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A Florida Lottery stand in a Pilot Travel Center in Waldo, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (Kaley Mantz\/Fresh Take Florida)<\/p>\nGAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Every day in stores across Florida, thousands of people pull out their wallets and purses to scratch a lottery ticket, hoping for a life-altering prize.<\/p>\n
Most lose.<\/p>\n
But some players won so frequently in recent years that luck alone can\u2019t explain their good fortune, lottery watchdogs and statisticians said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely some of these people are cheating, experts said, perhaps at the expense of other players, the government or family members in need. Among the known scams: Altering individual tickets, buying them on the cheap from people who want to mask their participation, or simply stealing large quantities of scratchers.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of following the rules \u2026 there\u2019s always going to be those characters that are trying to game the system,\u201d said Rob Kohler, a former official with the Texas Lottery.<\/p>\n
To investigate people who repeatedly cashed in Florida Lottery scratch-off tickets, Fresh Take Florida reporters analyzed a dataset of all wins of at least $600 from 2015 through mid-December 2025 \u2014 nearly 1.5 million records.<\/p>\n
Most people won big just once or twice during that 11-year span, reporters found.<\/p>\n
Others won time and again.<\/p>\n
According to Fresh Take Florida\u2019s analysis:<\/p>\n
Roughly 70 people have won 100 or more times since 2015. About a half dozen won 200 or more times, and one person won more than 300 times.<\/p>\n
The number of repeat big winners \u2013 some of whom won on 15 or more scratch-off tickets in a single year \u2013 surged since 2015, far outpacing the growth in total winners.<\/p>\n
Many players repeatedly beat baffling odds. In February 2023, an Orlando woman claimed 24 winning tickets. Sixteen times, she overcame odds of 1 in 4,000. Five times she overcame odds of 1 in 24,000. And three times she overcame odds of about 1 in 120,000.<\/p>\n
Some prolific winners cashed in tickets in bunches. A Panama City man cashed in two tickets on Jan. 3, 2024, then four more on Jan. 8. Four days later, he collected another four wins. And 10 days later, he turned in seven winning tickets. For the year, he redeemed 138 winning tickets \u2013 or more than two a week.<\/p>\n
Some top winners may not be the actual winners at all. Fresh Take Florida reporters reviewed nearly 100 criminal court cases dating back to 2015. The records describe players forging their names on tickets they didn\u2019t purchase or trying to resell winning tickets to avoid automatic withholdings, such as back taxes and child support.<\/p>\n
For nearly two months, reporters requested an interview with lottery officials.<\/p>\n
They declined.<\/p>\n
A Florida Lottery stand in a Pilot Travel Center in Waldo, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (Kaley Mantz\/Fresh Take Florida)<\/p>\n
The lottery did not have staff available to speak, spokeswoman Alecia Collins wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe Florida Lottery does not track individual player purchasing behavior; however, players who purchase tickets more frequently may experience more wins over time simply due to increased participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
But to win repeatedly, and legitimately, at a game with such terrible odds is hard to believe, said Ron Wasserstein, executive director of the American Statistical Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t check that they would win that many times, even with buying a very large number of scratch-off tickets,\u201d Wasserstein said. \u201cThe probability of that is so small as to make it unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luck or something else?<\/p>\n
In fiscal year 2024, the Florida Lottery was among the top lotteries in the country, with $9.4 billion in sales, 70% of which came from scratch-off tickets, according to its annual report.<\/p>\n
Fresh Take Florida reporters spent months analyzing a dataset of players in Florida who claimed big scratch-off prizes.<\/p>\n
Then reporters called dozens of the state\u2019s most prolific winners. Most refused to talk, hanging up immediately after reporters identified themselves. Others said they won because they played a lot and were lucky.<\/p>\n
But claiming just one big prize is hard. To win $1,000 on a scratch-off ticket, players typically have to beat odds of 1 in 1,500 or more, according to lottery records. The bigger the prize, the more difficult it is to win. For a prize worth $20,000, players often have to beat odds of 1 in 120,000.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible that the repeat wins that Fresh Take Florida reporters identified were legitimate, Wasserstein said.<\/p>\n
