Pro gamblers serving as pro ‘ticket cashers’ for lottery winners

Peter Amsel
December 24, 2010
1 Comment

pro-gamblers-lottery-ticket-cashersThe Globe & Mail recently published some statistics on lotteries and their pigeons, er, players. Depending on the drawing, the odds of winning a sizable lottery prize range from a low of one in 14 million to a high of one in 140 million. For comparison purposes, the odds of being stuck by lightning are one in 2.32m, while the odds of being struck by falling airplane parts are one in 10m.

Perhaps Canadians aren’t fully aware of these stats, because collectively they spend $8b every year on lottery tickets. Americans spend $50b, but statistics show that a comparatively small percentage of US players account for the vast majority of ticket sales. In Minnesota, 20% of players generate 71% of the state’s lottery income. In Pennsylvania, 29% of players generate 79% of the income.

Then we have Massachusetts, where state auditors have alerted Massachusetts Lottery officials that a small number of individuals have been claiming hundred of prizes worth millions of dollars. At first glance, this appears to be a statistical impossibility. But the auditors have a theory that professional gamblers, who by law can write off gambling losses against winnings, are serving as ‘ticket cashers’ to help lottery winners (for a price) guard their windfalls from the greedy fingers of the Internal Revenue Service. Professional gamblers… Is there anything they can’t do?

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Tags: Article, Internal Revenue Service, Lottery
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