Lottery Employees Knew Where Winning Tickets Would Be Sold in Alleged $27M Scam

Italian authorities have frozen more than $28 million in assets belonging to a group of former lottery employees accused of using privileged computer access to steer $27 million in scratch-off jackpots into the hands of relatives and friends.

The scheme involved four employees and two former employees of Lottomatica, the company then operating Italy’s state-backed Gratta e Vinci scratch-off lottery, secretly tracing four winning tickets before they were sold.

Between 2015 and 2019, the employees allegedly used legitimate login credentials to access company servers, identifying two tickets carrying €7 million ($7.8 million) jackpots and two worth €5 million ($5.6 million) apiece.

Advance Knowledge

The insiders were able to determine the exact retail outlets to which these tickets would be shipped, as well as their delivery dates, according to court documents.

They then arranged for acquaintances and relatives to travel to the stores and buy up batches of tickets containing the guaranteed winners.

Two €5 million tickets were sold in Milan and nearby Brescia province in 2015. A €7 million ticket was purchased in Foggia in 2017, and another in Cremona in 2019, far from the homes of most suspects, many of whom lived in Rome.

After collecting their jackpots, the purchasers allegedly retained their share before transferring the remainder to accounts controlled by the lottery employees, investigators said.

Lottomatica cooperated with police and is not accused of wrongdoing.

Properties and Accounts Frozen

On Friday (Oct. 23), the Lazio branch of Italy’s Court of Auditors, which handles losses to public funds, froze assets of five alleged conspirators valued at more than €25 million ($28 million).

These included 25 properties across six Italian provinces and five cars and motorcycles, plus financial holdings.

The state argues that the misuse of insider information effectively removed chance from the lottery, guaranteeing payouts that might otherwise have gone unclaimed and remained in public coffers.

The five challenged the allegations during preliminary proceedings, but prosecutors pressed ahead.

A judge must now decide whether to maintain the asset freeze while the wider criminal case plays out.