Michigan Lottery cracks down on retailers who cheat customers

Comment #15

Tami333 — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:11:51 GMT

I have experienced many shady lottery retailers in Michigan over the years! 3 strikes you're out and that is when I stop playing at your location.

#1 - Clerk does not clear the machine. This can happen by accident and I totally understand but there were three locations in which this happened every time. One of them is no longer selling lottery, go figure. 7-Eleven clerk even tried several times to insist the monitor displayed to me shows I owe $40 so that's what I owe, I said no, I owe you $2... [ More ]

Comment #14

mswiz777 — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 12:00:20 GMT

This one store in VA she added her lottery with my lottery I had added my lottery up before I went there. She said $12.00 I said no $7.00 I said give me my cards back and went to the machine to play it came to $7.00. So count and make sure you know what your lottery is we can not give away money.

Comment #13

Stack47 — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 04:26:37 GMT

The KY Lottery has vending machines so player/clerk interactions should be for cashing tickets, but some of the machines have bad play slip readers bringing it back to square one. What's even worse some clerks won't give credit for the money players put into the machines. A clerk told me their vending machine reader was working but gave me a hard time after I found out the hard way it wasn't. And while I was telling him what happened a female player tried to purchase scratch-offs on the money I... [ More ]

Comment #12

Ron5995 — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 03:31:50 GMT

Many lotteries don't allow cancels, so if there's a mistake, often the store eats the loss. Clerks may feel pressured to sell such tickets, even after the drawing(s), to avoid being penalized by their employer.

Some lotteries have a procedure to credit back mistakes to a limited extent, but this isn't something many clerks or even some retailers are aware of. Easier to just sell mistakes to unsuspecting customers.

And as you rightly point out, retailers generally earn around $50 per $1000... [ More ]

Comment #11

Stack47 — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 02:58:40 GMT

Somebody had to sell the 182 worthless MM tickets in Virginia and I doubt the any of those clerks knew those tickets were worthless. Some here expect their state lottery to police the agents, but considering stores must sell $1000 worth of tickets a day to make $50, training their clerks to sell lottery tickets is obviously not their top priority.

Comment #10

j2immy — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 00:31:15 GMT

Please note: I am not on this site for all the advertisement, interrupts...

Thanks

Comment #9

MillionsWanted — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 13:00:23 GMT

Lazy and/or stupid.

Comment #8

noise-gate — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 06:43:08 GMT

....to sell me a mistake Keno ticket on a drawing that was an hour before.

Comment #7

Stack47 — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 06:32:12 GMT

Our retailers ... really are focused, just as we are, on keeping customers happy.

The real problem is the unhappy clerks who are either focused on flat out trying to steal or take advantage of the less knowledgeable players. Last week I had a clerk try to sell me a mistake Keno ticket on a drawing that was an hour before.

And selling worthless tickets seems to be common mistake being made by many clerks.

Comment #6

Rman313 — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 03:25:02 GMT

I always check my own through my MI Lottery App on my smart phone or lately I have just been watching channel 4 right when they broadcast the winning numbers at 1:00pm and 7:30pm. For MegaMillions and Powerball I check on USAmega.com. They are really on the ball for the new results. Check the site a little after 11:00pm tonight.

Comment #5

grwurston — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 02:00:58 GMT

One more reason why players should check their own tickets. Are people really that busy that they can't take the time to do it, or are they just lazy

Comment #4

music* — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 00:00:08 GMT

The California State Lottery awards $1,000,000.00 to the owner of the retail store who sells a MM or PB winning ticket.

I do agree that employees be barred from purchasing any lottery ticket in their store.

Come on now, there must be brighter minds than mine who can think of better ways to end discounting. Spend some money in this capitalistic society and buy answers for this problem.

Comment #3

LiveInGreenBay — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 22:21:59 GMT

Makes me wonder how many lotto players are cheated by dishonest clerks checking their numbers.

Comment #2

Ron5995 — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 20:44:45 GMT

One and two week suspensions are a joke. Especially for the ripped ticket incident. Also, it appears much of the information in the article was from FOIA requests. If Michigan Lottery truly valued player security, they would post the information without hiding it. As with many lotteries, oversight of retailers is lax and mostly just for show.

Don't allow lottery sellers to buy / play tickets at their own location(s). That alone would eliminate much abuse. However, most, if not all, U.S. lotte... [ More ]

Comment #1

noise-gate — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 20:20:43 GMT

Aberration Mr Holyfield? That you know of! Out here in California,the lottery authorities pull their equipment from cheating vendors, and it's possible to be charged.l guess the lesson for those purchasing scratchers, do your own tearing up of your tickets.

Michigan Lottery cracks down on retailers who cheat customers

Lottery Post — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 19:23:10 GMT

When a customer brought a Keno ticket to Nick's Party Stop in Clinton Township, retailer Don Kallo ran the ticket through his lottery terminal, declared it a loser and tore it in half.

Kallo, the spouse of store operator Linda Kallo, then took the torn ticket a $2,517 winner to the Michigan Lottery Bureau to redeem it.

Suspicious lottery officials investigated and learned Kallo hadn't purchased the ticket, as he claimed, records show.

It was determined the ticket had been purchased by... [ More ]