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jusmellow t1_jawut05 wrote

This is interesting. I didn't even know that was legal. I am now considering opening a business buys lottery tickets for non-citizens/non-residents. I never would have thought of that as a business idea, because I assumed only people in the State can buy the State lottery (citizens of said state)

Edit: just wanted to add -

Like it sounds scammy to me. If I bought someone else's lottery ticket for them and it was a winner winner chicken dinner worth 6.7 million.... well, not me, but someone weaker than me might ya know....not tell him it won and keep it

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Justforthenuews t1_jawy6j1 wrote

You can go to other states to buy their lotto, it’s not illegal in any way. If you set this up as a business, you probably wouldn’t have that much clientele after a few time of you just saying “no wins, better luck next time!” as a matter of course.

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angrymoderate09 t1_jax0e0y wrote

IF LEGAL?

There's fees to transfer money, so buyer would have to surcharge some level of fee... And then other expenses and profit.

But i could easily see someone scamming people... Buying one ticket and sending the same pic to 100 people who thought it was their exclusive ticket.

Shit could get shady fast, so I'd assume it's not legal.

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mallolike t1_jax1epb wrote

You won 3 million dollars! - the online agent probably

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BarneyRubbleRubble t1_jaxh6nw wrote

I live in aus and I have used them before, the lotto over there gets 100x bigger than here.. Odds are about the same, ticket price is the same..

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BlurLove t1_jaxl09i wrote

There is almost certainly federal law regulating this kind of situation. You can’t just send an amount that large overseas without declaration. It may be entirely unlawful to do so if the recipient, or their location, is subject to foreign asset control status.

Also, somebody likely owes some taxes, and it doesn’t matter whether he/she is stateside. Tax jurisdiction attached to the money the moment it was won.

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BlurLove t1_jaxl7qk wrote

Interstate commerce will differ from international commerce. The first has significantly lower barriers (freedom to do business between states, and travel between them). The second is tightly regulated.

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PuckSR t1_jay27g2 wrote

Pretty simple to keep honest. You assign me to buy a lottery ticket with numbers 1,2,3,4. I buy the ticket. You check the winning numbers.

This is why it works for lottery tickets but not other forms of gambling. The results are published

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Justforthenuews t1_jay2n7y wrote

Doesn’t affect lotteries from what I can tell, weirdly. I just googled a half dozen I know off the top of my head and they all said that as long as the ticket is purchased in the state (some required it to be claimed locally too). There doesn’t seem to be any other hard factors, including nationality, country of residence, or anything else that would seem relevant that I could find in a cursory search.

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Justforthenuews t1_jay3lt3 wrote

Lotteries give you a hard copy of your numbers and publicly draw the winning numbers. This person’s hypothetical business model implies they don’t actually give the numbers at all to the end client so they can lie to winners and pocket any winnings.

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xvier t1_jaya6b0 wrote

Not exactly. With Jackpocket, you can only purchase tickets for the state you are located in. And Jackpocket is only available in certain states - they have physically locations for each state they operate in, buying tickets per order.

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BlurLove t1_jaylen7 wrote

Take a look here. The issue isn’t buying the lotto ticket. The issue is sending the winnings overseas.

edit: more detail

Foreign asset control at the federal level is the regulation. You don’t have a fundamental right to send things or money out of the country. Only as allowed by law.

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BaconFairy t1_jaylnoz wrote

They should make non state residents unable to claim? Not sure how to make this right

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opiate_lifer t1_jaz38s2 wrote

I have non US friends who were absolutely floored lottery winnings are taxed in the US, looking into it not all nations tax lottery winnings.

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laineDdednaHdeR t1_jazdr33 wrote

Someone pays you to buy them a lottery ticket. That lottery ticket wins millions. And instead giving that person the winnings, you just run away with it and leave them high and dry.

How is that not a scam?

0

V6Ga t1_jazxfmp wrote

I am sorry to have to give you no credit for this answer as you did not state your units.

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Informal_Baker t1_jb0ucoc wrote

You pay for the ticket with a debit card on Visa or MasterCard network, 3% at the absolute horrifically worst then get your winnings wired. So like $10.30. Once again, you're going to loose A LOT more on exchange rate changes than any money moving fee.

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SteelyDan1968 t1_jb1847e wrote

You can buy a Powerball/Mega Millions in other states. But, you can't cash them out in the state where you are at. If I bought a PB/MM in Texas and drove home to Chicago, and I found out that I won, I would have to go back to Texas to get my winnings. The systems are different.

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