You Need the Actual Tickets

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, the coworker that I was relieving got a customer who brought up the form for the winning online game tickets but she didn't have the actual tickets. The coworker informed the customer that she needed the actual tickets but that the non online tickets could be claimed. The customer was insisting that she should get them and she paid for the forms when she printed them out at the library (glad I have a printer at home so I can do it for free). She claimed that she would be back later but didn't see her come back so either she didn't or she came during my break.

[wolfie]

If I'm reading this right, my understanding is that the "form" is an optical mark reader page where you fill in the circles for your desired numbers (usually these forms can handle multiple sets of numbers), and that when the customer paid at the library they were paying for printing the form (i.e. they'd have paid the same price per page if, instead of printing the form, they had been printing driving directions from Mapquest).

You then take the form to a lottery retailer, who scans it into the terminal. You pay for the tickets themselves, and the lottery retailer prints your tickets.

Customer had the form but not the tickets? Sounds like they're either completely clueless (i.e. thinking that by paying to print the form, they were buying a ticket) or a scammer (printed out the form after the draw, and tried to use it to claim the prize). In any case, a retailer CAN'T pay out prizes over a given threshold - the machine alerts lottery headquarters, and the customer gets instructions on where to go (and what to bring with them) to claim their prize.

[purplecat41877]

It's actually game pieces that customers and employees get when the buy certain items and they attach the game pieces to a game board. Some of the tickets contain a code which can only be redeemed online, some are for free tickets, some are instant winners, and some are coupons.

[wolfie]

Sort of like McDonald's Monopoly game? If that's the case, it looks like the customer went online and printed the form that's used to redeem a winning ticket (and has a place to stick the ticket), but tried to redeem it without the ticket.