TX woman's $18 Pick 5 play at Retama returns $1.25 mil

[cal828]

73 year old wheels in my brain turn pretty slowly these days, but I think I remember more of the details of the scam mentioned earlier. There were 3 college buddies involved. One of them worked for one of the companies that manufacture and service the betting machines at some of the tracks. He made his own winning ticket and enlisted the help of one of his buddies to cash it. Not sure what the 3rd guy did. Maybe he came up with the scam and talked the others in to it. Nobody believed they had the winning ticket because it too had 4 singles Not sure how they got caught, but they did.

[richard burch]

Originally Posted by cal828

73 year old wheels in my brain turn pretty slowly these days, but I think I remember more of the details of the scam mentioned earlier. There were 3 college buddies involved. One of them worked for one of the companies that manufacture and service the betting machines at some of the tracks. He made his own winning ticket and enlisted the help of one of his buddies to cash it. Not sure what the 3rd guy did. Maybe he came up with the scam and talked the others in to it. Nobody believed they had the winning ticket because it too had 4 singles Not sure how they got caught, but they did.

Yes...i remember seeing a show on it. i think it was in the old HRTV days. Recall one of them worked at a NY track.

[jms62]

Story getting traction.. My mom mentioned it to me this morning...

[declansharbor]

Originally Posted by cal828

73 year old wheels in my brain turn pretty slowly these days, but I think I remember more of the details of the scam mentioned earlier. There were 3 college buddies involved. One of them worked for one of the companies that manufacture and service the betting machines at some of the tracks. He made his own winning ticket and enlisted the help of one of his buddies to cash it. Not sure what the 3rd guy did. Maybe he came up with the scam and talked the others in to it. Nobody believed they had the winning ticket because it too had 4 singles Not sure how they got caught, but they did.

I remember greed being a factor as to how/why they got caught, as if they printed multiple winning tickets instead of just one ticket, or something to that tune. Had they just scammed with one ticket, the red flags wouldn’t have gone up (as much) and they most likely get away with it.

[jms62]

Originally Posted by declansharbor

I remember greed being a factor as to how/why they got caught, as if they printed multiple winning tickets instead of just one ticket, or something to that tune. Had they just scammed with one ticket, the red flags wouldn’t have gone up (as much) and they most likely get away with it.

I think I recall that they singled the races already run.

[cal828]

Originally Posted by jms62

I think I recall that they singled the races already run.

You are right. There is a big long explanation on Wikipedia that explains what happened, but to cut to the chase, the mastermind of the scam was a senior computer person with Autotote. He altered tickets after the first four races had been run and then went all/all in the last two races on the ticket. His ticket was around $1100. This was not the first ticket that he altered. He also did this with some other bets and got away with it so decided to go for one big score with his buddies. This was the year that Volponi won the Classic and paid $41. Strangely, he was only sentenced to a year in prison while the one bud got a couple of years and the other almost 3. He ratted them out and got a lesser sentence.

[casp0555]

Originally Posted by cal828

You are right. There is a big long explanation on Wikipedia that explains what happened, but to cut to the chase, the mastermind of the scam was a senior computer person with Autotote. He altered tickets after the first four races had been run and then went all/all in the last two races on the ticket. His ticket was around $1100. This was not the first ticket that he altered. He also did this with some other bets and got away with it so decided to go for one big score with his buddies. This was the year that Volponi won the Classic and paid $41. Strangely, he was only sentenced to a year in prison while the one bud got a couple of years and the other almost 3. He ratted them out and got a lesser sentence.

degenerate bastard

[cal828]

Originally Posted by casp0555

degenerate bastard

Certainly that, but also a greedy and a lucky one too. Who tries to steal 3 mil and only gets a year in prison? Of course, he's probably ruined too and he's probably one of those guys you see sifting through the discarded tickets on the floor of some racetrack now, if they even allow him near a race track.