Albany – The New York Gaming Commission moved on Monday to ban the “bulk purchase” of lottery tickets, in the hope of avoiding the type of scandal that swallowed the Texas lottery when a game union bought 99% of digital combinations to win a jackpot of $ 95 million.
New York regulators have proposed to prohibit attempts to buy each mathematical combination of a lottery ticket, to prohibit the collaboration of ticket sales, to impose lottery sales agents to report the attempts to buy in bulk and suspend the license of an agent if their store or their debate allows a purchase in bulk, among other measures.
The Commission unanimously approved measures as new regulations of new states, which means allowing a public commentary period before the rules take effect, probably in October.
The agency’s commissioners and staff said bulk purchases can affect the integrity of the lottery and that they did not want Texas rehearsal.
What Newsday has found
- The New York Gaming Commission on Monday Moved to prohibit “the purchase in bulk” of lottery tickets, in the hope of avoiding the type of scandal that swallowed the Texas lottery when a game union bought 99% of the digital combinations to win a jackpot of $ 95 million.
- New York regulators have proposed attempts to ban To buy all the mathematical combinations of a lottery ticket, prohibiting the collaboration of ticket sales, forcing the lottery sales agents to report the attempts to buy in bulk and to suspend the license of an agent if their store or their point of sale allows a purchase in bulk, among other measures.
- The commission approved unanimously The measures as offered new state regulations, which means allowing a period of public comments before the rules take effect, probably in October.
“Bulk purchases, in particular by large investment groups and unions aimed at buying almost all possible combinations, can undermine the perception of the public of equity and the random in the lottery,” said Robert Williams, agency executive director, during the committee meeting on Monday.
The new measures, said Williams, “alleviate the risk of such an attempt and protect equity.”
“This will help the integrity of the game itself, which was not confirmed in Texas,” added Commissioner John A. Crotty.
What happened in Texas immediately seems to be a techno-crime caper. What makes him even more intriguing is that he was apparently legal at the time, that it took almost two years to become viral and that the regulators of Texas only try to pass measures to stop future scandals.
According to numerous media reports, a London -based union decided to buy almost all possible figures in the spring of 2023 – 25.8 million tickets, at $ 1 each.
They obtained official ticket printing terminals, which they set up to print nearly 100 tickets per second, according to the Wall Street Journal. In just three days, the union had tickets with almost all the combinations of possible numbers. The lottery in question required choosing six numbers, between 1 and 54.
In the end, the group won $ 95 million, which is less dollar and other expenses of $ 25.8 million.
The program has not struck a scandal before a longtime guard dog and the player won a jackpot earlier this year, but was disqualified because she had used an online application to buy tickets. This is apparently illegal, but it not only continued, but also raised the question of how Texas could have allowed what happened in 2023.
Part of the response was the staff of the Texas lottery helped facilitate the huge purchase of lottery ticket printing machines.
The Lieutenant-Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, described him as “the greatest theft of the inhabitants of Texas in the history of Texas”, although no criminal accusation was filed. Several agency officials have retired or have resigned. A new survey is underway.
New York officials said they knew no similar attempt to lock a draw here. But they read the stories and want to prevent it.
“This is really for what happened in Texas,” said Brian O’Dwyer, president of the committee.
Some of the proposals also include prohibiting terminals for the sale of temporary sales, prohibiting accepting transfers of wire or electronic money and demanding that a buyer be a “natural person”.
But there is also a related problem, O’Dwyer noted: messaging companies, or online services that allow players to buy tickets via a phone or other device, can move a high volume of tickets. Texas has decided to ban them from the scandal, just like other states.
Letters are legal in New York. O’Dwyer reported that the Commission could consider resuming this subject in the future.
“The members of this commission have raised important questions with regard to the issue of mail to the lottery,” said O’Dwyer. “And I don’t want someone to think what we are doing here [today] is the end result of all these things. We still have substantial problems to solve in terms and I want everyone to know that we will take them at a future moment if necessary. “”
