Posted on 11/17/2012 4:55:49 AM PST by SMGFan
A maintenance worker in Syracuse, N.Y. claims that he won $5 million on an instant lottery ticket. He took it back to the store where he had purchased it, and the store owner’s son told him that he had only won $5,000. The man offered him for $4,000 in cash for the ticket. The store owner’s two sons sat on the ticket for six years, then turned it in to the state lottery. The lottery sensed that something was not right here. To smoke out the shenanigans, the state lottery planted a story in the media. They didn’t lie, exactly, but they kind of lied. They gave information in a news release that’s usually reserved for lottery-winner press conferences, and the release just didn’t look like a normal lottery-winner-update sent out to local media. It gave out too much information, and set no press conference date. Veteran newspeeps suspected that something was up.
Something was. The store owner’s sons claimed that they had kept their lottery win quiet because, as Muslims, they’re forbidden from gambling. How does waiting for six years solve that problem?
Meanwhile, the convenience store at the center of the scandal has lost its license to sell lottery tickets.
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...
http://readme.readmedia.com/Two-Brothers-from-Onondaga-County-Claim-5-000-000-Lottery-Scratch-Off-Prize/5046468/print
Isn’t there a time limit on claiming a winning lottery ticket? I’m pretty sure it’s a lot less than 6 years.
The best way to combat frauds like this is to immediately sign the back of the ticket at purchase.
Same goes when buying tickets for a group-—have each person who put money into the pool sign the back of the ticket(s).
Keep photocopies of the signed tickets.
scratch offs must have a longer shelf life. When major prize are won the remainder need to be returned... Did People kept buying believing the $5M ticket was out there! ?
Are there really people too stupid to read their own lottery ticket?
I don’t even trust those readers at the store that says whether you won or not.
I am, however, capable of looking at the winning numbers and then determining whether I have any of them on the my ticket.
That's exactly what I was thinking.I'm 99% certain that at least some states set time limits on prize redemptions.However,I'm less certain that *all* states do and less certain that such limits apply to *all* forms of "wagers".That is,limits could apply to Powerball,a mult-state game,but not to scratch tickets,which are issued by individual states.
Well, when you read it as $5,000,000 and you promptly go back to the convenience store to collect, you must be super stupid.
I don’t know. But most scratch offs games have an expiration date. Most state lotteries issue and run a scratch off game for a limited time period and after that particular game has ended, there is a time limit in which to claim the prize and 6 years seems way too long. Also IIRC, when a scratch off game ends, the retailer has to turn in the unsold tickets. All lottery tickets have unique serial numbers on them so that is how the lottery officials know how many winning tickets are unclaimed and publish how many winning tickets are unclaimed and publish the deadlines for claiming the prize.
The AP story says it was near expiration
Religion of POSes alert. Thanks SMGFan. IOW, when someone offers $4000 for a $5000 winner, the smart move is always to take it somewhere else. Duh.
If you play the lottery, you are already proving that you are
super stupid. It’s a tax on the poor and the math-challenged.
Sorry for all those who I may offend...but the truth is the truth.....
Yes! BamaClaus voters.
More info on the story at the following article. The article states the ticket was purchased in Oct. 2006 and was a $250,000 annual payout over 20 years. They have been in contact with the orginal purchaser it seems and charges have been filed against the two brothers.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20121113/NEWS03/121119777/1066/news03
Another article:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/syracuse_brothers_lottery_ticket_arrested.html
The lottery is a direct tax on stupidity. The more stupid you are, the more heavily you are taxed.
I’m only dumb enough to get lottery tickets at Christmas as stocking stuffers for the wife and kids (both grown). More as a joke than anything else.
Yea it is a stupid tax, but there is a gambler’s idiom “It’s okay to risk a very little to win a huge amount”.
To me, that means about 50 bucks a year in lotto tickets. Now if I can only remember to check them to see if I won.
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