Maybe the winners bought tickets in bulk or played only the games where the big-ticket prizes remain unclaimed. Maybe they found winning tickets that were accidentally discarded. Maybe they\u2019re just that lucky.<\/p>\n
But maybe not.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if they are spending a lot of money on the lottery, it is very unlikely that they would win large prizes that many times,\u201d Wasserstein said.<\/p>\n
Ticket-cashing schemes do exist in Florida, according to watchdogs and a Fresh Take Florida review of court records.<\/p>\n
Some people simply steal tickets, court documents show.<\/p>\n
In Orlando in 2017, Laquaris Jackson reached over a convenience store counter and stole about 200 scratch-off tickets, a court affidavit said. Jackson told police that he took so many tickets that he asked strangers to help scratch them.<\/p>\n
Jackson was charged with dealing in stolen property and pleaded no contest. When reached via email, he did not comment.<\/p>\n
Others got more creative.<\/p>\n
Lottery officials knew something was fishy when Kira Enders tried to collect a $1 million prize from the Pensacola lottery office in 2024. The ticket she held was actually two tickets crudely taped together, court documents said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not true, Enders told lottery investigators, arguing the halves came from a single ticket. She said the ticket fell out of her car and was soaked by an overnight storm. When she tried to scratch it the next day, it ripped.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnders stated that she really thought the tickets belonged together and did not realize that they were different tickets despite the fact that they were obviously different,\u201d according to a warrant from the Escambia County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Enders was charged with presenting an altered state lottery ticket, forging a lottery ticket with intent to defraud and grand theft. She pleaded no contest and received two years of probation with adjudication withheld.<\/p>\n
Enders said the Florida Lottery blamed her for something she didn\u2019t do intentionally and has considered pressing charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be held accountable,\u201d Enders said. \u201cIf I had to do probation\u2026somebody should be held accountable at that office. How can they get away with this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Other illegal schemes are not as obvious.<\/p>\n
In some cases, players buy winning tickets from the original ticket owner. The buyers pay a fraction of the prize amount, usually because the owner wants to remain anonymous, said Dawn Nettles, a Texas Lottery watchdog.<\/p>\n
Some original ticket owners are drug users who need cash quickly or undocumented people who want to avoid government attention, said Skip Garibaldi, a mathematician and former professor at Emory University and UCLA who has investigated lotteries.<\/p>\n
Others owe back taxes or child support \u2013 debts that the state would garnish when the players tried to claim their prize.<\/p>\n
\u201cOftentimes, Florida Lottery players and retailers purchase and redeem large tickets for other players to assist them with avoiding taxes and other State-Owed Debt,\u201d a Florida Lottery investigator wrote in a 2018 warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n
In 2021, in an Escambia County convenience store, Milan Khatri attempted to purchase what he thought was a winning ticket from a Florida Lottery investigator.<\/p>\n
Khatri approached the undercover officer who had just presented the store\u2019s clerk with a fake $1,000 winning ticket, court records show.<\/p>\n
He told the officer he would buy the winning ticket from the officer \u2014 saving the agent a trip to a lottery office, where winners claim big prizes, according to a criminal report from the lottery. The officer agreed, and Khatri paid him $700.<\/p>\n
Khatri pleaded guilty to offering to transfer the right to claim a lottery prize, a misdemeanor. Following his arrest, Khatri told officers that he had twice bought winning tickets from players.<\/p>\n
Lottery records show Khatri claimed 10 winning tickets worth a combined $10,000 between 2019 and 2021.<\/p>\n
He could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Two bills in the Florida Legislature last session sought to crack down on lottery scams.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers this year proposed companion bills that would have increased the penalty for lottery fraud, making it a third-degree felony for players and retailers who falsify documents or engage in other scams. Both bills died in committee.<\/p>\n
Avoiding child support, taxes<\/p>\n
These scams hurt real people. Sometimes they\u2019re the people who need help the most.<\/p>\n
Last year, Aubrey Pierce walked into a 7-Eleven in north Tampa, plopped down $50, and walked out with a $25,000,000 Gold Rush Multiplier scratch-off ticket.<\/p>\n
