Ombudsman: Iowa Lottery Should Focus On Fraud

MICHAEL J. CRUMB

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state ombudsman's office released a report Tuesday that criticizes the Iowa Lottery for failing to protect its customers from fraud and theft by retailers.

The 210-page report includes 60 recommendations for improving customer security and retailer accountability.

"In general, the Ombudsman found that the lottery has maintained a weak, reactive enforcement system that fails to detect retailer dishonesty independently of customer complaints," Ombudsman Bill Angrick said in a news release that accompanied the report.

The report was the result of a year-and-a-half investigation prompted by cases in Canada where retailers won a disproportionately large number of prizes, sometimes by defrauding customers.

Angrick's office reviewed three years of lottery investigations and found numerous customer complaints that went unexplored.

"Many of these were the types of cases where the lottery investigator would need to 'make the case,'" the report said. "Most of the time they didn't even try."

The report also said that even when the lottery discovered cases of fraud or theft by retailers, the retailer wasn't held accountable.