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.