Suppose someone owes a lot of back taxes or child support. They hit it big on the lottery, but the state is going to take most or all of their winnings. What do they do?

An AJC analysis suggests that hundreds, maybe thousands. of such people are selling winning tickets at a discount to other individuals, who then claim the prizes.

That’s not legal, but until very recently the state did very little to stop it. The result: By an extremely conservative estimate, the lottery has paid out $16.3 million since 2003 to people who had no legal right to those winnings.

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Georgia Power's Plant Bowen in Cartersville is shown. The utility wants to add about 10,000 megawatts of power supplies in just five years, mainly to serve data centers. (Hyosyb Shin/AJC 2015)

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Angie McBrayer, ex-wife of James Aaron McBrayer, leans her head on her son Sam McBrayer as she and her three children and two grandchildren (from left) Jackson McBrayer, 3, Piper Jae McBrayer, 7, Katy Isaza, and Jordan McBrayer, visit the grave of James McBrayer, Thursday, November 20, 2025, in Tifton. He died after being restrained by Tift County sheriff's deputies on April 24, 2019. His ex-wife witnessed the arrest and said she thought the deputies were being rough but did not imagine that McBrayer would die. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

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