The maroon ticket with gold letters and sparkles that looked like gold nuggets had beaten odds of roughly 1 in 120,000 and held a $20,000 prize.<\/p>\n
But Pierce owed $70,000 in child support, according to a report from the Office of the State Attorney.<\/p>\n
If Pierce tried to cash the ticket himself, he\u2019d get nothing. The entire amount, about $15,000 after taxes, would go to the mothers of his children, the report said.<\/p>\n
So Pierce gave the ticket to his longtime friend, Keith O\u2019Connor, the City of Tampa\u2019s neighborhood enhancement manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy O\u2019Connor cashing the ticket instead of Pierce, Pierce was able to avoid paying child support from the winnings,\u201d the state attorney\u2019s report said. \u201cAs a result of these actions, the mothers of Pierce\u2019s children did not receive funds from the winnings to which they were entitled.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor was fired after investigators uncovered the exchange. But the attorney\u2019s office said it found no evidence that he knowingly tried to help Pierce avoid paying child support.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor, who was also a former deputy chief of police for the City of Tampa, thought Pierce was paying the maximum child support and that he was not obligated to pay any more, said O\u2019Connor\u2019s attorney, Ralph Fernandez.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said O\u2019Connor was fired because he was a city leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this had been anybody else, they would have done nothing about it,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
Pierce could not be reached for comment, and the mother of at least one of his children declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The first time Julio Vicente Nunez of Santa Rosa Beach in the Panhandle played the lottery, he won $500, he said. He\u2019s been playing ever since.<\/p>\n
Nunez, who owns a construction company, claimed 100 scratch-off tickets worth $179,000 between 2015 and mid-December 2025, according to lottery data.<\/p>\n
He bought nearly all the tickets himself, Nunez told a Fresh Take Florida reporter. But, on two occasions, he claimed a $1,000 ticket for someone who wanted to remain hidden, possibly someone who owed back taxes, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you owe taxes to the IRS, they\u2019re going to take it from there, right there,\u201d Nunez said. \u201cIf you owe the government a penny, they\u2019re going to take it \u2026 That\u2019s why so many people, they don\u2019t cash them themselves. They know they owe money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how Nunez said he cashed in the tickets he didn\u2019t buy:<\/p>\n
Someone Nunez knew, who didn\u2019t want to show up on the government\u2019s radar, approached him. He offered Nunez $500 for a winning $1,000 ticket.<\/p>\n
Nunez took the deal, claimed the ticket and paid about $300 in taxes. He walked away with roughly $200.<\/p>\n
Nunez has made many visits to lottery offices, data show. Since 2015, he has visited a claim center 84 times.<\/p>\n
He claimed three winning tickets last July alone. Two tickets beat odds of worse than 1 in 5,000, and one beat odds of worse than 1 in 9,000, data show.<\/p>\n
Nunez has not been charged with any lottery-related crimes.<\/p>\n
Neither has George Bunassar of Miami, who visited a lottery office almost twice as often as Nunez, data show.<\/p>\n
He claimed big-winning tickets every month last year, sometimes multiple times per month, Fresh Take Florida found.<\/p>\n
Since 2016, Bunassar has cashed in 178 winning scratch-off tickets, worth $251,000. Only 11 people in Florida have cashed in that many tickets since 2015.<\/p>\n
Bunassar, a real estate agent, said he sometimes buys 10 tickets at a time and has bought entire books of tickets before. A book can include dozens or a few hundred tickets, depending on the game.<\/p>\n
Bunassar called playing the lottery a habit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I can afford it, I buy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nettles, the lottery watchdog, said scratch-off tickets are addictive. She\u2019s seen players spend their last dollar on a ticket, then take their winnings to buy more tickets.<\/p>\n
Garibaldi, the mathematician, estimated that Bunassar would have to spend at least $1,500 a day since 2021 to win as often as he did. That\u2019s roughly $4.9 million total.<\/p>\n
But he wondered if that\u2019s how Bunassar won so often.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, you could be rich, and yes, you could have a gambling problem,\u201d Garibaldi said. \u201cThat could be true, but it\u2019s probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alissa Gary contributed to this reporting. This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be reached at jjankowski1@ufl.edu and arobbert@ufl.edu. You can donate to support our students here.<\/p>\n
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