Grand Prairie man is a victim of flawed Texas Lottery system

By BOB RAY SANDERS

When the Texas Lottery Commission last summer announced Pankaj Joshi of Euless as the state’s newest millionaire, the formal press release noted:

"Joshi requested minimal publicity."

We all know now why the million-dollar lottery winner did not want much media coverage.

The convenience store clerk actually had taken a customer’s winning ticket — telling the patron it was worth $2 — cashed it in and apparently left the country for his native Nepal, according to a commission investigator, Austin police and a Travis County grand jury that indicted him on a charge of cashing a lottery prize by fraud.

Lottery officials and police have identified the rightful purchaser of the winning ticket as Willis Willis of Grand Prairie, who bought his Mega Millions card May 29 at the Lucky Food Store.

Police have evidence that Willis went through his normal payday routine that evening by cashing his check and buying two Cash 5 tickets and one Mega Millions ticket.

It was a month later that Joshi, the clerk who scanned Willis’ ticket, presented it to the lottery commission, which in turn electronically sent $750,000 (the full sum minus taxes) to Joshi’s bank account.

This is simple, right? A faithful customer of the lottery wins $1 million, but is defrauded by an agent of the lottery commission (a clerk at a store that sells lottery tickets) and everyone knows the truth.

So, Willis should get his winnings while law enforcement pursues an alleged criminal that the Austin Police Department says is "a fugitive from justice."

But that’s not what happened.

The lottery commission still is declaring Joshi the winner because he signed the ticket and redeemed it.

That is what Willis was told when he and his lawyer went to the commission headquarters on East Sixth Street in Austin last week to ask why the rightful owner of the ticket could not be awarded his winnings.

"It’s unfathomable," said Austin attorney Sean Breen, who is representing Willis.

To add insult to injury, Breen said, when he and his client prepared to leave the commission’s general counsel’s office, they were told, "Excuse me, you can’t leave. We have security here and you have to be escorted out of the building."

Breen said he and Willis left wondering, "Where was the security when they let a man walk out with a million dollars of stolen money?"

There is something rotten on Austin’s Sixth Street, and it is not a keg of beer gone sour.

I understand that the commission doesn’t want to get in the middle of disputes between spouses, friends or co-workers who claim sole or joint ownership of tickets they personally did not redeem. Perhaps that should be left up to the civil courts to sort out.

But in the case of a fraudulent act by a store clerk who has been entrusted to dutifully execute the sales, some disbursements and policies of the commission, then the true purchaser of a winning ticket should be awarded his full prize regardless.

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