Dec. 23, 2007 — Buying out-of-territory lottery tickets may get you swindled and takes money out of the territory, V.I. Lottery Director Paul Flemming says.
At a press conference Saturday, Flemming displayed some of the spoils of ongoing sting operations working to discourage illegal lottery sales, explaining why they are harmful and spreading the word to those trading in them that the V.I. Government is coming for you.
"In the Virgin Islands it is a misdemeanor to sell any illegal lottery tickets," Flemming said.
Studies have found that over $96 million a year leaves the territory for illegal lottery tickets. This takes money out of the local economy and reduces revenue for the local lottery, Flemming said. But it has other pernicious effects too.
"The underground economy uses this trade to finance other illegal activities, from drugs to guns," he said. "So getting a handle on the gray market in lottery tickets helps other areas too."
Many of the illegal tickets are legitimate Puerto Rico lottery tickets. Selling them is illegal under V.I. law, and even if it were not, it is illegal under federal law and sends cash out of the territory. Ticket buyers are being defrauded too. Sellers create fake winning number charts, so buyers check their real tickets against bogus winning numbers and don't receive their proper winnings, he explained.
Flemming said the V.I. Lottery has been stepping up efforts to combat this, and is making progress.
"In 2005 the department stepped up enforcement and increased confiscations of illicit lottery tickets," he said. "And we arrested about 15 people."
Sheets of Puerto Rico lottery tickets on his desk provided testimonial to the enforcement efforts.
"To date, we have confiscated 8,400 tickets, equaling 290 sheets," Flemming said.
Progress is shown by the numbers.
In 2004 the lottery took in $8 million," he said. "In 2005, revenues jumped to 15.1 million, in 2006; 17.1 and in fiscal 2007, 19.5 million. The credit goes to the employees, who just need the tools to do their job."
Only buy legally sanctioned V.I. Lottery and Caribbean Lottery tickets and redeem them at lottery offices, not from vendors, Flemming advised. If you see anyone selling non-sanctioned lottery tickets, on St. Thomas and St. John, call 774-2502, ext. 27 and on St. Croix, 778-6360.
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