New lawsuit claims Indiana Lottery did not award all prizes

Comment #39

fastball 9 — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:14:35 GMT

I agree that it does make you wonder how often this happens, and what, if any, checks and balances are in place to prevent it. With the state coming to rely on lottery revenues to fund a large part of its expenses, it would be foolish to think this cannot happen. And, to assume the matter is always under control.

Had these rather sore losers not made a case of it, would any of the this info become public? Probably not. I can't recall one instance of a state or lottery board coming out wit... [ More ]

Comment #38

DoubleDown — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 18:43:12 GMT

In the immortal words of Ted Knight's character in Caddyshack:

Well........we're waiting ..........

Comment #37

KY Floyd — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 18:32:04 GMT

Just because they have the ability to track winning tickets before they are claimed doesn't mean it's a good idea to do it. Having a record of where winning tickets were sent can potentially be useful for security reasons, but monitoring that distribution ahead of times offers potential for fraud. I forget if it was Indiana or a nearby state, but there's been at least one case where a lottery staffer used the information on where a winning ticket had been sent to allow others to buy all of the t... [ More ]

Comment #36

qutgnt — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:48:32 GMT

I also in the past have bought books of tickets based on the fact that there were more higher prizes not claimed in one game compared to another. What I hate about the Illinois Lottery is when a book is returned from a store and not re-distributed they do not subtract the prizes that may have been in that book from the totals on their website. They claim they just destroy them. This is ridiculous and unjust. It just to me is amazing how these lotteries who rake us over the coals with payout perc... [ More ]

Comment #35

itstheirgame — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:41:46 GMT

I can prove the lottery is rigged.

Comment #34

CA LotteryGuy — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:43:00 GMT

CCHS13...do you really think the Indiana Lottery was trying to cheat its' players? Wasn't it more a case of mismanagement?

The pdf noted earlier gives a very good rundown of what happened. Simply put the Indiana Lottery was not very good in overseeing this particular game. Now there should be some relief given to those players who bought tickets based upon the incorrect information given out by the lottery, but I don't see it as the lottery trying to cheat.

Comment #33

CCHS13 — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:12:44 GMT

That WAS the point of the MM analogy, to state that they are aware of

what has been sold and what has not been sold. Hell they can even track

a scratcher if a row or 2 have been stolen so there is no excuse for not knowing

your available prizes. Now remaining prizes is different than unclaimed prizes.

If a prize has been validated that means it has been proven to be a winner but

that does not have to mean it has been claimed, either way that prize should no

longer be consi... [ More ]

Comment #32

TheGameGrl — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 02:40:05 GMT

On the slim and somwhat plausible chance, the lottery can counter state that the remaining top prizes just hadnt been claimed. A person can retain the ticket and wait til the 11th hour to remit the winning ticket. Now mind you, most folks do try to claim within a shorter time frame...

I disagree with the person who used the PB/Mega analogy. These are not the same as its on a smaller, more controlled scale. Scratchers can be tracked in advanced as to the locale and almost a time frame from the... [ More ]

Comment #31

CA LotteryGuy — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:31:18 GMT

Rick G....I agree with you that many people base their scratch-off plays on how many larger-tier prizes are still out there. That is what it appears the two guys in Indiana were doing.

Do you feel the lottery purposefully did this or it was human error? In either case they should make some ammends to those who puchased tickets, whether 1 or 4000, as the tickets were purchased under flalse pretenses.

I know the Indiana Lottery has had probelms in the past. To me it seems like they need

Comment #30

Rick G — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 20:35:05 GMT

I agree with four4me, CCHS13 and others. This was blatantly false advertising. Many people base their scratch-off plays on how many larger-tier prizes are still out there on the game they are playing.

Ooops doesn't cut it.

This state lottery continues to be the worst in the nation. The new lottery director has a chance to add some credibility to the game for its players. This will be the acid test of where the Indiana lottery wants to take its future.

Comment #29

JAG331 — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:06:48 GMT

What a great case! I think the plaintiffs will win.

