Lottery's 'luckiest woman' bet flabbergasting sums on scratch-offs

Comment #21

mediabrat — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 16:47:56 GMT

It's probably more like a copyright issue. I don't know if Todd secures permission to post all of these articles in the News section, but if he doesn't, that might explain it. You can't just publish other people's work without permission and very little attribution. And even if Todd does get the proper clearance, the author (or the newspaper or, most likely, the newspaper's lawyers) still has every right to change their mind and request/demand that the article come down.

It looks like you're... [ More ]

Comment #20

helpmewin — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:14:01 GMT

Comment #19

atoz — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 23:13:16 GMT

Removing the story by the author request....something kinda smell fishy doesnt it.....If everything was on the up and up then there would be no reason to have the story removed. I had stated earlier it was pretty hard to believe that everything was on the up and up.

I would really like to know more how the big winners are placed into the books....people work there and looks like to me there could be some hanky panky.... I know I always here it cant be fixed or anyone know but when you have m... [ More ]

Comment #18

Nikkicute — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 15:12:42 GMT

Does the author not see what kind of great exposure his article was receiving being read

by the many members here on Lottery Post? I would have never read this story if Todd

had not posted it. oh well... that's too bad.

Comment #17

rcbbuckeye — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:03:36 GMT

Ooooook????

The commission wants to sell tickets. If I decide to buy a couple million dollars worth of scratchers, or any other kind of ticket, they love it. I imagine at the time, they didn't know that a single person was buying all those tickets, and as long as the transactions were legitimate, why should they care? The alternative would be for the tickets to just gather dust at the stores. I don't think they would like that.

I work retail furniture sales. The name of the game in any ret... [ More ]

Comment #16

kapla — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 08:54:17 GMT

If you run a business, ANY business, you want to know understand WHERE YOUR SALES COME FROM WHY. I can guarantee they were following this very closely.

Comment #15

LottoMetro — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:59:44 GMT

What's the difference from someone driving around to all the stores and buying tickets? None.

If I go to Walmart and buy all their toilet paper inventory, they are going to show more toilet paper sales for the week than any other store. It is more convenient for me the bulk buyer (or in this case Ginther the bulk ticket buyer) to get all my purchases from one location. That's basically all that happened here.

The story says she made the prize come to her, but in order to do that she had to... [ More ]

Comment #14

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:16:42 GMT

Not too sure about the control part.

If they sell 10 times more tickets than another store, it stands to reason the lottery commission is going to replenish that store's stock. Some stores will certainly sell more than other stores.

If that store sells more gas than other stores, then they order more gas to replenish their stock. Some stores sell more gas than other stores.

Supply and demand.

Comment #13

kapla — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 08:57:41 GMT

Yea, in would be interesting to hear from SOMEONE at other states as to what they think of this story. How do other states 'control' this kind of thing. As far as Texas, you would think THEY would know if this many tickets are being sold, at one store, that someone is trying to 'corner' one game? By letting it happen it says they don't care.

Comment #12

jimjwright — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 04:43:01 GMT

A computerized system tracks packs or books of tickets being activated and prizes being cashed. When a store's stock gets low, tickets get shipped automatically, usually by UPS. Retailers can also place orders.

So after the first round of shipments, it turns out winning tickets are most likely to show up at the store with the highest sales.

By a wide margin, that store was Times Market.

During one week in October 2009, the tiny store with a couple gas pumps got one-fifth of all the tick... [ More ]

Comment #11

maringoman — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 00:43:56 GMT

Spending a fortune to corner the jp can be risky business if you miss. Especially you borrowed the money without consent as Annie Donnelly can tell you.

Comment #10

mediabrat — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 02:14:22 GMT

Indeed. But it's also evidence of another well-worn saying: You gotta have money to make money.

Comment #9

TinkerMazell — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 02:02:05 GMT

I think the chances change as the pot grows because more people play as the jackpot gets larger.

Comment #8

dallascowboyfan — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 02:01:30 GMT

Four jackpot wins as long as she wasn't cheating good for her

Comment #7

LottoMetro — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 17:20:32 GMT

Buy more tickets, win more prizes. Imagine that

Comment #6

Saylorgirl — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 15:34:24 GMT

If she spent between 2 to 3 million dollars in tickets I can't see how she did anything wrong. That is an incredible amount of money to spend on scratch offs.

Comment #5

RedStang — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 14:46:35 GMT

I wanted to try this strategy with the Mcdonalds Monopoly game but i figured you would have to eat 60,000 Big Macs to win. She probably had inside help.

Comment #4

Ktagu1 — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 13:54:21 GMT

This story is very interesting. I hope the Texas lottery officials are gathering evidence against her and the other woman. Because this is definitely not pure luck.

Comment #3

hearsetrax — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 13:00:39 GMT

hmmmph

Comment #2

morgothaod — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 12:55:24 GMT

I think she cheated.

Comment #1

Todd — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 12:48:28 GMT

Here are some previous stories published at Lottery Post about Joan Ginther:

Texas woman wins lottery millions second time (April 8, 2006)

Texas Lottery player wins fourth multi-million-dollar prize (July 1, 2010)

4-time Texas lotto winner rich with money, mystery (July 14, 2010)

Lucky lottery lady outed as Stanford University statistics PhD (August 8, 2011

Lottery's 'luckiest woman' bet flabbergasting sums on scratch-offs

Lottery Post — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 12:26:42 GMT

By Peter Mucha, Philly.com

First of three parts

For years, people who dream of beating the lottery have puzzled over the amazing case of Joan Ginther, who made headlines around the world by scratching off 10MILL on a $50 instant ticket in June 2010 to win her fourth multimillion-dollar prize.

Skeptics wondered if she cheated or had an ingenious system for pinpointing winners. After all, Ginther received a Ph.D. from Stanford and has lived for years in Las Vegas. News reports at the tim... [ More ]