[Montfort]

If the real winner had not happened to get a receipt showing the time of her purchase. This is a very unlikely thing to get in my state-- the ticket is your receipt for purchasing the ticket and the store treats the ticket separately from other purchases and it is common for convenience stores not to even give you the receipt unless you ask for it.

This woman tried to commit a major league fraud and just happened to get caught. She deserves to be punished a lot worse than merely filing a false police report will permit. Were it not for that receipt, she just might have been able to put the other woman's rightful win in legal jeopardy (or just delay it) long enough to extort a decent little settlement just to go away.

[steve-b]

Were it not for that receipt, she just might have been able to put the other woman's rightful win in legal jeopardy (or just delay it) long enough to extort a decent little settlement just to go away.

There is just no way the Ohio authorities would have stood for that -- it would be bad for business, and they'd have less lottery money for their favorite vote-buying programs in the future.

That's why I'd bet [rimshot] that Battle was given a choice between recanting and being charged with filing a false police report, or sticking it out and being charged with felony fraud.