I-Team: State lottery tests integrity of retailers

The NBC 10 I-Team has learned that a lottery scam used in other parts of the country is hitting Rhode Island.

A report on Sunday’s “Dateline NBC” uncovered how lottery retailers in California and New York lied to winning lottery ticket holders and cashed the tickets themselves.  (Read story.)

Last week, the manager at a convenience store in Pawtucket checked a customer’s Big Money scratch ticket to see if it was a winner.

But the manager didn’t know that the customer was an undercover state police officer.

“An undercover detective presented the manager of that (store) with a scratch ticket, knowing that that scratch ticket was a $1,000 winner. The undercover detective asked the manager to check the ticket to see, in fact, if it was a winner, which the manager did, and then told the undercover detective that she had won $100,“ state police Capt. David Neill said.

The I-Team confronted the store manager, Sarwar Ansari, who said it was an honest mistake. Ansari said he’d had only two hours sleep the night before and that he was confused.

He was charged with obtaining money under false pretenses, which is a felony.

Related Link: Rhode Island Lottery

The “Dateline” story showed how lottery retailers prey on gullible lottery ticket holders in California and New York.

The Rhode Island Lottery and state police have been conducting integrity checks on retailers for the past few weeks. The vast majority were found to be honest.

“We want to make sure there aren’t others who are even thinking about this in these hard economic times,“ Rhode Island Lottery Director Gerald Aubin said.

So, what can ticket holders do to protect themselves?

“First and foremost, on the back of every single ticket—either instant tickets or tickets that you buy, such as PowerBall and Numbers tickets—there’s a space to sign your name. Even if you’re not sure it’s a winner, sign your name. It’s a bearer’s instrument, then no one could come to the lottery and claim otherwise,“ Aubin said.

The lottery said integrity checks are still taking place. Police are using specially produced “winning” lottery tickets for the investigation.

Out of 123 retailers tested, only one, so far, took the bait.

There are 800 lottery retailers in the state.