Investigation of insider wins is part of the integrity of the lottery
Maintaining the honesty and integrity of lotteries is one of the top priorities that lottery operators and regulators take extremely seriously in all aspects of conducting each draw. It is essential that every ticket redeemed for a prize is vetted as being genuine and the that person who is claiming the prize is the person who has signed the ticket. Investigations of both the ticket and the player are conducted to ensure no cheating or other fraud has occurred.
Insider Wins
One of the more investigated wins are what are called “Insider Wins” or wins that are claimed by lottery industry employees (if they are allow to buy tickets,) or family members of lottery employees or retail terminal operators. Insider winners are considered to be”
- Employees of the lottery departments and their immediate family members including supervisors and managers, security officers, administrative personnel, those in marketing, advertising, and any and all operator employees with any ties to the lottery whether it be with physical ticket purchases or online purchases.
- All third party suppliers of software, systems, draw or ticket products and services, and any other product or service supplied to the lottery operator.
- Consultants and subcontractors providing direction, products or services to the operator.
- All other employees that may be providing services to a lottery operator in other departments that have nothing to do with the lottery department itself. This includes casino employees, supervisors, and managers in the slot technical and slot operations department, table games, janitorial services, food and beverage, housekeeping, hosts, surveillance, security, etc.
So if you are related to a lottery or casino employee and you try to redeem a winning ticket, you may be subject to an insider win investigation. This investigation will be much more intense than regular winner investigations for wins usually over $100,000.00. The investigation will not only focus on verifying you as the rightful owner of the ticket, but it will also try to verify that you or the person you are related to had no influence or control of the lottery draw.
This type of insider investigation is certainly warranted if your relative works in any job that is or is not at arm’s length with the actual lottery department. Any person working in there may be suspect of influencing the outcome on a supposition basis, but the operator just wants to make sure that they can prove nothing of that nature occurred. So both you and your relative undergo investigation and interviews to ensure nothing untoward has occurred in your lottery win.
Employees and Relatives
However, with employees of other lottery operator activities, the possibility of influence is virtually nil. Slot technicians, attendants, and table game dealers have nothing to do with the lottery side of operations and even administrative people in other departments do not deal with anything even related to the lottery operations. But in fairness to the idea of insider win investigations, targeting just one department would look like a witch hunt and making the insider win policy a company-wide one is actually fair to everyone in these types of investigations.
So if you win a large amount on the lottery and you have a relative who works for the operator, you are subject to many requirements. You must disclose any relative who works for the operator, be prepared to verify when and where the ticket was purchased, and be ready to fill out a voluminous amount of forms and declarations. And be patient as heck, as insider wins can take much longer to investigate than non-insider wins. Remember to keep your cool and that the job of the lottery investigators is not treating you like a criminal. In fact their job is to ensure that you are you relative are free of any type of fraud, cheating, influence, or trickery in you claiming your ticket. The faster they can get everything verified, the faster you get your money and they can move on to other investigations. Cooperate fully, fill out the forms, answer questions to the best of your knowledge, and rejoice when you presented with that big fat cheque!