Lotto: "Not a winner."

Cortina_MK_IV · 13-09-2015 9:04pm #1

A few years back I used to do the Lotto quite a bit. I don’t think those self-check machines had come along so I’d pop down to the Maxol on Sunday morning for a paper and ask the lad to check the ticket. As usual he’d just say, “not a winner,” smile and sling it in the bin. One time the cynic in me thought what if it was a winner and as soon as I was gone he’d take the ticket and be off on Monday morning to Lotto HQ to cash it in.

I did the Lotto yesterday (first time in a while) and while in Dunnes this morning went to pop my ticket in the machine and the girl said it wasn’t working and she’d check it. Surprise surprise it wasn’t a winner. However my question is if you were in that position and you checked a ticket for a customer and it was a winner (possibly a big win) would you congratulate them and tell them they’d won or would you say hard luck and pocket the ticket to cash it in yourself?

The_Valeyard · 13-09-2015 9:07pm

Winner winner, chicken dinner.

L1m1tless · 13-09-2015 9:08pm

I wouldn't be able to enjoy the money if I pocketed the ticket. Plus they might give you a few quid out of it.

stephenl15 · 13-09-2015 9:09pm

Definitely congratulate them and tell them they won. That'd be a real dick move to pocket it. Plus youd surely get found out.

HeidiHeidi · 13-09-2015 9:09pm

Always sign your ticket. That'd put a stop to their gallop.

OldMrBrennan83 · 13-09-2015 9:10pm

This post has been deleted.

biko · 13-09-2015 9:12pm

If this scenario ever happens to me I'll be sure to come back and update this thread.

Tompatrick · 13-09-2015 9:12pm

Cortina_MK_IV wrote: »

A few years back I used to do the Lotto quite a bit. I don’t think those self-check machines had come along so I’d pop down to the Maxol on Sunday morning for a paper and ask the lad to check the ticket. As usual he’d just say, “not a winner,” smile and sling it in the bin. One time the cynic in me thought what if it was a winner and as soon as I was gone he’d take the ticket and be off on Monday morning to Lotto HQ to cash it in.

I did the Lotto yesterday (first time in a while) and while in Dunnes this morning went to pop my ticket in the machine and the girl said it wasn’t working and she’d check it. Surprise surprise it wasn’t a winner. However my question is if you were in that position and you checked a ticket for a customer and it was a winner (possibly a big win) would you congratulate them and tell them they’d won or would you say hard luck and pocket the ticket to cash it in yourself?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9154969/Newsagent-stole-winning-156000-lottery-ticket-from-pensioner.html

Notavirus.exe · 13-09-2015 9:16pm

I think you should get an extra copy of any tickets you buy for proof of purchase or something.

Pete123456 · 13-09-2015 9:19pm

I work in a shop and one Saturday afternoon a guy came in and checked his ticket using the checker, then came up to the till and asked me to check it if I could. I checked it and it said "Winner €2000 please contact local authorised agent" or something along those lines. I of course said quietly "you've won 2 grand congrats!" And he says he's delighted and he didn't want to believe the machine over. At that point he taps his pockets and pulls out a 20 spot and says here have a drink on me...

Sound man in fairness... I've had other regulars win a couple of thousand here and there and not offer a thing. I'm not expecting it, it's your winnings, but it's unreal to get a few bob and share the moment with them.

It's not millions or anything but I've always quietly handed the winning ticket back. If it's not a winner I usually ask "will I bin it for you??" and that's what normally happens. I have been on the other end though where I had a guy accused me of not giving back the ticket and that I was trying to take his (not a winner) ticket. Spent a few minutes explaining the ins and outs and listening to him tell his wife that "he could be stealing from everyone for all we know"... These people are few and far between though!

cazzer22 · 13-09-2015 9:21pm

Shops should always hand you a receipt to say the ticket wasn't a winner. When I worked in SuperValu I'd often offer to give the ticket back, even if it wasn't a winner. Many would take the ticket and I always felt a bit like they didn't believe me. I could never take someone else's money. BAD KARMA

Pete123456 · 13-09-2015 9:22pm

Recently the lotto changed the setup and it no longer prints the not a winner slip when you check the tickets which makes the skeptical customers even more so, but if there's something on the ticket you're supposed to hand the customer the customer copy slip of the details.

