How Are Lottery Retailers Winning So Much – By Playing Not Selling

Do the Lottery Retailers Know Something You Don’t Know?

In recent years I’ve noticed a strange trend. It’s highly unlikely, but it occurs so often that it caught my attention. It turns out lottery retailers are winning so much that they start to get a lot of heat. Before we start asking what could be the underlying reason for this phenomenon I want to be clear that nothing’s stopping them from playing. As far as the lottery operator is concerned, they are a common lottery player. What’s to stop them from buying a lottery privately, meaning not as lottery retailers? You see? They are individuals as well, so to speak.

There are several not so obvious reasons why they “might” be winning. After all, in practice they are not common lottery players as they have more resources, inside information, expertise and most importantly they have fewer constraints put upon them.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Suspicious Repeating Winners – You Guessed It, Lottery Retailers

The more you play, the higher your odds of winning. By all means, this approach is not a secret. A common player approaching the lottery this way is not uncommon, but a lottery retailer, really?

Probably the most intriguing case is the DC lottery where 3 lottery retailers managed to win huge consecutive prizes. One of the retailers got his hands on the million dollar prize. After winning a couple of prizes averaging $30,000 he somehow managed to win the $1,000,000 prize. When he was approached by the authorities he was quite open and he said he’s a “scratch-off junkie”. It turns out that’s the case. The guy had a lottery machine behind his back the whole time. Being a lottery player next to a machine is exciting since you can play whenever you want, “let me just scratch-off one more card”.

However, there’s another very good reason why some lottery retailers are reported as lottery winners.

Tax Reporting Purposes – Lottery Retailers as Phantom Lottery Winners

For a small amount of money people will do almost anything. Lottery retailers are not an exception to this rule. Bear with me now. You are the lottery retailer, a lottery winner approaches you saying he/she will give you a tiny portion of the money if you claim the prize on his/her behalf. The only reason being the winner can’t report the money, in other words he can’t come out clean, claim the prize and pay the taxes.

It may seem ridiculous to you, but hey! Receiving $50,000 or more in your bank account has its own flaws and cons. Say you were living on welfare. All of a sudden you get all this money and most likely your benefits will be cut. People attempt to avoid these deal breakers for their welfare by asking the first person they see if it’s possible to do something about it. Most likely the lottery retailer has already done something similar. Voila! They have a deal. The winner pays the tax amount and a small “fee” to the retailer. The winner then goes back to his normal life as if he/she found the money on the road.

Lottery Winners May Have Inside Information – Malicious Behavior

I’ve seen this kind of behavior in a lot more regulated industries. For example, financial markets have been regulated so closely, yet there were scandals with huge magnitude that made a lot of people go broke. I don’t see anything stopping someone from getting inside information and benefiting from it. Bear with me, this is highly unlikely, but it’s not impossible. There have been rumors about a lottery which was seemingly affected by this kind of case.

The story goes as follows. One of the lottery retailers had a contact on the inside. After some back and forth negotiating eventually they came up with an idea how to benefit and achieve their mutual objective. As I said, once the rumors were out the regulator stepped forward and promised that there will be a thorough investigation and the people involved will be dealt with according to the law. I won’t disclose the name of the lottery as it really is irrelevant. It’s a minor local lottery. The point is it can happen. Lottery retailers are most tempted to indulge in this sort of activity.

Lottery Retailers Are Like the Libraries of Lottery Strategy, Tips and Knowledge

You go to the pharmacy and the pharmacist knows a lot about pills and medications, you go to a car shop the guy who works there knows a lot about cars. Now when you go to the lottery retailer the probability of him/her knowing a lot about the lottery and how to approach it is rather high. They meet new lottery players every day. Even with a small chit chat the lottery retailer gets a lot of insight how lottery winners actually win. Some of them may even track the success of lucky winners. An advice or a tip or two may significantly change the strategy of how the lottery retailers actually approach lottery.

They are in a way the encyclopedia of lottery. Yes, books are cool and you should read more. If you want to win the lottery, ask the lottery retailer for a cup of coffee. You’ll be surprised how knowledgeable they can be. I’ve tried it once, no regrets.