Just when you thought that the lottery system was set up to where it was so hard to get that winning ticket, think again. In Beijing, a lottery ticket seller had found a flaw in the Welfare Lottery “3D” system back in the year 2005 that allowed him, and anyone else who may have known the secret, to purchase a lottery ticket of the winning numbers within minutes after they have been announced. Therefore, he had a winning ticket in his hand each and every time he did this.

Totaling 28 million yuan, or $3.76 million, was “won” through tickets illegally. Zhao Liqun, a 36-year-old man, who ran three different lottery stalls, pocketed this nice chunk of change. Liqun had apparently done this many times over and was ultimately arrested back in January for his crime.

Liqun would get the winning tickets, hand them off to friends and family to cash them in and then they would return the money to him. But the lottery center found out about the illegally claimed tickets and took action.

The court has jailed Zhao Liquin for life for this lottery scam for fraud and all of this property has been confiscated.

Hopefully, this means that the lottery system will be getting a second look over and adjusts may be made in order to prevent this crime from happening again in the future.


- 2007-11-06