Interesting
Stories

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Texas' Fun 5's
Scratch Ticket Lawsuit

The Lawyers Blog
Updated Feb 5, 2020 - Fun 5's Appeal
still pending - Click here

Fun 5's Scratch
Tickets Not Paying
Face Value of Winnings
See it for yourself. Includes
all details. Click here.

Fun 5's
Questions & Answers
Everything you have been
asking me is covered here!
Posted 9/21/14.
Click here.

Media Coverage - Fun 5's
This is NOT all of them!
ABC - KTRK TV Houston
NBC - KXAS - Dallas
Houston Chronicle
Dallas Morning News
Kens5 - San Antonio - TV.
Dallas Observer
Click 2 - Houston
Fox News
Fox 7 - Austin
Austin American
Statesman/Longview
Good Morning America
(Can't find link)
Channel 11 TV -
Fort Worth - 10/21/14
Courthouse News
(10/21/14)
Houston Chronicle
(10/23/14)
Dallas Morning News,
(10/24/14)
Courthouse News,
(10/24/14)
Dallas Morning News,
(12/10/14)
Houston Chronicle,
(12/10/14)
4 Traders
(12/11/14)
Courthouse News
(12/11/14)
News Journal
(!2/12/14)
WacoTrib (AP)
(12/11/14)
Time Warner News
(02/22/16)
Time Warner News
(02/25/16)

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- Meet Kelly Cripe -
The Spokesperson
For the TX Lottery
She's the person who decided
I didn't need to receive public
information that I pass along
to you every day!
Originally Posted 5/30/12
- Click here -
My response to Cripes
Cease & Desist Letter
Posted 4/21/13,
Click here
We've never seen Cripe
on TV - See the "test"
interview she did prior
to being hired. (A wmv
file - should open in
Windows Media Player)
Posted June 23, 2014
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.

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 And
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
Very Interesting.

Editorial & Opinions by Dawn Nettles

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12/10/16 - I have several miscellaneous things I want to share with everyone today.

The Arkansas Lottery story ...
Last month I showed ya'll duplicate quick picks sold to an Arkansas player and told you I'd post
an update when we received a response. Well, after complying with sending the Arkansas Lottery
copies of the players tickets then putting my questions in writing as requested, I still have no explanation
to share with ya'll.

I have also contacted two legislative members and am currently waiting on them to provide
answers for us. They seemed disturbed to learn that duplicate tickets were being sold
to unsuspecting players.

The Fun 5's Lawsuit Effects ALL Players ...
I think all lottery players should understand that the outcome of the Fun 5's scratch ticket lawsuit
will effect every player in the country. To be perfectly blunt, this is because either the vendors will
be allowed to deceive players legally or the courts will hold them accountable. For some reason
the scratch ticket maker (G-Tech) believes they can NOT be sued and can deceive players whenever
and however they want. If you want to see the ticket in question, click here. Do understand that
since this page was posted, court documents confirmed the ticket was originally designed to be
a winner so when the Texas Lottery told you that you couldn't read, they were not being
truthful!

Our Attorneys
For the record, we have excellent attorney"s" fighting for players rights. And I
still believe we will prevail. We owe so much gratitude to Manfred Sternberg
and Richard Lagarde for their ingenious, hard work and dedication to Texas players.
They are the ones who pulled our team of lawyers together and we have much to
be grateful for. The combined experience and knowledge possessed is remarkable.

As most of you already know, Richard is still fighting his illness. Somehow, he has found
the strength and dedication to keep us up to date in writing his Leukemia Lottery blog. What
he has done in sharing his most personal story - his ups and downs, explaining the treatments, etc -
with other Leukemia patients is more than commendable. I'd call it an heroic act! I pray for
him daily and I know I'm not alone in my prayers for him.

Illinois Lottery caught closing scratch games prematurely ...
Yesterday (Dec 9, 2016) the Chicago Tribune published an investigative story that I believe
all of you should read. There's actually two stories and both are full of tidbits players should
know. These reporters - J. Mahr, M. Walberg & E. Leventis - did an excellent job! FYI,
G-Tech and Sci Games operate the Illinois Lottery - it's privatized. Their in-depth story will
help you to understand how the lotteries "really" operate and their motives.
First story, click here then read second story, click here.

After you read these stories, please keep in mind that "we" have NO way to confirm payouts
and/or the number of winners on any lottery game. We can only go by what the vendors and
the lotteries tell us. For all I know, on online games, they could inflate the number of winners so
as to reduce pari-mutuel prize amounts thereby increasing the unclaimed prize fund. For online games
with set prizes like Powerball and Mega Millions, they can claim there were more winners than
there really were so the payout percentages appear higher. These games should be 50/50. Again,
if the number of winners were inflated, this would increase the unclaimed prize monies that
are kept by the states.

