Beware of a Store Clerk Stealing Your Winning Lottery Ticket

If you play the lottery, beware of store clerks ripping you off. Dateline NBC aired a program on Sunday May 3, 2009 all about how store owners and clerks were ripping people off with winning tickets.

In California, undercover agents were sent into seven different stores with lottery tickets made up especially for their investigation. Each ticket was worth $1000.00. The "customer" (the agent) would hand to clerks some tickets for them to scan, and then the agent would pretend to do some shopping while the tickets were being scanned. The clerk was completely unaware that the "customer" knew there was a ticket worth $1000.00 in the bunch.

The lottery machines automatically print a receipt each time a winning ticket is scanned. It tells the amount of winnings. Also, the winning is automatically posted to the boards at the lottery's main offices.

Upon returning to the clerk, the customer would ask if any of the tickets were winners. Only two out of the seven stores told her that there was a $1000.00 winning ticket. The other five told her there was not winners in the bunch and kept the winning ticket themselves.

Afterwards, Dateline NBC returned to the stores which kept the tickets without telling the agent about the winning one and asked them about it. Every one of them tried their best to lie their way out of it. Yet, they were caught because they were on camera and tape recorded. The ones who had kept the tickets were sentenced to jail time and then probation. They were charged with a misdemeanor and attempted theft. And to really make things worse, every one of the stores lost their ability to sale lottery tickets. Since some of the stores depended on the sale of lottery tickets to stay in business, they were not sure what they would do.

Another thing clerks were caught doing is buying the winning tickets for less than they were worth (i.e. $650.00 for a $1000.00 ticket). Some people actually do go along with this in order to try not to get their winnings posted. They do this because the government can take money out of their winnings for back pay to child support or back taxes et cetera.

One person Dateline NBC reported on (not one in the investigation) actually stole $500,000 and was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

What the clerks were doing was scanning the tickets, seeing they were winners but then telling the customer there were not any winners. Some stores (none in this investigation) were going so far as to put lottery tickets that were worth little or nothing in their back rooms and then swapping them out with winning tickets.

This was tried in New York, but word got out to the local retailers that they were doing this. So they were unable to do the investigation.

Their suggestion to keep this from happening to you is to sign your ticket right when you get it. One other thing is to look at the ticket closely since the instructions to play a scratch off is right there on the ticket. They tell you everything you have to do or get to have a winner. Or you can look up the instructions online. Make sure you read the brochure telling about the powerball game. There are other ways to win than just getting all of the numbers. To find information online about your state's lottery, simply Google your state's name plus lottery.

Also, do not leave to shop while the clerk scans your tickets. If you do have a winning ticket a receipt will print out for that ticket telling how much it is worth. If you see one print out but the clerk says you do not have a winner, ask them to see exactly what was printed. If they refuse, contact lottery headquarters and have the store investigated.

Source:
Dateline NBC news show aired May 3, 2009