Idaho Lottery alerts retailers to possible bulk buying attempt over $877,800 Idaho Cash jackpot

Comment #21

Tucker Black — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:50:40 GMT

Every *ticket* gets an equal chance. Buy more tickets, get more chances. That's how lottery games have always worked. It isn't socialism.

Comment #20

Powerball765 — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:11:48 GMT

Can you imagine if someone spends $1,500,000,000 to win $4,000,000,000 Mega jackpot only to find out they will share it equally with two other people that spent $5 and $10 ouch

Comment #19

JohnGalt3 — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:46:58 GMT

You are correct that no one did anything wrong in buying the tickets because they broke no existing law.

However the point is that everyone should get an equal chance and the game should be such that the number of tickets sold per draw has a reasonable chance of winning. That can be deduced by looking at the historical number of tickets per draw. The Texas Lotto, Lotto America, Montana Cash and Idaho Cash fail in that respect.

As an example, recently it took Lotto America (2) entire year... [ More ]

Comment #18

Brock Lee — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:58:11 GMT

that's annoying for sure, but it's hard to argue that either the customer or the retailer are doing anything unethical if the bulk buyer just so happened to get to the store before you did. 1000 tickets might take at most an hour to print?

it's more of a gray area when a group contacts a store manager ahead of time and offers them extra money if they will dedicate the whole day and all their machines to printing off tickets just for their group.

Comment #17

PrisonerSix — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:06:08 GMT

During one of the previous buying frenzies, I went to a store near my home to get tickets and was told I had to wait because they were printing 1000 tickets for a customer. I wonder if they were thinking the same thing.

Comment #16

ShagE3 — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 05:15:31 GMT

On the topic of fraud ....

Making a bologna sandwich and passing it off as OLIVELOAF minus the olives is FRAUD.

Serving wet dog food and passing it off as pot roast is also FRAUD .

Comment #15

Tucker Black — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 20:18:55 GMT

The difference between Las Vegas casino games and rolling lottery jackpots is that casinos will quickly kick you out for winning too much *house money*. They don't care as much if you win too much *player money*. They still make money on every bet placed on progressive jackpots no matter how big it gets.

Lottery rules make it almost impossible to win too much house money. But every single rolling jackpot game has the potential to turn a ticket from a gamble into an investment, and investors... [ More ]

Comment #14

Artist77 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 19:24:12 GMT

Fraud. I tried to find a simple definition but it is far more complex than most people think. As Brock lee said, buying a ton of tickets is meaningless. I could hire 100 people to spend days running to various retailers. The purchases are legal.

Key Elements of Fraud (according to Black's Law Dictionary):

False Representation: The act involves a false statement or the suppression of a truth.

Material Fact: The false statement must be about a fact that is significant to the transacti... [ More ]

Comment #13

Brock Lee — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 18:38:58 GMT

waiting until the jackpot reaches a certain amount before playing isn't fraud.

the fraudulent stuff is when courier companies get their own dedicated machines to print off lottery tickets in a way that a regular member of the public can't access. that's what was going in in texas with one of the couriers who set up a fake store where they just printed tickets all day long or some such.

if a group of friends decides to take a day off work to drive around to a bunch of convenience stores t... [ More ]

Comment #12

Artist77 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 17:00:11 GMT

Buying every combination is not by itself fraud.

Comment #11

JoeBigLotto — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 16:56:47 GMT

Buying a lot of tickets is not fraudulent even with other people. The Fraudulent part is when you wait for the jackpot to exceed maximum level at the point you spend $500,000 or $1,000,000 to buy the Pot. Don't make a mistake they are not talking of people spending $500 or $10,000 this people sometimes bet millions to Buy all possibilities. To Buy all possibilities for Powerball you need $600,000,000 minimum and to buy all possibilities of Mega miliions You need $1,500,000,000 yes you heard me r... [ More ]

Comment #10

Coin Toss — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 16:04:37 GMT

What about the Australian group and the Virginia lottery some years go

Comment #9

Artist77 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 13:59:33 GMT

But that did not involve fraud. Lotteries can discontinue games. Good for them exploiting a legal loophole.

Comment #8

Powerball765 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 13:26:21 GMT

it happened in Massachusetts and the Game was discontinued. So the reality is ruining it for everyone

The Massachusetts lottery game that was discontinued due to bulk ticket buying was called Cash WinFall. The game ended in 2012 after the Boston Globe revealed that two separate groups had legally exploited a loophole to win millions of dollars. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

How the game was exploited

The Cash WinFall game was a unique draw lottery. When the jackpot reached $2 million and

Comment #7

Artist77 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:18:15 GMT

It is not fraud on any level. Money was exchanged for tickets. Now it could raise a question about couriers or some entity buying thousands of tickets, for subsequent drawings only, if that is applicable to the states

Comment #6

Powerball765 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 02:29:54 GMT

Some people say they are following the rules and the answer to that is No they are not following the rules . Fraud is fraud be it insider Job or outsider Job. If they are following the rules then the state of Iowa can say ok let's buy the tickets for our state. Or the president of North Korea can say we too are joining the rules. Or Russia can say ok we are on sanctions but we follow lottery rules. So people doing this are aware they are not following the rules so let's be clear. A fraud detecte... [ More ]

Comment #5

mrfadeaway — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 02:29:17 GMT

I paid $10 for that Idaho Cash jackpot. Granted i didn't win it and the odds were the same, but it could have rolled over naturally and i could have tried next time. These bulk purchasers are a major threat to the lottery in my opinion.

Comment #4

JustMaybe — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 01:04:47 GMT

I can only imagine how the cashier's felt in those two locations.

Not as a result of the individuals being pushy or any of that.

But just the fact that they were holding such an unusually high amount in cash.

My mind would be all over the place, wondering now that we have sold all these tickets, is the next stage a coordinated armed robbery

Comment #3

Tucker Black — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 23:10:41 GMT

This is ridiculous. So what if one person, or a bunch of people, buy a huge number of lottery tickets? It's not fraudulent. They are playing the game by the rules.

Comment #2

Powerball765 — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 14:29:12 GMT

Solution is very simple .

Number one payout on hold pending full investigation. Number two history of the winning number if that number was played regularly or only when the sales spiked. Number three extra Fifty percent tax for fraudulent purchases. Number four what is the normal sales spike and fraudulent sales spike . Number five whoever has the winning ticket needs to undergo FBI investigation plus pass FBI polygraphs. And actually ten different polygraph test to see if they are consist... [ More ]

Comment #1

Artist77 — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 13:49:10 GMT

Well this is interesting. I play Virginia Cash 5 when the JP is high and it was averaging a 60 k increase. It jumped by 930 k just before the jp was won.

Idaho Lottery alerts retailers to possible bulk buying attempt over $877,800 Idaho Cash jackpot

Lottery Post — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 13:33:06 GMT

No evidence of couriers involved

By Kate Northrop

When an Idaho Cash lottery jackpot jumped up $126,000 overnight to $877,800 and was subsequently won, the Idaho Lottery had a suspicion a bulk buyer was at play.

On Tuesday, Sept 30, the Idaho Lottery witnessed their Idaho Cash draw game jackpot reach a record level of $877,800, the highest prize the in-state draw game has ever seen. Based on sales figures, familiar signs from other similar recent activity , and reports from local Ida... [ More ]