Odds of collecting lotto prizes may not be so good

So we all know it's hard to win the lottery, right? But even if you do win, you might not get your money, KPRC reports: Thanks to a lack of training and oversight, many winners of smaller lottery prizes are never able to collect their winnings. Kinda makes us glad we stuck with poker.

The problem comes when lotto winners try to redeem their tickets at local stores. Channel 2 followed Bill Mullen, a winner, to four convenience stores; at each one, a clerk ran his ticket through the ticket-checking machine and the machine reported the ticket wasn't a winner. Mullen took his case to the Lottery Claim Center, where he was told to file a complaint with the Texas Lottery Commission in Austin. He did, and was told that his claim was denied because someone else — they didn't know who — had already claimed Mullen's prize. (For the record, Mullen's winnings totaled $3, which it took him about two months to collect. But it wasn't about the money as much as the principle, he said: "If it's happening to me or my wife, how many other people is it happening to?")

Turns out the problem could be related to improperly scanned tickets. Lottery Commission spokeswoman Leticia Vasquez said employees at local stores aren't trained to use the scanners, and the Lottery Commission can't force store owners to complete training — so only about 20 percent of retailers ever teach their employees how to scan winning lottery tickets. "It's a little bit like herding cats," Vasquez said. "You can't always do it, although we try."

The problem, by the way, only affects prizes less than $600, which are the ones claimed at any business that sells lotto tickets. Higher prizes must be claimed through the Lottery Claim Center, where we assume employees are better trained to use lottery machines.