Basically if you hear the ticket printer going you've won something. If not, then you're either not a winner or you've won BIG

Penny Tration · 13-09-2015 9:23pm

When I worked in a newsagents, I'd always offer the non winning tickets back to the customer. Generally if you offer them back, they realise you're telling the truth about not winning and just ask you to bin it.

Had a few people have big wins (2-15k) and I honestly never even thought to keep the ticket, I just thought 'omg they won! Ahhhh!' Damn hyperactive 15 year old brain.

Riddle101 · 13-09-2015 9:23pm

I would tell the person if they won. This is what separates you from all those chancers and criminals out there who would try to rob and steal from you. It's not right.

patsypantaloni · 13-09-2015 9:24pm

Not as easy to pull off as you might think, here's a couple of cases from the last few years where shopkeepers were prosecuted and jailed for trying it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2117517/Newsagent-Anne-Jeevarajah-jailed-trying-claim-pensioners-156k-lottery-winnings.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2190999/EuroMillions-scam-Shopkeeper-nicknamed-Lucky-tried-trick-pensioners-1m-Lotto-win-jailed.html

Dick Dastardly · 13-09-2015 9:26pm

I often thought about putting a ticket checker into a shop which was programmed to say "Not a winner" regardless of what was on the ticket.

Then stick a handy waste paper bin beside it and pick up all "my" winnings later on...

Lando Griffin · 13-09-2015 9:30pm

Not so long ago there was a big jackpot won and the media went to the shop to interview the owners. They said people were coming in in their droves to check their numbers. This got me thinking. Why go to a shop to check your ticket, if you win are you going to go around waving a multi million piece of paper in the air before trooping off to the local for a village booze in?

Whitewinged · 13-09-2015 9:32pm

I don't think it would even come into my head to do that.

My dad always used to want to do a practical joke on my mam and to record the lotto and then go out and do the numbers that had won on the previous recorded draw.

He was then going to play the recording without my mam's knowledge and let her think we won the lotto!

I'm glad he never got round to doing it. It would have been too cruel

ziedth · 13-09-2015 10:40pm

I used to work in a shop that sold the lotto back in my college days and every so often you would print the wrong lotto or a customer's card would decline and would leave so you might have one or two tickets by the machine. What you were supposed to do was give them to management presumably to refund them before the draw but we'd "forget" and check them the next day.

Anyway, one Sunday night I find a lotto ticket under the machine as I'm cleaning up and give it a check up pops "please contact lotto HQ" which as far as I've been trained means big bucks. Straight in the pocket and had to somehow keep it together till I got out of there at 11 o clock that night.

Cut a long story short I go home and check it up on the laptop and it only had a scratchcard on it. Turns out the same message pops up if a ticket has already been claimed. To say I was gutted would be an understatement.

Having told that story I would not dream of doing what the OP said. I couldn't live with it.

Calibos · 13-09-2015 10:58pm

999 times out of a thousand when you ask a customer if they want the non winning ticket back or for me to bin it, they'll say, "WTF would I want a non winning ticket back for FFS?!?! Of course bin it!!" The 1 time in a thousand I don't and just automatically bin it, "OI!! WTF. You could be scamming me for all I know. You should always give people back their tickets, wheres the manager I want to speak to him......."
[Sigh]

I've gotten 5 numbers 3 times. Only once were they my own numbers. The other 2 times were mistake tickets that I forgot to sell on to someone else before close of draw and ended up having to pay for out of my own pocket. Result!! Its legitimate way of getting people to buy the mistake tickets whether it was their fault or mine. ie. They'll buy the ticket they actually wanted plus the mistake ticket after I tell them my spiel about how these mistake tickets have been very lucky for me.

Lotto: "Not a winner."

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