Interesting
Stories

------

CBS Dallas,
KTVT/
Channel 11
Mireya
Villarreal
4 Bingo Stories -
2 Illegal Gambling
&
2 Cheating Charities
Stories
WOW, what a
series to watch!
Ask yourself, why
would the Texas
Lottery ignore
"gaming devices"
that pay players
in cash or in
lottery tickets?
Click here for
links to watch
stories that
aired on ...
April 29, 2014,
May 5, 2014,
May 9, 2014
& May 14, 2014

Senator Deuell
Requests an
AG Opinion.
Does Texas
Triple Chance
Qualify As a
"Lottery?"
Read Senator
Deuell's letter,
Click here
(a pdf)
02/10/14
My letter to
the AG -
Click here
(a pdf)
01/28/14

Read Dallas Morning News
Story About Texas Triple Chance
Appeared
Feb 12, 2014
Click here

About Texas
Triple Chance
3 Separate
Postings
With this letter,
I've done all
I can do -
Posted
1/30/14.
Click here
Is this game a
true lottery
game? Is it
legal?
Posted
1/20/14,
Click here
"Secretly"
Proposed.
Details
New Game.
Posted
1/7/14,
Click here

Unbelievable
Duplicate
Quick Picks
Louisiana players
buys 4 tickets,
all tickets have
the same numbers.
Very sad.
(Nov 7, 2013 -
Updated Nov 12, 2013)
Click here.

Did
Gary Grief
Lead The
Commissioners
To Believe All
or Nothing
was born
in Texas?
And about
that highly
publicized
"liability"
problem.
Posted
6/8/13.
Click here

Houston Chronicle
Exposes Mr. Grief's
Contractions Regarding
All or Nothing
Here's the
answers to all
your questions
and the REAL
truth (6/5/13)
Click here

Responding
to a
| Cease &
Desist Letter
(Kelly Cripes)
I uncover questionable
employee
behavior ...
Read their
communications. Amazing yet
hurtful
discoveries.
Posted
4/21/13 ...
Click here.

Will Texas Honor
The Rule & The Face
Value of My
Scratch Tickets
This letter was
submitted to
Gary Grief - Director of the
TLC. I'm asking
that my winning
tickets be paid - Unbelievable
story and only
the tip of the
iceberg
regarding
Texas scratch
tickets. After
you read the
letter, tell me -
do you think
it's a winning
ticket? Should
they pay me?
Posted
12/10/12.
Click here

Texas Player Buys 7
Quick Picks, Receives 7
Identical Tickets
An
Unbelievable
Story -
Posted
3/15/12,
Click here

Lottery Terminals
Err - Here
is Absolute
Proof
Posted
7/12/07 -
Don't let this
happen to you.
Check your own tickets!
Click here
A Very Interesting.

Editorial & Opinions by Dawn Nettles

----------------------------------------

02-06-14 - I'm going to call this editorial "blowin' off steam." It is
rare that the TLC is privileged to know that they got my goat. The same
as it is for me to see a reaction from them when I post a story that isn't flattering.

Of course, I did see a reaction from Kelly Cripe, the relatively new Texas Lottery
Director of Media Relations, who responded to her story by hiring an attorney
to send me a cease and desist letter. I think she was angry. (If you missed
that story, just click on her name above and you can read it).

At any rate, let me blow my steam. Since Ms Cripe is directly involved,
she'll love knowing that she caused me grief and frustration.

Here's the deal. At the end of each year, I have at least two to three days of year end
work to do on my website - you know, I have to make new pages for the new year,
edit graphics, fix links and I take a considerable amount of time proofing certain areas
which actually takes me several weeks to do. I try really hard to be extremely
accurate in my postings but I am human, I do make mistakes. Fortunately my
mistakes usually involves something I failed to update at the time it
happened or they are typos.

I keep the following paragraph current at all times - or maybe I should say,
I try keep it current after every Mega Millions drawing. (This paragraph is on
my results page under Mega Millions drawing results.)

While doing my end of the year work, I found I was off by ONE in the above
paragraph. By that I mean, when I added up the states wins, it should
have equaled the total winning tickets (145). But it didn't. (:

I thought to myself, 'no big deal - this data is readily available and I've got it
on my spreadsheet. I just have to go count the states wins.' When I went to
count the individual wins, I found I had failed to post the name of the winning
state for several wins. "What rotten luck," I thought to myself.

OK - still not a big deal. I'll just get it off the "Mega Million Settlement Report." I pull
that report first. Ooops, this report won't work because I only track wins since Texas
joined Mega Million but the Settlement Report covers all wins since inception.

"Hmmm." Then I thought, "OK - I'll just use the Texas Mega Millions Jackpot
Estimation Document - the information is there too." I took one look at
their document and realized real fast it was wrong, wrong, wrong OR God forbid,
I was way off. "Surely not," I thought to myself. Below is what I saw when I
compared Lotto Report to the Texas Lottery's total winners per state.
(VIP - originally I had 7 for Maryland - that was my error.)

I'm thinking ... "Gawd, what a huge job it would be to
find all these discrepancies. Please don't make me figure
this out. I just can't be this far off."

