Yes you may be right in that lotteries will withhold your tax liability for you and send it to the IRS on your behalf, like an employer for his employee. If you so choose to let them do so.
However, I maintain my central point which is no reputable lottery will contact you to demand you pay your tax liability first before they will give you your winnings. They will at most do what is above: give you your winnings at the same time they withhold a portion of it to pay the IRS (and/or state and or local taxes), again if you elect to do so at the time you win your prize.
In other words one will never be asked to pay something before receiving winnings. No reputable organization involved in games of chance will do that.
If you have a winning lottery ticket you have to go to them to claim the prize. If you don’t the lottery may publicize the fact near the expiration date that no one has come forward with a winning ticket for their jackpot. They do not seek you out except in one very rare instance.
Understand your main point about the frauds.
BTW, it’s not a matter of one choosing to allow, say a State Lottery to with hold taxes, Federal and state. One has no say in the matter. And if perchance, one outstanding monies owed to the state, be they fines, back taxes due, in some places back child support, those ammounts will deducted from winnings.
While waiting for Lottery Office to cut my check, I heard the law explained to a stunned young scoff law. We both learned something that day.