Lottery ‘winner’ who was given $75 instead of $75,000 was undercover inspector

[okaawhatever]

Palmdale, CA (KTLA) — A Palmdale gas station has been placed under investigation after a lottery ticket that should have returned a $75,000 reward earned its holder, who was actually a state inspector, only got him $75 in cash, a California lottery official said Monday.

The gas station released surveillance video of the purported winner on Sunday in an effort to identify the man and reward him his rightful earnings, the station’s manager said.

Various Los Angeles-area news outlets ran the story, reporting that the gas station was attempting to find the $75,000 “winner.”

But the video actually shows an undercover investigator from the California Lottery on an inspection stop, according to Russell Lopez, a spokesman for the lottery.

SNIP


“Since the store held onto the ticket, it appears the ticket was mishandled,” Lopez said in a brief statement to KTLA. “We are currently investigating this case.”

Continued at Link plus video:
http://fox4kc.com/2015/05/05/lottery-winner-who-was-given-75-instead-of-75000-was-undercover-inspector/

Some of the DUers called this one. I was so naive, I didn't realize stores did would do that.

[LisaL]

1. Stores aren't supposed to cash a $75,000 ticket.

So it seem like a very strange story to begin with.

[pipoman]

2. Yeah, that's the point...it was a sting and the store failed the test

[Spirochete]

8. Did the inspector

bring the ticket in with him? I assume so, because what are the odds of him winning 75,000? Dunno - the story kind of confuses me.

[pipoman]

9. I think so...

I think the inspector presented a ticket that scanned to be worth 75k, the store clerk told the inspector it was worth only $75.

[LisaL]

10. Yes, he brought the ticket with him.

The ticket was fake. The point was to check if cashier was going to follow the lottery rules.

[Spirochete]

25. Thank you

I thought that probably had to be it. I wonder how often this occurs. Not necessarily 75,000, but any amount.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Ah but this is how it works

you give the winner 75, and they walk away dumb and happy. Then these folks turn around and cash the actual winnings and make the till whole.

This is why they have these inspectors.

[JI7]

5. they give the ticket to some accomplice ?

[former9thward]

11. No, they cash it themselves.

On the news last night they interviewed a store owner than had "won" 10 lottery tickets amounting to $70,000. What luck he had!

[FreakinDJ]

27. Old Scam - Store Clerks have been Busted for it

That scam started when the Lotery started

Question being - Who tipped off the store they were about to get Busted

[ohnoyoudidnt]

4. But the store management admitted the mistake and began searching for the righftul owner.

How would that indicate fraud attempt on their part? Does the store get to keep the winnings when it is clear they did not but the ticket?

[JI7]

6. maybe it was after they thought they might be in trouble ?

[okaawhatever]

7. The fraud attempt was when they told the owner of the ticket that it was a $75 winner and

not a $75,000 winner. Not to mention, stores aren't allowed to cash (or take/keep for any reason) tickets that are worth that much. The cashier never should have taken posession of the ticket. The winner would have to go to the lottery office to make the claim for the money there.

The cashier ran the ticket to see if it was a winner, saw that it was worth 75,000. Lied to the customer and said it was worth $75. Was planning to cash the ticket himself or get someone else to do it on his behalf and pocket the winnings. It could have been an honest mistake since it was a scratch off, but that seems unlikely since those tickets are typically scanned using a bar code so the amount of the winnings would have come up on the computer.

I think they looked back at the video to see who cashed the ticket & realized it was someone undercover or they chickened out of their plan and that is when they started advertising for the owner.

[JI7]

12. so even if it was a 75 dollar winning ticket he wasn't supposed to give the money

to the ticket holder ?

[LisaL]

13. You never play the lottery, do you?

Store can cash a ticket up to a certain amount. $75 is below the limit, so store is supposed to cash it.
$75,000 is way above, so the store was supposed to give the ticket back to the man and send him to the lottery office.

[JI7]

14. never played it , do you know what the limit is ?

[Recursion]

15. Every state I've lived in, it was $200, though a store could set a lower limit

So, like, the 7-11 wouldn't cash anything more than $10 because for obvious reasons they don't keep much more than that in the till at a given moment. But, no venue (at least in VA, DC, and MA) is even allowed to cash in a ticket higher than $200 (I won $1000 on a scratch-off I bought at a bar once during grad school* and the machine that scanned it said "Take to nearest lottery office" or something like that).

* There are several bad decisions implicit in this sentence...

[Agschmid]

20. *Lol.

[LeftofObama]

16. In Ohio the most a store can pay on a scratch off ticket is $599.

Anything over that you have to go to a lottery office so they can deduct taxes.

This reminds me of a story when I was going to school in Arizona; I was working at a Circle K convenience store and a lady brought a ticket in. I scanned it and it said, "See lottery agent." I handed her ticket back and told her what the screen said and she had a huge grin on her face and walked out. I never saw her again and I've always been curious to know how much she won.

[Codeine]

17. $599 bucks in California.

Higher than that and we give them a claim form and send them to the nearest Lottery office. Even higher than $40 the machine asks if you can cash it on site since some stores keep very little working cash available to their cashiers.

Scratchers are cashed by a barcode scan at the Lotto termnal. The amount comes up on the terminal screen. These people were being fraudulent and then got cold feet and tried to cover their asses in my opinion.

[Callmecrazy]

26. Florida is $600

[oneshooter]

28. Texas limit is $500 n/t

[Gothmog]

18. Many lottery winners are cheated

The reasons for this inspection was to catch lottery operators who cheat winners

[Omaha Steve]

21. I got beat out of a free play once

It won't happen again.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. The Scanning Machines I See Tell The Person Doing a Self-Scan. . .

. . .how much the ticket wins. Wonder why that didn't occur here? If i scanned on one of those, i would know i just read $75k. It would be impossible to defraud me then.

I wonder if the inspector had the clerk scan it instead of doing it himself.

[LisaL]

23. Inspector brought in a fake ticket to see if the store was honest.

Why in the world would inspector scan the ticket himself? Of course he gave it to the clerk. Clerk was supposed to scan the ticket, give the inspector his ticket back and tell the inspector to go to the lottery office. Instead clerk gave him $75 and didn't return the ticket.

[okaawhatever]

24. In TN they don't have very many of the self scan machines and some of them don't work very well. I

rarely buy a lottery ticket, but the last time I tried to use a self scan machine it didn't work.

[stevenleser]

22. The store manager looks crooked. Anyone who wins more than $100 should go to the state

lottery office nearest them to collect.

[bigwillq]

29. I won $500 on a scratch ticket

and went to a local gas station. Everything worked out ok.

I know in CT:

Up to $599 can be claimed at any lottery retailer.
Up to $5,000 can be claimed at any High-Tier Claim Center.
More than $5,000 needs to be claimed only at Lottery Headquarters.