Columbia, SC (WLTX) An audit released Tuesday of the South Carolina Education Lottery says the lottery has not changed its regulations to make sure it doesn't sell scratch-off tickets after the top prizes for those games have already been won.
Previous audits recommended the change.
The lottery's director says the regulation doesn't need to be changed, though, because it already allows the lottery to stop selling tickets for a game once the top prizes have been won.
"The day that the last top prize for a game is claimed we stop all sales of that game," says Paula Harper Bethea, executive director of the South Carolina Education Lottery. So why hasn't the lottery asked the legislature to change the regulation, as recommended by the Legislative Audit Council?
She says, "If the regulations allow us to stop the sale, why go to the legislature and ask for something minor like that when the way it is written gives us the full opportunity to stop those sales immediately?"
She says some players wish they could still buy tickets for a game even after its top prizes are gone, because there are other, smaller prizes available.
The audit also says the lottery has not asked lawmakers to change regulations to allow the lottery to give away tickets as promotional items.
But Bethea says, "I think that opens our lottery up to potential fraud issues, and, in fact, there have been several lotteries in the country who have had employees get in trouble because they'd give away promotional tickets and then they can figure out a way to take those promotional tickets and either cash them in themselves or give them away."
You can see the full audit report at http://lac.sc.gov/LAC_Reports/2014/Documents/SCEL.pdf