On scratch tickets, they could inflate the number of winning tickets printed and they
could hold top prizes back from shipping to the retailers. If one tries to obtain documents to
verify these things, the lottery claims these are security issues. In otherwords, they won't provide
you with the documents that show how they instructed the printer to place the top prize winning
tickets in the shipments. Plus other things.

New Powerball Rule ...
They did adopt a new Powerball rule. I still plan to show you what they actually did. It will come
eventually!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I hope you all have
a great Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

4/16/16 - I just posted a brief comment and links on my Fun 5's Update page to Richard LaGarde's
"Leukemia Lottery" blog. As you know, Richard is one of the Fun 5's attorneys who was recently
diagnosed with Leukemia. About all I can say about his blog is that it takes real courage to share his
medical story with the world. Click here to read my April 16th comments or here to simply read
Richard's Blog. Be sure to start reading from the bottom of the page of his blog to start from the beginning.

3/27/16 - Couple of things for you today.

Happy Easter to you all! I sincerely hope you have a great day. We do have many reasons to be grateful.

Many of you are asking about Richard LaGarde - one of our attorneys. I am happy to say that he is doing
as well as he can under the circumstances. By that I mean, as well as anyone can do who is undergoing
chemo treatments! It is my understanding that next week they'll find out what's next for him. Hopefully
they'll post an update for us. In the meantime, I know he appreciates your concerns and prayers so thank you.

Next - you're never going to believe this one so I'll show it to you. I keep telling ya'll that the Quick Pick option
is not really good for you. This is because of the duplicate tickets that they print. Remember that $1 billion
Powerball jackpot where they sold 440 million tickets and there was no winner even though there was only
292 million combinations? This should give you an idea as to just how many duplicate tickets were printed.

Anyway, a player from Virginia sent me copies of her Cash 5 tickets that she purchased yesterday. She
went to the store and asked for one ticket for the day draw and one ticket for the night draw. As you will see
below, her "Easy Pick" tickets (same as Quick Pick tickets) were printed at 13:29:19 pm and 13:29:23 pm.
Sadly and interestingly, both tickets have the same set of numbers on them. Obviously, she did not request
multi play - if she had, then she would have just received ONE ticket for the two draws. Anyway, see ...

A couple of years ago I showed you multiple duplicate tickets that were printed in New Mexico and Louisiana. It was
determined at that time that lottery terminals allow clerks to print duplicate Quick Picks/Easy Picks which is the most
asinine thing I've ever seen. NO player buys Quick Picks wanting the same numbers on all tickets.

The states "claim" players do want the same numbers and that I was wrong. My response was that IF players wanted
the same numbers on multiple tickets, then he should simply buy one QP, then fill out a play slip with the same
set of numbers and run it however many times he wants. At least the tickets would not have the "QP" or "EP"
at the end of each line indicating the tickets were duplicate Quick Picks.

Folks, the odds of these games are already astronomical. When lotteries allow duplicate tickets to be printed,
they are, in essence, increasing the odds of someone NOT winning because fewer of the total number of combinations
in each game is being covered. In other words, if they sell 100,000 tickets where 50,000 are duplicates - and
there is 1 million total combinations in that game, then the bottom line is that they only sold 50,000 different
combinations of the 1 million which means a minimum of 950K combinations were not covered or sold.

I think it is very, very unfair that players have no recourse in changing things that lotteries do to
prevent people from winning. Maybe we need to start a petition for all people in the US calling
for consumer protection for lottery players. I'd bet we'd get millions of signatures!

That's all for today and again, Happy Easter to you all.

03/10/16 - Just a couple of things for today. Ya'll are always commenting or asking about the lottery's
contributions to the School Fund. Well, last week Ken's 5 TV in San Antonio did a story on this very subject.
Here's what they said ....

If you want to watch the story, click here.

Also, I've just posted an update about Richard LaGarde's medical condition on the Fun 5's update page.
Click here to read it. (March 10, 2016 entry)

02/22/16 - A number of people have called to tell me that I needed to read the comments posted by players
after the Time Warner News story aired last week. Gawd - was that ever good advice! You should all go read what
the People of Texas think about the lottery. Click here - Time Warner News

Also, if you haven't read the comments posted by players on the Petition - you should do that too! Click here

02/21/16 - I've just posted a story on the Fun 5's update page about what happened in court last week. (02/18/16)
You should go read it - it's the Feb 21, 2016 entry. Click here.

02/15/16 - So many of you are asking about the hearing in Austin this week. YES, I will be there. I wouldn't miss
it for all the tea in China!

