[colindowling]

Selling lottery tickets can be a losing proposition. In many states, the vendor has to pay for the whole roll as soon as tickets containing half the prize money have been sold. So if I have a roll of 500 tickets costing $5 each, and the first ticket is a $5000 winner and the rest of the tickets only cumulatively win $4999, then I have to pay for the entire roll even though I've only sold one ticket.

[jvdh]

They tell you when that happens? Sounds like something that could be easily abused by collusion among a few shopkeepers.

[jey]

What a strange system, though I'm sure it makes the Lottery's actuaries a lot happier.