Tag Archives: fraud

The First Arkansas Lottery Fraud Fail

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A lottery ticket

A (real) lottery ticket

I guess someone had to do it. According to KATV-TV, Channel 7, a woman was arrested trying to pass off a fake winning lottery ticket at Arkansas Lottery headquarters in downtown Little Rock.

A woman is arrested inside the Arkansas Lottery Headquarters Monday afternoon…and KATV’s cameras were there for the arrest. Police say Ruth Dennis, 56, tried to pass a fake winning ticket for the real thing at the claims center. Her friend, John Burch says he gave Dennis and her sister a ride from Camden with a $3,000 ticket.

Lottery director Ernie Passailaigue says the ticket was clearly not real. He says she used the three times lucky scratch tickets and allegedly cut and pasted different numbers to make it appear like a winner.

“There’s no cure for stupid,” Passailaigue said, “And that’s what’s going to happen. People are going to try and defraud the lottery and they’re going to go to jail.”

It’s going to take a whole lot more than cut-and-paste jobs to fool the lottery security system, according to our recent Arkansas Business cover story on lottery security measures:

Lottery tickets can have up to 21 layers of specialized coatings and inks, including a layer that gives the cards fingerprint-like identities.

Scissors, glue and Exacto knives just aren’t going to get the job done. Lady probably should have read our story.

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Kudos to KATV, which somehow got video of the arrest. You can watch it here.

Sitting Down with Maria Haley in This Week's Arkansas Business

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This week’s Arkansas Business newspaper is online and available now. Some highlights from this week’s edition:

Mark Hengel talks to Arkansas Economic Development Commission Director Maria Haley about the AEDC’s “client focused” strategy in developing business in Arkansas.

Mark Friedman looks at Arkansas’ growing wind energy industry and its prospects for the future.

Our annual list of the state’s largest manufacturers. Fact: In the past 12 months, losses in manufacturing account for 42 percent of the state’s job losses.

Remember that $3.6 million write-off IberiaBank recent attributed to fraud.? Arkansas Business has finally named names. Click here to learn more.

How Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sportswriter Chris Givens, working on a new career in law, decided to resign ahead of more DG layoffs in an effort to save some else’s job.

Patrick Schueck, board chairman of the American Red Cross of Greater Arkansas, says businesses should prepare now for an emergency, such as an H1N1 outbreak.