COLORADO SPRINGS, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- A Colorado woman is suing to prevent state officials from selling scratch-off tickets after top prizes have been given out.
LaVonne Watkins, 35, objects to the practice of selling the tickets after the advertised $10,000 top prize in the Luck of the Zodiac contest has been won -- sometimes as long as two months before. Her legal action aims at ending the practice, also used by about half of the other 42 states with lotteries, reported the Los Angeles Times Sunday.
"The issue is: How long do you leave a ticket in the marketplace, knowing there may not be a top prize left but loads and loads of lower-tier prizes?" said David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
Colorado's lottery director, Jack A. Boehm, said his state's approach is to close games after the last top prize is claimed unless a "significant number" of lower level prizes remain.
"A lot of players don't play it for the jackpot. They play for the intermediate prizes," he said. "They get mad if we close a game too soon."
