ALBANY – The Dynasty Deli and Grocery in Jamaica isn’t the only place where New Yorkers have been fleeced while trying to cash in winning lottery tickets.
The state Lottery Division over the past two years has suspended or revoked the licenses of at least two dozen stores – including 12 in the city – that were caught trying to rip off customers who had purchased what turned out to be winning lottery tickets.
“In a network of 16,500, we believe most of our retailers are honest, but there are going to be a few bad apples,” said Lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Givner. Those bad apples include the S&M Deli & Grocery on 7th Avenue, which lost its license in 2009 after a store worker switched a customer’s winning Win 4 ticket with a non-winning ticket. A relative of the worker then tried to claim the $5,000 prize at the Lottery’s city claim center.
“The lottery blamed me,” said store manager Ammar Alsaidi, 22, who was put in cuffs and arrested in front of dozens of his customers for allegedly stealing a winning lottery ticket. “They locked me up!”
Aslaidi said his father picked up the winning ticket after the happy customer, who had been jumping around outside the store, dropped it. Aslaidi said his father cashed it in but insisted they did not intend to keep the money.
“You have the nerve to say that we stole the ticket,” he said. “We never let anyone down.”
Other stores that have lost their Lottery licenses include the Bainbridge Friendly Grocer in Brooklyn, which tried to steal a $5,000 winning ticket from a patron, and the Zee Deli & Grocery in the Bronx, where a retailer charged a customer $200 for cashing in a $600 instant winning ticket.
The Dynasty Deli had its license suspended on Aug. 27, after the shop owner’s son tried to swindle a 72-year-old grandfather out of a winning lottery ticket worth $14 million. A hearing in the case has not been scheduled.
Givner said the Lottery relies largely on customer complaints to initiate investigations but also has a monitoring system to alert officials to suspicious transactions.
Retailers can re-apply for new licenses but it is “very difficult” for them to gain approval, Givner added.
Givner urged all customers to sign their tickets before they show them to a clerk and to use the do-it-yourself ticket scanners that are now available at every store in the lottery system.
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