Posted on 12/23/2015 7:36:35 PM PST by iowamark
A prominent lottery official who has run the Powerball game since its inception was quietly removed from his 28-year post leading the Multi-State Lottery Association after a jackpot-fixing scandal inside his organization got bigger, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
Charles Strutt, executive director of the association since its 1987 founding, was stripped of his duties in October by the group's board, which includes directors of lotteries in 37 states and U.S. territories. The move came days after prosecutors said their investigation of jackpot-fixing by the association's former security director, Eddie Tipton, had expanded nationwide.
The association, which operates multi-state games such as Hot Lotto and Wild Card in addition to Powerball, has kept the leadership change quiet. It didn't announce its decision and its website lists Strutt as executive director. Idaho Lottery director Jeff Anderson, the board's chairman, said Monday he couldn't comment on a "personnel matter."
Strutt, 63, retains support among some board members and hopes to return to his position when the Tipton case concludes, said Dawn Nettles, a Texas-based lottery watchdog who said she spoke with Strutt about his leave in October.
"The truth is, the lotteries voted Chuck out. They're holding him accountable for the actions of that security guy," Nettles said. "But they don't want anybody to know."
Strutt was its first employee when six states formed the association to offer the nation's first multi-state game, Lotto America. The group launched Powerball in 1992, and the game has since generated some of the world's largest jackpots and billions of dollars in revenue for 44 states that now participate. Strutt also helped establish the association's other games, which collectively surpass $5 billion in annual sales...
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I promise not to hold a grudge if I win Powerball tonight.
How much did you give to the lotto executives?
A BILLION dollars. I wanted to be sure.
Probably a fair amount, if he will let you win 30 times like some others.
I believe it was in Australia a couple of years ago: A group got together and pooled their money. They bought every possible number combination in a lottery that had a large payout.
The group won, of course, but unfortunately for them there were other winners as well. I don't think the group even broke even.
“I have a hard time figuring out how ping pong balls blown through an air tube can be possibly fixed”
Didn’t PA lottery have a scandal many years ago where they fixed it by adding liquid to all the balls but the “winners”. The “winners” floated to the top but the others were too heavy.
I actually read this book back in Vancouver canada. I think everyone was reading the ‘wheel’ method of winning and I tyried it. Won the three of 6 multiple times but you really have to have a record the of the past numbers..
prick the ping pong balls you don’t want picked it makes the ball less likely to be picked by the machine... this changes the odds so that if you buy enough tickets some will hit and the person will make money because the odds of picking the right numbers on a pick six are good.
This explains why I have not won.
Thanks for the post; your links, Southack. BUMP for tomorrow morning read.
I’m not going to begrudge a guy named Homer Buffaloe a little joy in life.
I’ve wondered why only a handful of states have most of the big winners. I’ve also noted that my picked numbers are often repeat on my quick picks on the same card.
for later
“The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made their living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everyone in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being nonexistent persons.â€
George Orwell, 1984
Ahem. The model for the numbers games came from the mobsters of old. The same Italian looking fellas who claim to be Indians at those nice Native American Casinos.
The head guys look like my grandfather from Sicily.
WADDABOUTIT?
The winning numbered balls are weighted down with a large drop of clear finger nail polish.
______________________________________________________
Are you sure it’s not the other way around? Since the balls are air-driven up the tube, the lighter ones would rise to the top, and the heavier ones stay down.
Sort of makes a lie out of ‘the winning ticket’, eh? Reminds me of the old punch board scam ... the ‘winning’ slot was identified to the buyer of the board by a coordinate system (across and down). The board buy then punched that slot and sold most of the remaining punches on a board where winning was impossible since the board owner already had the winning slot and would give it to an accomplice for cashing in.
Just for the heck of it, I clicked on your link, closed the page, then five minutes later clicked on it again after wiping the cookies out of the net files. The same ‘This is no joke. You are the 100,000th visitor winner’ message was flashing. And that’s how they hook fools ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.