No ticket no payout." What changed? 

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

Quote: Originally posted by Redd55 on Oct 30, 2016

Correct me if Im wrong but the lottery immediately show up where the winning ticket was sold and takes the video. 

If they know the time the winning ticket was sold and you are seen buying it, why wouldnt they give you the prize? I understand some video, actually digital, tape may not be clear. However the ones I've seen at my local 7/11 were in color and very clear. 

They do know the time and place where the ticket was sold but there are problems that come up. Let's say there was a winning lottery ticket for a $500 million jackpot. The ticket was sold at 7/11 on Wednesday 6:35 PM.

They look at the surveillance footage for someone buying a lottery ticket at 7/11 on Wednesday 6:35 PM but there are multiple people buying lottery tickets. Who do you award the money to? When lotto fever kicks in I've seen the lines at 7/11 go all the way down to the curb. I could easily imagine 100 tickets sold in a one minute period of time to more than one person. Some 7/11s even have 2 or 3 terminals that sell tickets that complicates the situation even more.

Also how would anyone know the time on the surveillance footage is synchronized with the clock at the lottery headquarters? The record at the lottery headquarters shows when the winning ticket was bought but the time on the surveillance footage is off.

No ticket. No money simple as that. The ticket should always be the bearer instrument. Allowing people to claim money without the ticket is just asking for fraud.

rca1952

US FlagAngryThey should clean house and replace all those who run the lottery!...This is a game for the people, by the people!!! And there is no other way to look at it....Fire them all....

Redd55

Quote: Originally posted by whiteballz on Oct 30, 2016

They do know the time and place where the ticket was sold but there are problems that come up. Let's say there was a winning lottery ticket for a $500 million jackpot. The ticket was sold at 7/11 on Wednesday 6:35 PM.

They look at the surveillance footage for someone buying a lottery ticket at 7/11 on Wednesday 6:35 PM but there are multiple people buying lottery tickets. Who do you award the money to? When lotto fever kicks in I've seen the lines at 7/11 go all the way down to the curb. I could easily imagine 100 tickets sold in a one minute period of time to more than one person. Some 7/11s even have 2 or 3 terminals that sell tickets that complicates the situation even more.

Also how would anyone know the time on the surveillance footage is synchronized with the clock at the lottery headquarters? The record at the lottery headquarters shows when the winning ticket was bought but the time on the surveillance footage is off.

No ticket. No money simple as that. The ticket should always be the bearer instrument. Allowing people to claim money without the ticket is just asking for fraud.

I buy my tickets at 6 am and no one is there. And if there is, they are not buying lotto tickets.    Banana

If as in your case scenario, if there are lines out the door, then there might be a problem. But not with mine. No No

Since everything is digitalised, the times on the recording equipment should be accurate. Also, they can test it when they seize the recording.  Hurray!

 

Looking at the totality of the circumstances, if there is no doubt that someone purchased the winning ticket but lost it, they shd pay up!  Dance

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by helpmewin on Oct 30, 2016

Wow i never knew all this was going on. Thanks for the Story.Smiley

HMW......neither did anyone else I bet because, if it is not honestly reported we won't hear about it. You know no Kalie news corp's will inform the people on this won. Glad that Todd has a news forum in the LP!

THANKS:

        Hurray!Hurray! LOTTERY POST NEWS  Hurray!Hurray!

LottoMetro's avatarLottoMetro

I'm pretty sure cases like this, albeit perhaps not as high as $2 million, happen in nearly all states....especially the larger lotteries. They have a larger pool of unclaimed prize $$$$$ as well as larger marketing budgets to absorb instances like this. There are always "exceptions" made to supposedly hard rules in order to avoid bad publicity. Where I work, we make exceptions frequently because our clients are worth more in daily revenue than the amount we lose by making the exception.

I can see this backfiring if they honor a fraudulent claim, announce that individual as the winner, and then the true winner shows up to claim.

Redd55

Rules may be rules but there is also the concept of undue enrichment.  If there is sufficient evidence that the person bought the lost ticket, the lottery may want to avoid a court decision against them. 

noise-gate

Calif. man knew he won $1M but lost the lottery ticket

A California Lottery winner lost out on the opportunity to claim his $1 million Powerball prize after he misplaced his ticket.

The man saw news reports about himself buying the ticket in Rosemead and came forward, saying he was the winner, KABC-TV reported.  But, he said, he lost his ticket.

Because Powerball rules require the winner to produce the actual winning ticket, he was ineligible to collect his winnings, California Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said.

"We believe the man who came forward yesterday was the actual guy in the surveillance footage," Traverso said," but unfortunately, in Powerball rules, you have to have a physical ticket to win.".....BS

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

Quote: Originally posted by Redd55 on Oct 30, 2016

I buy my tickets at 6 am and no one is there. And if there is, they are not buying lotto tickets.    Banana

If as in your case scenario, if there are lines out the door, then there might be a problem. But not with mine. No No

Since everything is digitalised, the times on the recording equipment should be accurate. Also, they can test it when they seize the recording.  Hurray!

 

Looking at the totality of the circumstances, if there is no doubt that someone purchased the winning ticket but lost it, they shd pay up!  Dance

Without the ticket there will always be doubt.

Subscribe to this news story