How Not to Win the Lottery
Tip It!This one comes from the ‘what goes around comes around’ files… An Oregon woman who allegedly used a stolen credit card to buy a lottery ticket that turned out to be worth $1M will wind up with nothing if she’s convicted. Apparently she lifted the credit card from her mother-in-law, who died over a year ago, and is now up on a variety of charges including theft, forgery, and methamphetamine possession. Aside from being amused by this story, I was also quite surprised to learn that you can charge lottery tickets in Oregon. Many (most?) other state-run lotteries have the good sense to restrict sales via credit cards.
Published on October 28th, 2005 - 10 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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10 Responses to “How Not to Win the Lottery”
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October 28th, 2005 at 9:38 pm
Hi,
Being from Oregon, this has been major embarrassment to our State. We have weird stuff like this happening all of the time. Seems to be a cultural problem. Anyway…
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October 28th, 2005 at 9:52 pm
I rated your blog like you requested. I gave it a 4.0/5.0 I try to be as honest as possible.
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Shane Coffey
October 29th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Yeah, being able to charge a lottery ticket seems distinctly not quite right…
October 29th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Why would being able to charge a lottery ticket not be right?
Is it because you believe the people who are buying lottery tickets via credit cards are poor and thus overextending themselves for a pipe dream?
Then it’s less of a financial mechanics issue and more of a moral issue…
October 29th, 2005 at 6:29 pm
Hmmm….I bet she wishes she wouldn’t have stole that credit card. Or maybe she wishes she had made a more anoynomous purchase.
HenryBemis
October 30th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Karma. =)
October 31st, 2005 at 7:57 am
Jim, it seems not quite right because when I was a kid working at a gas station and selling them, we were not able to legally sell lottery tickets on credit cards. I do not know what the actual reason for the law in my state was, but the explanation that I was given was because by making it a cash purchase, the money would be available for payouts and not held up by the card processor for the fees or for disputed charges. It also prevented somebody from spending money that they did not have and then declaring bankruptcy, which could also mean funds would not be available for payouts. It also kept processing charges out of the lottery, which meant the money would be there for payouts. Whether those were any of the reasons you couldn’t do it, I don’t know, but they made sense to me at the time.
November 19th, 2005 at 8:38 am
Dear Sir,
I require your advise on a lottry issue. Recently I was infromed by email ,that I have won a lottry by random selection of emails. The mail was from Jurist Lotto Promotion,White Hart Lane,London,N17 SHR UK. The mail indicated that I should reply to initiate the payment of the prize. After few days of my reply,I recived another mail along with scanned copy of certificate indicating my name and address having won BP£1,500,000 signed by President and Chancellor of Jurist Lotto Promotion. The mail indicated that I need to send GBP£840.00 towards insurance charges and the prize cheque shall be despatched within 24 hours of the receipt of the insurance charges.
I want to know whether it is genuine lottry company and I also wonder how I could win a lottry without buying a ticket.In Indian Rupees the insurance amount requested is equivalent to Rs.70,000/- .Please advise me whether I can go ahead and pay GBP£840.00 towards insurance chrages or should I should stop processing?.What are the risks involved? I will extremly thankful for your advise
Regards
-Santosh
Karnataka State
INDIA
November 20th, 2005 at 9:53 am
FOR SANTOSH
Santosh, DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY to these lottery crooks. They are 100% a scam. The fact that you are even asking this question means that you are having doubts, which is a good thing.
November 20th, 2005 at 10:09 am
Yes, this is a scam and you will lose your money.