Where To Play Big Money Playbook Nc Lottery

"It still says on the ticket you might win $5,000, $10,000, only y'all literally can't win, because the game has gone, as the lottery officials describe information technology, 'dried.' Information technology's no longer fully really in play."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Would y'all still buy a scratch off lottery ticket if you knew you lot couldn't win the top prize? You may have already done so unknowingly.

A Defenders investigation found people in the Carolinas are likely spending money with the hopes of winning big, while not knowing someone else already claimed the jackpot.

Information technology'southward all the result of a lottery process that allows retailers to continue selling tickets even after top prizes are won and games end. Some stores immediately pull those games from the case, while others go along selling them.

"You lot're selling it and there'southward no hope of winning, it's kind of similar cheating," lottery thespian Gabriella Clowers said after nosotros told her what nosotros discovered.

Take Carolina Cash for example. The $5 game advertises a top prize of $200,000 on the ticket. Fifty-fifty after all of the acme prizes were won, we still were able to buy a ticket in late August. Today, virtually two months later on, the lottery confirms there are 1,260 Carolina Cash tickets all the same out at that place.

"We work as fast equally nosotros can to go those ticket back from the store to the lottery," NC Didactics Lottery Communications Director Van Denton said.

WCNC asked Denton if he felt it was misleading that consumers are able to purchase tickets that advertise a top prize of $200,000 when the prize is no longer possible. According to Denton, it's non misleading.

"Again, you tin just ask the retailers, 'Are the top prizes here?'" Denton said. "The lottery players are smart and engaged people. They're making smart decisions with their coin."

Players can protect themselves. The lottery makes an updated list of remaining prizes available online, in-shop, through its app and by calling its customer service line, but a longtime critic of the lottery said officials demand to practise more to protect players who often have modest incomes.

"What'due south the nearly egregious virtually the scratch off tickets is that in many instances at that place is literally no chance at winning," NC Policy Watch Director Rob Schofield said. "It still says on the ticket you might win $5,000, $ten,000, simply you lot literally tin't win, because the game has gone, every bit the lottery officials depict it, 'stale.' It's no longer fully really in play. It'southward but sort of a silly notion to recall that we can inform everybody that plays the lottery past just posting these things online."

While Schofield calls information technology a scam, the lottery defends its practice.

"The N.C. Pedagogy Lottery wants its players to know the odds of its games and prize information then it widely disseminates that information," Denton said. "The more data players have, the more responsibly they will play. That helps the lottery [ensure] that it operates fun and off-white games to raise coin for a good cause. If someone [knows] of better safeguards than what the lottery currently has in place, it would certainly evaluate them to see if they would exist useful in North Carolina."

The NC Education Lottery will officially end 8 games on November 9. Those include some games with no superlative prizes left. The state insists it stopped marketing and advertisement the scratch-offs in question long ago and argues just because you can't win the top prize, it doesn't mean there aren't other valuable prizes nonetheless available, from vacation packages to actual greenbacks.

"Some lotteries go on the game going even when all elevation prizes are won," Denton said. "Afterward all, there are nonetheless valuable prizes that can be won. But in North Carolina, our policy has been to brainstorm catastrophe the game as before long as all top prizes are won. It tin take up to three weeks before all of the remaining tickets are picked upwards and returned...The end-of-game pick-upwards is a iii to four-week process. In that location are 6,900 retail locations located across a big state."

That iii to four-calendar week procedure took much longer for some games. Denton told us hurricanes are to blame.

"One claiming since August, when summit prizes were won in both Carolina Cash and $200 Million Blowout, is responding to the touch that Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael had on our retailers in those areas and helping them recover in terms of getting the lottery function of the concern," Denton said. "As I said, nosotros are committed to ending games equally soon as possible when all top prizes are won and our procedures call for that. We are besides committed to continuous improvement."