Please pay attention to the message below. I have been aware of the problems with the terminals for a long time and have done everything in my power to try to convince players to check their own tickets.

Not only do the terminals err, but clerks see so many players who don't check their tickets so they have found a new way to make money. In other words, they collect the winnings themselves while telling players that they didn't win. You need to STOP allowing clerks to steal from you!

Also, you should know that I recommended legislation prohibiting retailers from checking players tickets. Do you know what the TLC did? They bought SST's so players could scan their own tickets yet those SST's err too! Players - IF you are going to play the game, then check your own tickets. Now here's a players story - not edited - but her personal info was deleted.

Ms. Nettles and Mr. Rodriguez (SA Express News):

I found your names and email addresses after I did a search on the internet via Google on the subject: Texas Lottery Commission - lawsuits.

I hope my recent experience with the Texas Lottery Commission might warrant the attention of both of you. I believe what happened should be brought to the attention of the public.

On January 8, 2005, I purchased a Texas Lotto Ticket.

At some point, I wrote the winning numbers on the ticket. (To be very precise, I wrote the first five numbers down, circled the winning number of those five. I then circled the printed bonus ball number, which was a winning number, also. I will tell you why I added this part, if you want to hear the REALLY long version of my experience!) At some point I put that ticket, along with 6 others, into a blue TLC plastic folder that I have had for some time.

On Monday, May 9, I dug that folder out of - wherever I had put it the last time! - found the 7 tickets, PLUS the brochures that shows winning combos for the Lotto, TX 2 Step,and the Mega Million drawings.

I took the 7 tickets to the library, where I ran the numbers (again)on their computer. Lo! I had a winning ticket. (Now, hold on to your hat! It was a $3.00 winner! Hey! ever little bit helps!) (Having found the brochures, I could check to see what combo's were winners.)

On the way home from the library I stopped to collect my $3.00 at a Chevron filling station on the corner of Hillcrest & Babcock here in San Antonio, TX. Gave the ticket to the clerk. She "ran it", then handed it back to me saying "It's not a winner". Okay, I thought, I just read the numbers too fast from the cpu. That evening I talked on the phone to my brother. I told him what had happened. He checked the numbers on his cpu. LO! The ticket WAS a winner.

On May 11 - having won on the May 10 Texas 2 Step drawing ($17.00), I took both tickets back to the Chevron on the corner of Hillcrest and Babcock. Got my Texas 2 Step money. Asked the Clerk to check the January 8, 2005 ticket: "not a winner". I told her "Yes,it is a winner. Please check it again." She then checked it "another way" (that's a story within this story! and the reason I elaborated on how I put the numbers on this 1-8-2005 tkt.!). LO! It's a winner!-when checked that "other way". She gave me the printout that showed it was a winner.

Having decided that she was not the brightest light in the ceiling, I thought "HMMM! I know a man at the Citgo on Fredericksburg that seems to be smart. I'll take the ticket THERE and have HIM check it." I don't know his name. I don't have the address of that Citgo - but can get it easily enough, it's about 7 blocks from my apartment. He, "Citgo Man", checked it. Said "it's not a winner". I said "yes it is". He rechecked it. LO! It is winner.

We then had a conversation that went something like this:

ME: How did you check it after the machine said it is not a winner?

HIM: I ran the numbers at the bottom of the ticket - right above the barcode. (But, he - nor, by the way, the lady at the Chevron - could pay me my $3.00 since THE MACHINE said the ticket was "not a winner".)

Conversation continued with the "Citgo Man"

HIM: I've never seen this happen before. Well, let me correct that. I've not seen it happen on the new machines. But, I did see it happen on the old machines. A man came in with a ticket that was a $2,500 winner. The old machines showed it was not. He took it to the Lottery Commission and it was a winner and they paid him.

ME: GOOD GRIEF, $2,500. Oh, well! I've got to go to Austin anyway. I'll go by the TLC while I'm there.

HIM: Why don't you go to the one here in San Antonio.

ME: I didn't now there was one here.

HIM: [gave me directions to the TLC office in San Antonio, TX.]