And YES, you can all attend if you wish. The address is 1000 Guadalupe, 3rd Floor, Austin - 201st Judicial
Court. 2 pm. Don't be late - it would be an insult to the court. Please come and introduce yourself. I would truly
like to meet all of those that I've communicated with by email and by phone. This way I can put a face
to your name. If it's too hard for you to attend, it's OK. You do not have to be there.

This is your case and this will be your opportunity to see the lawyers at work including those representing
G-Tech. I can't tell you if Gary Grief will be present but if I had to guess, I'd say he won't be there. Especially
if he feels he might have to face ya'll! He's not that brave!!! <huge grin) Also, he tries to avoid me.

OK - enough for now. Hope to see ya'll Thursday in Austin.

2/10/16 - A few topics to cover today. 1) the TLC is currently selling two trick scratch tickets;
2) another lawsuit was filed; and 3) Denice Deckard's petition.

What is a "trick" ticket?
It's a scratch ticket with a design where players will notoriously discard winning tickets thus increasing
the unclaimed prize fund. "Trick ticket" is what I named such tickets - it is not an official name. Also
it's important to note that to me, these tickets are not "deceptive" tickets because the instructions clearly
state what constitutes a "winning ticket" and where to scratch the ticket.

The Texas Lottery has sold "deceptive" tickets too. To me, "deceptive" means play areas are not
marked so players will fail to uncover all of the symbols. So that you know, I have called their attention to
"deceptive" tickets in the past but they did NOT take action. They just continued to sell the tickets
knowing players were being deceived as the states unclaimed prize fund grew at the expense of the
players. Sounds familiar, huh?

Anyway, let me show you what they are selling now that I take issue with - clearly, they are trick tickets.

Trick ticket #1 - $200,000 Double Payday

Trick ticket #2 - $500,000 Money Mania

The next ticket, $500,000 Money Mania,
is a $20 ticket that started 02/01/16.

Players have always received at least the
cost of a ticket should it be either a
"winning ticket" or a "break-even" ticket.

But they changed up on this ticket.
You can only imagine how players feel by
spending $20 then getting a ticket that
could return a mere $5.

The calls I've taken from irate players and the
comments I've heard in the field are unbelievable.
Players are angry. I'd bet the TLC is hearing about
it too but I'd also bet they'd never fess up. Just like
they did on the Fun 5's ticket. I'm sure you remember,
they said they had received "few complaints." Hogwash.

For this ticket, the TLC is bragging that every ticket in
a pack is a "winning" ticket. And that my friend, is NOT
true. Tell me, if you spend $20 and get $5 back,
what did you "win?" Me ... I'd say I lost $15!

The truth is, this ticket is really a $15 ticket. But by collecting $20,
gross FY sales increases. Again, it's all for the love of money and
is clearly another way to report deceiving sales figures.

02/11/16 - Added after original story posted - Ooops, I forgot to
tell you the "trick" on this ticket aside from the cost! Notice the two
circles on top left and right - one says "Bonus" and the other one says
"Money Mania Number." Well, the "trick" on this ticket that will
inflate the unclaimed prize fund (not everyone will know every ticket
is a winner) is that the "Money Mania Number" is another number
to match in the main body of the ticket. Players invariably fail to
look for the extra number and trash their tickets. I think players
forget and the state profits from their error.

The TLC has learned from other tickets with this
feature that it's a money maker design/feature.

Many thanks to those of you who reminded
me what I forgot to tell other players!

BIG news - another lottery lawsuit has been filed ...
A player in Iowa is suing MUSL and has named the Iowa lottery as a co-defendant. The player won $9 million and collected it. Then he learned that there was a "jackpot fixing" issue and it was him who won the next jackpot after the fixed jackpot was "supposedly" won. Therefore, he believes his jackpot should have been bigger. And he is dead right!

I'll bet there will be more winners come forward and they should.

Besides us Fun 5 players who should win our legal cases, this player should definitely win his legal case too. Watch/read the stories. Click here & click here

If you don't know about the jackpot fixing, here is a link to one of the stories on it. Click here.

Denice Deckards petition calling for an honest lottery, fair games of chance and a management shake-up ...
After this posting, I hope ya'll will really see a need to sign the petition. So please sign it. Denice wants to hit 10,000 signatures - she's at approx. 8200 now - I think. Help spread the word - OK? Here's another link to copy and paste in emails or social media.

https://www.change.org/p/texas-governor-greg-abbott-texas-lieutenant-governor-dan-patrick-texas-house-speaker-joe-strauss-restore-honesty-and-fairness-to-the-texas-lottery

If you want to go there now and sign it yourself, click here.

That's all for today.

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01/08/16 - Today I posted a story about the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history - the $800 Million Powerball jackpot. Here you see how much you'd win if you won and why there's not been a winner before now. Click here to read.