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Massachusetts father and sons accused of defrauding Lottery of $21 millionNews Story
Statistically improbable number of wins raises red flags By Kate Northrop A Massachusetts family is accused of defrauding the Massachusetts Lottery of nearly $21 million in a tax evasion scheme that took place over the past decade. It wouldn't be farfetched to say that cashing in more than 13,000 winning lottery tickets worth almost $21 million over eight years would be statistically impossible, if not improbable. This many wins could not simply be attributed to sheer luck. A stati
Aug 25, 2021, 11:00 am - Lottery News

Lottery scammer stole nearly $1 million from one elderly womanNews Story
Crook is sentenced to nine years in federal prison By Kate Northrop On Wednesday, a scammer who stole almost $1 million from one single victim in a lottery scheme was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison. Leonard Luton, a Jamaican national living in Brooklyn, New York, scammed an elderly woman from Estes Park, Colorado of more than $970,000, according to prosecutors. Court documents show that Luton and another Jamaican national worked together in a scam to convince the woman tha
Aug 10, 2021, 5:37 pm - Lottery News

Lottery scammers steal $1.2 million from one victimNews Story
Crook receives six years in prison for crimes of conspiracy and fraud By Kate Northrop After stealing over $1 million from one single victim, the leader of a ring of Jamaican scam artists was sentenced Friday to almost six years in prison. Like any typical scammer, Stieve Fernandez, 35, spent his time deceiving vulnerable individuals and robbing elderly targets of their life savings as part of a high-functioning underground network of lottery fraudsters. Fernandez was said to h
Jul 12, 2021, 12:45 pm - Lottery News

Loto-Québec IT technician accused of stealing thousands from customer accountsNews Story
By Kate Northrop After a year-long investigation, a former employee at Loto-Qu bec was accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from customer accounts that were supposedly inactive. Martin Raymond, 37, a former systems analyst who worked at an online gambling call center at Loto-Qu bec, was accused Wednesday of stealing funds from customer accounts he deemed inactive. He stole over $20,000 (US$16,000) from about 30 customer gaming accounts in over a few months between the winter and s
Jul 10, 2021, 2:50 pm - Lottery News

Florida man steals lottery tickets, returns in a different outfit for moreNews Story
Thief presses his luck twice Includes video report By Kate Northrop A Florida man committed two thefts within the same night, stealing scratch-off lottery tickets out of a case and returning to the convenience store for more in a different outfit. A thief thought he was being crafty when he stole from the same store twice in two separate outfits. On Monday, surveillance video footage inside a Gulf Coast convenience store in Fort Myers captured an unnamed man entering the building
Jun 17, 2021, 12:09 pm - Lottery News

Thief steals handbag with winning €125,000 lottery ticket insideNews Story
Caught after making a big purchase By Kate Northrop A thief who stole a purse with a winning lottery ticket worth 125,000 (US$152,000) inside has finally been caught after he used the money to buy a house. On May 31, the Guardia Civil, law enforcement in Spain, arrested an unnamed 52-year-old man at the house he bought in Valencia with the winnings he stole. The theft took place on Dec. 19, 2020. Video surveillance footage in a restaurant shows the man walking past a woman seated at
Jun 14, 2021, 12:45 pm - Lottery News

NJ man admits running illegal "Pick 6" lottery, evades $65,000 in taxesNews Story
Illegal gambling business took in $250,000 By Kate Northrop A man from Ocean County, New Jersey pleaded guilty to operating an illegal lottery on Tuesday after having drawn in $250,000 in cash proceeds from the scheme. Edward O'Neill, 54, of Beachwood appeared before U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti via videoconference and pleaded guilty to charges against him, including one count of managing an illegal gambling business and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. Acco
Apr 22, 2021, 2:55 pm - Lottery News

UK National Lottery raises minimum age to play the lottery to 18News Story
By Kate Northrop In an effort to reduce problem gambling, the National Lottery will be raising the minimum age to play the lottery in the UK from 16 to 18 on Thurs., Apr. 22, 2021. Figures show that over 200,000 16- and 17-year-olds regularly play the lottery or buy scratch-off tickets. This week, they will no longer have access to both online and retail Lottery products in a bid to reduce problem gambling among teens. We're committed to protecting young people from gambling-related ha
Apr 19, 2021, 4:47 pm - Lottery News

Pennsylvania man arrested after using scissors and glue to make winning lottery ticketsNews Story
The cut-and-paste con was caught By Kate Northrop Police arrested and jailed a Pennsylvania man on Tuesday after he was caught altering scratch-off lottery tickets to look like winners using scissors and a glue stick. Craig Marshall Stout, 45, of Jeannette tried cashing in his DIY lottery tickets at a 7-Eleven convenience store on Fosterville Road in Hempfield but failed to get away with it this time. His cut-and-paste methods had initially worked. Stout brought in three other fake t
Apr 7, 2021, 9:01 pm - Lottery News

Iowa man accused of lottery fraud for cashing ticket on friend's behalfNews Story
Friend of lottery winner pleads not guilty By Kate Northrop An associate of a lottery winner pleaded not guilty to lottery fraud after being accused of falsely cashing in a $50,000 winning scratch-off ticket. The Fort Dodge man was charged with one count of lottery fraud, a Class D felony classified as forgery or theft of a ticket, for turning in a winning lottery ticket that reportedly did not belong to him. Skyler Sturgis Hay, 29, allegedly committed the offense in 2018 when he vis
Mar 31, 2021, 2:14 pm - Lottery News