Dateline--show about Lottery Tickets-

17 years ago

Just got thru watching the Dateline special about how some retailers scam people out of money. Very interesting. Most of the investigations were in Riverside CA, but when they asked the officials in other states what they were doing to protect the public, NY really got upset and set out notices to all the retailers about the news reporters and what they were doing.

They had special winning lottery tickets and scratch offs and took them in along with the officials to see if when they scanned the tickets the clerks were honest in reporting you are a winner. The majority were very honest. Yep, the others did jail time and lost their license to sell the tickets. Any one here take a ticket in without checking it first and told they were not a winner?

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Comments (10)

Jasdip
17 years ago
Nope not me. I check my tickets online myself. But over the past couple years there have been millions "won" by the convenience store owners here in Ont.

As of this past January, ALL lottery tickets have to be signed by the purchaser before the clerk can check them. Then they can't keep the ticket as theirs. All the stores have "self-checkers" installed now where we can check our own tickets instead of handing them over.

I won $1800 a couple weeks ago, and the stores can only cash up to $999, so I went in to Toronto to get my cheque.
donna37
17 years ago
I always check mine, online, before taking a winning ticket in. The only one I didn't check for some reason was a $743 winner. lol.

We did have a woman working a local convenience store that got caught stealing scratch offs and if they were winners, she was taking them to another local store to redeem. The other store got suspicious about all the winning tickets she seemed to come up with and called the other store and an investigation revealed she had stolen a huge amount of them. Don't know if she ever cheated a customer or not.

Besides checking them at home, they have a reader machine where you can check them at the place you bought them and I always check them again to make sure I didn't miss something before turning them in.
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I bought a few lottery tickets maybe twenty years back for my friends' Dad whenever he'd let me use his wonderful old beat-up Ford PU truck. It was red and had wooden racks and sounded gloriously ancient as it rattled down the road. It had a problem with the linkage hanging up now and again and on the coldest night of the year it hung up when I stopped at an intersection a block from their house. Francine and I bundled up against the wind and trudged back to her house to tell her Dad. Oh, my! He was not happy and I was shakin' in my boots as we followed him back up the hill to the truck. He bellowed, "Git down here, girl and learn sumthin' about a linkage! I 'ain't savin' yo' butts next time!" I crawled under the truck next to him and watched as his scarred black hands handled the flashlight and fiddled with some skinny lengths of connected aluminum rods. "Girl; you see where that piece is knotted up at the link? GRAB those two pieces and yank them out straight again! Lawd; it's cold!" I pulled; nothing happened. "Act like you got some sense, girl! I said, 'PULL' and I don't want to hear nuthin' about you cain't!!!!!" Well, it WAS freezing---this was not a fun adventure, so I yanked the heck out of those rods and they straightened out and innocently looked like they'd always been that way. All he said was, "Girl, don't forget what you just learned and don't y'all come whinin' again if sumthin' breaks!" Francine helped me haul some stuff and then we grabbed some goodies and hot coffee before taking the truck back. The next day I bought him five lottery tickets. He looked like he'd just won when he saw them! I made sure to always get him a few each time I borrowed his truck after that, He passed away suddenly a few years later. A nephew from DC took the truck and had it totally restored. I'm glad it was so loved and was still in the family. I never felt the need to buy a lottery ticket for me. It was much more fun getting them for someone else who truly believed his lucky day was coming!
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No, NO Sherry, you can't have the Subzero!! I made do for years with a small refrig/freezer that we bought used when we got married. It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle to get food in and out of it. A year of so after the fourth son was born, I just couldn't fit enough food in it to keep up with the appetites and went out looking for a new one. Accidentally stumbled on to this Subzero as a floor model that they had discounted. We had to work on the cabinets to build it in and it is only the refrigerator (no freezer) so we have to step into the laundry room for ice etc where our big freezer is, but HEY it is wonderful!!! Huge with four BIG crisper drawers and space galore. One of the best buys I've ever made. Always a little strange when new people open it up and stand there looking for the freezer. May have used up some of my luck as today I'm at the hospital with DH who is about to have totally unexpected gall bladder surgery.... but the fridge is still working!!!! Grace
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A voluntary tax on the stupid. I've seen you say that b4 about lottery tickets in particular. What you said is funny, but seeing those who really cannot afford to buy tickets, but do so anyway, is really sad. Casinos collect the tax on bigger winnings right on the spot, b4 issuing the money to the winner. I used to enjoy a night out with friends playing bingo. One might win, but if not, the money raised from the bingo is supposed to go to the charity holding the game. Battered women's shelter, Fireman's fund, Boy scouts, etc. I did/do see it as entertainment, and a night out...all for a good cause. Sue
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lydia1959
17 years ago
My DH used to take his in and have them check them before they had the automatic readers. Maybe we could have been millionaires? lol

I thought it was funny that Dateline was talking about lottery tickets today and I just posted a thread "50th birthday Gift" about giving a friend a winning scratch off ticket.
gneegirl
17 years ago
I stopped playing a very long time ago, but who was just passing through, had a big win recently, at a store up the street from me. I guess I should start again, huh.

I missed the show, but it's good info to know. Thanks for sharing!
Granlan_TX
17 years ago
I saw most of that show...who knew?

Am I the only person who's never purchased a lottery ticket or a scratch off, or whatever?
pkguy
17 years ago
It's been a big fiasco here in Canada with retailers winning big prizes out of proportion to customers so now they've instituted you must sign your ticket and self checkers. I remember a few times a couple of years ago taking lottery tickets into the gas station, getting coffee, having the clerk check them and saying I had no prize then dropping them in the garbage behind the counter.. for all I know that could have been a winning ticket of something and they cashed it in after I left. Now the machines behind the counter also announce whether the ticket is a winner or not so you can hear it.
barbara3
17 years ago
Wow, jasdip! Congrats on the Big Money! And I think I'm doing well if I am a "free ticketaire"! We don't get many big winners in this area. It seems the big $$$$ go to Ontario and Quebec. I guess there are many more tickets sold there so it only makes sense. I hate hearing that "uh uh' sounds coming from the machine - sounds to me like it is saying "loser!".
jannie
17 years ago
I always check mine either in the newspaper or online. Most I ever won was $20 and most I ever spent is $22. So I'm a net loser!
mitchdesj
17 years ago
Our machines in Quebec make a ringing bells sound when the ticket is a winner, and there is a printout they give you as proof.
majaco
17 years ago
when I worked at a grocery,we weren't allowed to buy lottery tickets there(per lottery).We had to buy elsewhere.I know a woman(worked with) won $1000.00 a week for life.At one time she worked at the store where she bought the ticket.The store owner had to fill out all kinds of paperwork saying she had not worked there for 6 years.

Dateline--show about Lottery Tickets-

Comments (10)

Jasdip

donna37

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