So I decide - I'll just ask Media Relations - Kelly Cripe -
since she deals with the press, maybe she'll have correct
info at her fingertips for the press releases she has to write.
I won't panic YET.

I then sent Ms. Cripe, the Media Director, the following
message fully expecting an answer to my legitimate question.

As you can imagine - I was REALLY mad. This problem represented a lot
of work for me because I had to find their errors in order to find my error.
Anyway, I just said a few choice ugly words and set out to find all errors.

In the end, I quickly identified my ONE error - I failed to update the
next to last MM win on my web page. I increased the total number
of winners but failed to increase Maryland wins from 7 to 8.

BUT guess what this meant? You guessed it!

The Texas Lottery's Mega Millions Jackpot Estimation -
"State Wins" Tab.xls is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Below
is what I found and as you look at what I "claim" are errors - and
they are - imagine, I was only off by ONE but I had to find their
errors to be certain. And here I am, giving them an easy fix. But
I guess I should add, I've learned that when I just tell them
they have a mistake, it doesn't get fixed. But when I tell
them what the mistake is, they fix it. Imagine that.

Shown - I've printed and scanned their document
and I added the color and inserted the comments.
(I will give you a link to see the entire sheet -
right now I'm only showing their mistakes)

And the cherry on the cake ....

What amazes me the most is that they [the Texas Lottery] did show there
were 145 total winners even with all the errors and a missed entry.

Who would ever believe that the Texas Lottery - Office of the Controller - where everything is suppose
to be proofed and signed off by management - could make this many mistakes and have erroneous
information circulated regarding where the Mega Millions jackpots were won? This document goes to
executive, legal, products and media relations twice weekly. One would think that after a win,
with all those people seeing it, catching these specific errors would have been caught.
These errors go back to 2006 - WOW - unbelievable!

(If you are following my 8 Part story, then you know that the current OC Director,
Kathy Pyka, began working in Sept 2005 and Mr. Ben Navarro was a manager. These
are the two folks responsible for not reconciling the TLC prize payment acct. By
the way, Part 7 really is coming - I've just been side tracked in finishing it. Sorry)

Anyway ....

"Working papers" or no "working papers" - I wonder how many
times this data was used in Commission meetings for presentations
or by Media Relations for press releases?

For the record - I really can understand making mistakes but WHY
weren't they caught. Does no one in upper management in the
OC Department not proof/review employees work?

Earlier I gave you a link to the entire document - it is an Excel file. By
reviewing it, you can see that the document I scanned has NOT been altered.
And many of you will find the content contained in this document of great interest.

I also did a copy and paste of just the "State Wins" sheet so you can
see the State Wins by themselves - all of them. It too is in Excel - I did edit the
sheet - but I did NOT change any of the entries. I just colored the lines containing
the errors and made my remarks on it. Click here.xls to see just those pages in full.

The document I'm showing you is the Jan 7, 2014 MM Jackpot Estimation sheet.
I also have the Jan 3, 2014 sheet that shows the same figures except one
less in the total as there was a winner on Jan 3rd.

Moral to this story ...
BEWARE - when you're ugly to someone - it CAN backfire on you. Had the
TLC simply told me the breakdown by state, I would not be blowin' steam today.
I had one mistake - they had a bunch - they have a staff - I just have me. And
yet I'm generously showing them where their errors are so all they have to do is
verify them then they can correct their spreadsheet. Except for the one
missed entry - though it will still be easy for them to find the missing
entry simply by reason of deduction.

In Conclusion
IF by chance I've made a mistake and made false allegations
regarding these errors, I will print a HUGE apology and correct
the story immediately. I just need the TLC to advise me.

01-24-14 - During last night's Cash 5 drawing, the drawing machine stalled after
the 3rd ball came out. After a 23.88 second delay, a 4th, 5th and 6th number came out.

G-Tech/ Texas Lottery released the prize amounts in their normal fashion indicating to me
that they were making the first 5 balls drawn the official drawing results. While this may make
things easier for them, I question the decision and the policies and procedures currently in place.
The policies fail to include a time frame that would disqualify a draw due to a machine malfunction.

This is because of the 23.88 second delay. Did you know that it takes 26 seconds to draw
12 numbers in All or Nothing but it only takes 12 seconds to draw 5 number in
Texas 2 Step - this includes a bonus number.

I sent a message to the Lottery this morning at 8:55 am that read ... "I'm sure you are aware
that 6 numbers appeared in last nights Cash5 drawing. The machine stalled after the 3rd number -
is the lottery going to honor tickets with the 6th number on them? Are the terminals set to pay
based on winnings including number "9"?" I have such a ticket. Due to the number of tickets
and players this could affect, immediate answers/responses are required. Please advise ASAP"

At 11 am I received the following message from Ms. Kelly Cripe ... "The drawing was certified
by the independent public accounting firm and the results are as is."

WOW - that is one COLD message. You can see that they really care about Public Relations!

Oh well, guess the numbers drawn in 32.54 seconds will be honored without
any detailed explanations or sincere concerns to anyone.