All I ever hear is bad news out of the Indiana lottery! Any good news

Comment #28

SassyOhio — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:43:42 GMT

Tee Hee hee I love this man he always knows his * bleep* Heya RJOH

Comment #27

SassyOhio — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:42:34 GMT

LMAO Now that was funny.... I wonder if his insurance covers Carpal Tunnel for his wrist when he is done =)) Any who this IS gonna be vewy vewy interesting

Comment #26

konane — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:01:53 GMT

RJOh gave a link to the pdf of the lawsuit which makes some highly interesting points. It's no more difficult to read than the article.

http://wthr.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/pdfs/Complaint.pdf

Comment #25

CCHS13 — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:51:47 GMT

I think the point is being missed, the Hoosier lottery got caught cheating!

With all the technology that is available, there is no excuse for the state

to think prizes are still available and report them to be available on their

web site when that is not the case. If I buy a MM ticket in Illinois the state

of Georgia knows what numbers I have chosen. They know if they have a winner

and what states it comes out of in a matter of minutes and thats not just for

jackpot prizes.... [ More ]

Comment #24

four4me — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:11:51 GMT

when the lottery's reports that there are so many unsold tickets remaining in a scratch game and said tickets are supposedly several of the highest tier tickets. implying that the top tier tickets are still not sold yet. it implies that they are aware said tickets haven't been sold. Some people might deliberately go out and try and buy all the remaining tickets as this fellow did.

the article states he did his homework about the remaining tickets and with good intentions he purchased 40 grand... [ More ]

Comment #23

KY Floyd — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:51:41 GMT

He doesn't need his head examined, he needs it adjusted because there was never a guarantee. I'm firmly in the camp that figures anyone who can afford to invest $40k in something that will almost certainly be a losing investment doesn't need to play the lottery. As far as his math,he may have been right , but the article doesn't have enough factual information to know. I'll assume the game was supposed to return 50% of the ticket cost as prizes. If 20% of tickets were unsold and 40% or more o... [ More ]

Comment #22

KY Floyd — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:26:30 GMT

The article doesn't provide enough information, but it's entirely possible that the odds weren't compromised. If the available prizes were reduced by 25% and the number of available tickets was also reduced by 25% the odds would remain the same. If the proper odds were clearly listed, but the number of prizes was listed incorrectly the odds wouldn't change, but anyone trying to calculate odds based on available prizes and the number of tickets remaining to be sold would get the wrong answer.... [ More ]

Comment #21

RJOh — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 01:57:10 GMT

The Hoosier Lottery seems to be saying there not much difference between slim and none. If your chances of winning a big prize are slim then if the prize never exists then your chances aren't effected enough to complain.

In other words when you enter a lottery game that they tell you your chances of losing are 95% what they really mean is your chances of losing are 95% 5%.

Comment #20

TheGameGrl — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 01:14:58 GMT

It is my opinion that : If this case made it to the courts without being tossed out as frivilous or ludicrious , then there is merit to this case. Its not for one adult to tell another HOW to spend their money. It is our place to tell the lottery business that reaps in millions that they have a responisbility to advertise correctly and not grossly represent a current game.

I dont begrudge these guys for getting their day in court, whether it was two dollars or 40k, the courts are hearing the

Comment #19

RJOh — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:32:05 GMT

Lotteries don't want people to win big by spending a lot of money because then people with less won't play and there are more of them. Years ago when the Virgina lottery was won by an investment group that tried to buy every combinations when the jackpot cash amount exceeded the odds of winning they changed the rules for buying tickets so that could never happen again.

Recently Ohio Cash5 had a cash jackpot of nearly $900K with odds of 1:575K of being won, but no one tried to buy all the com... [ More ]

Comment #18

guesser — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:24:58 GMT

The problem is a loser is still a loser, not matter how 'close' you get, or how many tickets you buy.

They GAMBLED and they LOST, send them to Vegas for the weekend and see how long they last there.

Comment #17

ayenowitall — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:14:41 GMT

No, it's not all relative. I'm saying that if I could afford to spend $40,000 on scratch-offs, that in itself would pretty well obviate the need or desire to do so. If I couldn't afford the $40,000 to spend on scratch-offs, it wouldn't be an issue at all for me.

