There could be a lot of winners after scratch-off lottery tickets go on sale at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow.
But it won't be because the lottery manipulated the games to produce more winners right away to entice more people to play.
''It will appear there are more winners the first day than the second day,'' said Rebecca Paul, president and chief executive officer of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp.
''We'll sell more tickets the first day so we'll have more winners based on the fact that you sell more tickets,'' Paul said.
Fiddling with the prizes would put a billion-dollar business' integrity into question, and lottery officials say there are enough controls to make sure that can't happen.
From printing the tickets to validating winners, Paul says, the chief goal is maintaining the integrity and security of the system so players have faith in it and buy tickets and the state takes in enough money to fund college scholarships with the lottery's earnings.
How secure are the games?
It all starts with printing the tickets. Sophisticated mathematic equations randomly scatter the prizes among the tens of millions of tickets that are printed.
The prizes are placed so a pattern can't be determined, said Cliff Bickell, president of printed products for Scientific Games, the Tennessee Lottery's vendor for scratch-off tickets.
''It is set up so no one has an advantage over anyone else,'' Bickell said. No one knows which tickets have prizes in the batches delivered to retailers.
''The computer tapes are locked in dual-controlled safes'' at Scientific Games' plant in Alpharetta, Ga., Paul said.
The scratch-off ticket has evolved a lot since Scientific Games created the first secure ticket 30 years ago.
Bickell said the tickets then were two pieces of paper with foil in between. The foil was used to prdvent someone from using a bright light to see through the ticket and glimpse the prizes printed inside.
The problem was that the paper couldn't be recycled because of the foil. In the early 1990s, the tickets were switched to all paper. ''Now you have more environmentally friendly tickets,'' Bickell said.
Graphics have become flashier in recent years, making tickets more visually appealing.
The most significant change over the years, however, is the addition of bar codes on tickets.
Bickell said the change allowed for more accurate prize structures. But more important, the bar codes make the tickets more secure.
''Somebody can't alter a ticket,'' he said.
Players sometimes will try altering tickets.
''It just seems somebody will try testing the system,'' said Bob Vincent, spokesman for GTECH Holdings, the Tennessee Lottery's vendor for the lotto game. GTECH also runs the verification system for scratch-off tickets.
Bickell said, ''People have tried all sorts of things.''
One favorite trick is mangling a ticket by running it through a washing machine and then turning it in as a winning ticket. It doesn't work. The bar codes reveal all.
Bar coding also makes it more difficult to steal winning tickets from retailers and then claim the prizes.
''All the security is tied not only to the printing of the tickets themselves but to the whole validation process of the tickets,'' Paul said.
Before retailers put a new batch of scratch-off tickets out for sale, they activate the pack by electronically scanning it, which alerts the lottery that the tickets are active. Once that is done, the system won't validate a claimed ticket if it has been reported stolen, lottery officials said.
Vincent said retailers have to be careful not to scan too many packs of tickets into the system.
''You create a security issue that some of them disappear,'' he said.
But if the tickets aren't scanned into the system, Paul said, the lottery has no way of knowing whether the tickets have been stolen. The retailers have to report them stolen immediately so they can be blocked, she said.
The procedures are included in retailers' training sessions.
''When retailers have a theft, they are real, real good turning that in because they are either there at the time it happens or they come in the next day and see their store has been violated,'' Paul said. ''I've just never experienced retailers who didn't call in immediately.''
Another safeguard prdvents prize money from being claimed in the wee hours of the morning when someone might not be paying much attention.The system for claiming prizes is shut down between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Central Time.
Someone showing up with a stolen ticket might want to think twice anyway.
''In presenting it, the person is going to get into trouble,'' Vincent said.
It could mean felony charges that lead to some jail time, not to mention a hefty fine of up to $100,000.
Paul said people have tried stealing tickets all over the country, trying to claim prizes. But the ticket usually just ends up being a good lead for the police.
''We'll help law enforcement catch people on other crimes,'' Paul said.
Q&A: Big prizes reported to IRS
Q: Will my winnings be reported to the IRS?
A: If your total prize after subtracting your wager is at least $600, and at least 300 times the amount of your wager, the lottery commission will report your winnings to the IRS.
Q: Will federal income tax be withheld on my winnings?
A: The IRS will withhold 25% on prize payments exceeding $5,000.
Q: Can I deduct gambling losses on my federal tax return?
A: Gambling losses are considered Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions. They are deductible only up to the amount of the gambling winnings you report on Line 21 of Form 1040, and only if you qualify to itemize deductions.
Q: Do lottery ticket expenses qualify as gambling losses?
A: Yes. They can be added to other gambling losses incurred during the tax year.
Q: What records should I keep to prove gambling winnings and losses?
A: Keep source documents such as losing tickets and document your winnings and losses by keeping a record of them. Include the date and type of wager, the name and address of the location of the gambling establishment and the amount you won or lost.
Get information about how gambling can affect federal taxes at www.irs.gov or IRS Publications 525 and 529.
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