Ombudsman: Iowa Lottery Should Focus On Fraud

"What our investigation revealed is a pattern of indifference and incuriosity in an area where customers depend on government to protect their interests," Angrick said. "Unfortunately, when we sought to learn what was being done to prevent and police theft by lottery retailers, the answer we arrive at was 'not much.'"

Among the Ombudsman's recommendations are:

—Installing "ticket-checkers" at retailers, which allow customers to insert their tickets into a machine to find-out if they won, removing the clerk from the process.

—Changing Iowa law to prohibit retailers and store employees from buying and redeeming lottery tickets at their place of employment.

—Developing a mandatory e-registration system for all Iowa Lottery retailers that would require all retailers and employees to electronically register their names and other pertinent information before than get a code to operate an Iowa Lottery terminal.

—Modifying the winner claim form to include a question about whether the person is a "related-party"; begin tracking and analyzing higher-tier prizes by "related-parties"; and investigate any prize above a certain threshold when the winner is a "related party."