There are lots of people of greater and lesser means who choose to play or not play lottery games, but there's not necessarily a direct correlation between the amount they spend and the amount they have available to spend.... [ More ]

Comment #16

DoubleDown — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:05:42 GMT

I agree 40,000 times , Aye

Comment #15

justxploring — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 22:31:22 GMT

DITTO

Comment #14

cps10 — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 20:25:13 GMT

This has to be one of the most bizarre stories I've ever heard. $40k on scratchers? Wow...first of all, he needs his head examined. But, I do understand that he did the math, based on the number of top prizes available, and the odds of the overall game, and decided that if he had purchased that many, he would at least break-even. I get that. I still think his math was off though.

Now, for the lottery itself, this is another situation like the California case. There should be some sort of rest... [ More ]

Comment #13

RJOh — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 20:01:30 GMT

There are those who will say if they had an extra $10, they wouldn't spend it on a lottery ticket. There were others included in the complaint that claimed they spent over a $1,000 on those tickets, it's all relative to the amount of money you have to spend.

Comment #12

noahproblem — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 16:30:30 GMT

Comment #11

ayenowitall — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:49:04 GMT

If I could afford to spend $40,000 on scratch-off tickets, I wouldn't be spending $40,000 on scratch-off tickets.

Comment #10

Badger — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:44:06 GMT

Yes indeed ! The Hoosier Lottery gets yet another black mark to its file (like it already doesn't have enough) but this guy is just as much responsible. If I had $40,000 I didn't need, I would be using it to do many other things than purchase lottery tickets

Comment #9

chasingadream — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:44:51 GMT

I am so glad that I don't live in that state........i hear so many stories about them being crooked.

Comment #8

BobP — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 06:50:00 GMT

Let's see now. Five million tickets already sold with 10% to 20% remaining that's still half a million to a million tickets left and this guy buys 40,000 what are the odds of winning even with most of the prizes supposedly available? The judge should give him half his money back and order he take a lottery math class.

BobP

Comment #7

RJOh — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 06:35:47 GMT

According to the complaint filed in the lawsuit: http://wthr.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/pdfs/Complaint.pdf

One of the plaintiffs, Jeff Frazer purchased no fewer than 4,000 none winning tickets after reading on the Hoosier Lottery website June 22,2006 that 80% of the Cash Blast tickets had been sold and seven (7) top prizes of $250,000 , seventy-five prizes of $10,000 and thousands of prizes of $50 and more were yet to be claimed. Two weeks later on July 7,2006 the numbers of prizes

Comment #6

LckyLary — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:24:18 GMT

The first problem is who spends 40 GRAND on scratch-offs? Wouldn't he be still to this day be checking them? Even the 2nd guy over 2 GRAND? The second problem is that scratch-offs normally state how many of the big prizes are still floating around BUT not saying how many NON-winners are, meaning the actual odds of a big prize could be whatever! WHICH IS WHY I stay away from the things most of the time.

That one.. Cash Blast

Yes, sir, how many?

Give me four...

four?

...thousand. F... [ More ]

Comment #5

DoubleDown — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 03:40:14 GMT

This is a good story. I hope the plaintiffs win.

Comment #4

Littleoldlady — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 03:31:41 GMT

About 60,000 prizes weren't available that people were buying these tickets for, Waples said. They said, 'Oops, sorry.'

The Hoosier Lottery has admitted to overstating cash prizes in a statement on its Web site.

The lottery attributes the problem to a mistake in printing by the lottery's scratch-off vendor that affected up to 2.5 million tickets, which amounted to about $25 million spent on the potentially defective tickets.

However, the lottery maintains that the odds of winning w... [ More ]

Comment #3

CCHS13 — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 03:20:05 GMT

I bet this happens alot more than we know, glad somebody with the muscle caught them

Comment #2

MADDOG10 — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:23:23 GMT

I have a feeling this is going to get real juicy in court...!

Wow, talk about deceptive practices huh

Comment #1

konane — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:17:11 GMT

This is going to be very interesting

New lawsuit claims Indiana Lottery did not award all prizes

Lottery Post — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:07:22 GMT

Man who spent $40,000 on lottery sues to get money back; lawsuit claims Hoosier Lottery overstated number, amount of prizes in 'Cash Blast' game

Two men filed a lawsuit Friday against the Hoosier Lottery, seeking class-action status as a result of the lottery's admitted misrepresentation of the number and amount of prizes available in a scratch-off game.

Jeff Frazer, Carmel, and Jeff Koehlinger, Auburn, seek reimbursement in the lawsuit filed in Marion County for the losses they incurred w... [ More ]