An Arkansas lottery official says there have been no issues with electronic ticket scanners since the agency began selling lottery tickets in 2009.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ((http://bit.ly/xEJVgv) reported in Sunday's editions that interim director Julie Baldridge issued the statement Thursday after a convenience store employee testified at a trial over the disputed ownership of a lottery prize that a customer discarded the ticket because a scanner indicated it wasn't a winner.
The ticket was purchased at the Super 1 Store in Beebe on July 15, and Sharon Jones claimed the $1 million prize three days later. On Aug. 22, store manager Lisa Petriches sued Jones, claiming she stole the ticket from a store bin in which lottery players discard losing tickets.
In last week's trial, store clerk Rondi Smith testified in White County Circuit Court that Sharon Duncan bought the ticket and discarded it after the scanner showed it didn't win. Smith said she has worked at the store since June and that the scanner isn't totally accurate.
The scanners are small machines that sit on the counters of more than 1,800 lottery retailers. They "read" the bar code on each ticket, and their screens flash a message that says, "Winner! File claim form" or "Sorry not a winner" or something else, Baldridge said.
Players at the store in Beebe scanned tickets numerous times on the day the $1 million ticket was sold, Baldridge said, "and each time the scanner worked perfectly," she said.
The ticket in question was scanned at the store and at several other scanners in other locations, and it scanned properly each time, she said.
"In short, the Arkansas lottery's ticket scanners are performing like clockwork," she said.
The lottery's chief legal counsel, Bishop Woosley, said lottery records indicate the winning ticket was scanned at the Super 1 Store and shown to be a winner. Security Director Lance Huey said it was scanned on July 15 at 6:22 p.m.
Records also indicate the ticket was scanned several times afterward, "we assume by Mrs. Jones," Woosley said, and was shown by the scanners to be a winner, and they "told her to come claim her prize."
Officials are not really sure who was scanning the ticket, even after they checked the store video, he said.
"What you can see are two individuals around at the scanner at that point with tickets to scan," Woosley said.
He said they were Duncan and a man whose identity he doesn't know.
"It had to be one of the two players that's in that vicinity during that video," he said.
In her testimony, Smith said there has always been a "Do Not Take" sign on the bin, and the sign was posted on July 14. Huey said he and another lottery official visited the store on July 19, and a "Do Not Take" sign was not on the bin.
Jones' attorney, James Simpson, said at the trial that Jones' taking of the ticket from the bin wasn't a theft.
Attorney James Morgan, who is representing Petriches in her lawsuit, declined to comment about lottery officials' contention that the scanner indicated July 15 that the ticket was a winner.
"The case is still pending," he said. "I learned a long time ago I just don't comment on things in the lawsuit."
The trial judge, Thomas Hughes, told the attorneys Wednesday that it's possible that neither Petriches nor Jones will win the case.
That prompted Morgan to ask for a delay in the trial, partly so he can confer with the lawyers for Jones.
___
Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com
