# Scratch Off Lottery Tickets **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440 "2008-01-05T22:21:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/1 "2008-01-05T22:21:03Z")
All stores nowadays use a bar code scnaner to determine, if indeed, your scrtach off ticket was a winner. So, like, couldn’t the store owner easily claim all the big winning tickets for him/herself? What stops this? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2008, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/2 "2008-01-05T22:24:00Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] All stores nowadays use a bar code scnaner to determine, if indeed, your scrtach off ticket was a winner. So, like, couldn’t the store owner easily claim all the big winning tickets for him/herself? What stops this? - Jinx [/QUOTE] In Louisiana, there’s a four-digit code under the scratchoff part that has to be manually entered after scanning the barcode. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/3 "2008-01-06T06:57:47Z")
[QUOTE=jasonh300] In Louisiana, there’s a four-digit code under the scratchoff part that has to be manually entered after scanning the barcode. [/QUOTE] Pennsylvania uses a three digit code to determine winning tickets. I would suspect that this is pretty universal. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/4 "2008-01-06T16:09:50Z")
The scratchoffs are shipped to the store in a sealed dispenser package. The store bought them from the lottery for something less than face value. Made up example: The dispenser has 100 tickets at $5 face value and the store paid the lottery $450 for it. If the store is honest, it will sell the 100 tickets for $500 & keep the $50 as margin of profit. So now I’m the store owner with a very tamper-resistant package of tickets I just paid $450 for, and I’m trying to cheat the system. What should I do? I can just pull out each one, scratch it off and run it throgh the barcode scanner. Most will be losers. A couple might be worth a few bucks. Since the lottery makes money overall, the odds are overwhelmingly the case that the $50 I’d get from selling the tickets would be more than the winnings of those tickets. If by magic I could know that this particular dispenser held a million dollar ticket _before_ I opened it, well that’d be different. I’d gladly give up the $50 in guaranteed margin to snag the fat winning ticket. But I can’t know that. The critical point in the overall design is it’s impossible to know whether a ticket is a winner until after it’s been rendered unsaleable. How much would you pay for a scratchoff ticket that had already been scratched off? I thought so. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/5 "2008-01-06T17:28:39Z")
What about when the store opens the rolls for sale to the customer, and there are opened rolls in the store- what’s stopping a bored dishonest employee from using the scanner on every ticket in the store, and pulling out the big winner, even if he has to wait until it comes up as first on the roll? ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/6 "2008-01-06T21:20:31Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] What about when the store opens the rolls for sale to the customer, and there are opened rolls in the store- what’s stopping a bored dishonest employee from using the scanner on every ticket in the store, and pulling out the big winner, even if he has to wait until it comes up as first on the roll? [/QUOTE] To clarify, the tickets have to be scratched off in order for the scan to be completed. You scan the barcode on the back of the ticket and then manually enter a number that’s hidden by the scratchoff part. You can’t determine a winner until the ticket has been scratched. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/7 "2008-01-06T21:26:49Z")
Lottery officials in 2 Canadian provinces are in the midst of dealing with retailer fraud. Investigation shows that the incidence of retailers winning large lottery prizes is much above the numbers dictated by chance. [Lottery fraud in Ontario](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7153116.stm) ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scratch-off-lottery-tickets/432440/8 "2008-01-06T21:57:45Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] …what’s stopping a bored dishonest employee from using the scanner on every ticket in the store, and pulling out the big winner, even if he has to wait until it comes up as first on the roll? [/QUOTE] Also, the ticket is swiped similar to the way a credit card is swiped. Meaning each one would have to be torn off the roll first. And there’s still the code…