I left the Citgo station and went directly to the TLC office in SA. Liz Garcia*, a Lottery Specialist at that office, ran the ticket. Her machine showed "not a winner". I said "Yes. It is." She reran it. LO!!! It IS a winner. Liz had me fill out TWO forms, one long, one short. Liz Garcia, Lottery Specialist, took my ticket, gave me a copy of the short form, AND a TLC T-shirt. I left. (Liz Garcia* - I have her card at home. Not sure if Garcia is the correct last name. I'm way too angry about this to remember her last name!)

Last Friday, May 20, 2005, I received a letter from the TLC. They had received my claim. According to the letter, my ticket had been "validated" at a retail location. To have my claim re-examined I needed to: Tell them the name of the store where I had purchased the ticket, the address, the date and the time. I also needed to tell them the location I had attempted to redeem the ticket, the address, the date and the time.

The letter is an insult and I am outraged by it.

First: ALL of the information regarding the purchase of that Lotto ticket could be discovered by the TLC by running the Lotto ticket - which their agent Liz Garcia had taken from me and had not returned - thru their computer system. Second: I had filled out TWO claim forms. One short - a copy of which I was given. One long - a copy of which I was NOT given. The long form contained the "attempt to redeem" info that they ask for in the letter.

I called WOAI-TV, Channel 4 here in San Antonio. I was contacted by Julie Buss (I think that's her last name) after 3 calls to Channel 4. She said they would investigate and would contact me "that day" (I have the date in my notes at home), after 3 PM, if they thought it worth investigating. She did not call me back.

I think this matter IS worth investigating - in spades. NOT BECAUSE OF MY $3.00 winning ticket. But because FOUR MACHINES, including the one at the TLC office here in San Antonio, showed my ticket as "not a winner". They did NOT show "previously paid". When re-run a "different" way, the ticket proved to be a winner.

HOW MANY TICKETS ARE HANDED TO A CLERK, RAN THRU THE TLC MACHINES IN THE RETAIL LOCATIONS, SHOWN AS "NOT A WINNER" AND THROWN AWAY BY THE BUYING PUBLIC?

My ticket is insignificant - as to the amount. The - apparent - malfunction of the TLC machines in declaring my ticket "not a winner" is an occurence that IS NOT INSIGNIFICANT.

Additionally, the letter from the TLC is so insulting that I can barely think about it without my blood pressure going straight out the top of my head. This organization - which apparently cannot be sued directly, according to Mr. Rodriguez's article - could not have composed a more insulting letter. To ask ANYONE the TIME they purchased a lottery ticket is like hunting for a needle in a haystack. I believe that a lot of people could designate the location and the date. But, I live in San Antonio and am mobile. I buy lottery tickets all over the place. Additionally, I visit friends near Lake Jackson, family in Austin, and am generally liable to buy my tickets ANYWHERE I am when I decide to buy one.

I am outraged that they have asked me to repeat information that I gave them on one of the two forms I filled out.

If you would like to publicize this incident and would like more information (although I've told you most of what I have to say!!), I can be contacted via phone at (number deleted) or via email at (email deleted). (I will not collect my email until Tuesday, May 31. Please call me at the phone number on Sat or Sun. It's a cell phone and I have time limitations.

I am sending the TLC a registered mail, return receipt request letter, stating that I am insulted and outraged and setting out facts as stated above.

Hope you think the incident worth your attentions. Hope this LONG EMAIL doesn't cause you to loose interest. ALSO HOPE I didn't screw up as I wrote this thing. I don't "read" email that I write as well as I read typed letter!!

E. Northam

P.S. If by "validated" the TLC means "Paid," the machines STILL malfunctioned. They NEVER - according to Chevron and Citgo clerks and Liz Garcia, Lottery Specialist at TLC, San Antonio, TX - said "previously paid", only "not a winner". And remember the story of the $2,500 winner that the "Citgo Man" told me!

This is one reason the unclaimed prize fund is unbelievably high.
Players - PLEASE - Check your own tickets.

Store Manager Caught Stealing Winning Ticket
Another Warning - Check your own tickets. You can NOT trust
the clerks nor can you trust the terminals. Know what you have coming
before you enter the store. Posted (May 25, 2005). Click Here