Clicky

State Auditor General to Audit Pennsylvania Lottery - PennsylvaniaCasinos.com News : PennsylvaniaCasinos.com News
Audit
Published on
Update on

On Wednesday, November 4, Pennsylvania state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced that his office would be launching a performance audit on the state’s Revenue Department and the Pennsylvania Lottery. According to DePasquale, the performance audit will be laying some special emphasis on the study of the state-run lottery’s measures when it comes to protecting itself against fraud.

“Seniors, lottery players and the general public deserve to know if every dollar of those prizes was claimed in accordance with the law,” he said.

The decision by the office of the Auditor General to carry out the audit comes amidst some rather aggressive tracking of high-volume lottery prize winners. As it turns out, some of them were not genuine at all. Investigations from as early as 2017 found that some of the wins had some relations with illegal activity. To make it even worse, there were several instances where there was either non-existent or negligible oversight of the aforementioned irregularities.

In Pennsylvania, a small number of high-frequency winners have been discovered in recent times and these could be just the tip of the iceberg. The Pennsylvania Lottery has grown tremendously over the past two years and there is a huge possibility that illegal activities may have also grown with.

Protecting Older Adults

As mentioned earlier, the audit will be looking into the effectiveness of the Revenue Department’s anti-fraud policies, regulations, and procedures. The Auditor General stated that his main aim is “to protect older adults who rely on lottery-funded benefit programs.”

The Pennsylvania Lottery has previously assured the public that it is doing everything possible to catch fraudsters. In fact, after the Auditor General’s announcement, representatives from the state-run lottery said that they would work with Eugene DePasquale. This way, there will be enough information for them to carry out an effective audit. After that, they will root out any irregularities.

Commenting on the development, Ewa Dworakowski who is the Press Secretary for the Pennsylvania Lottery said that the lottery and the Revenue Department already have some safeguard in place to ensure everything works as expected.  However, they are open to receiving any assistance.

Other Concerns

Fraud and other financial irregularities aside, the Auditor General also intends to look into a number of other issues. One of the most notable ones being sexual harassment policies. This is mostly with regard to complaints raised at the Department of Revenue. The audit intends to weigh in on the issue by offering reviews of sexual harassment policies and procedures at the department.

Latest Headlines

Will Pennsylvania Be the Next Esports Betting Hotspot?

Pennsylvania could soon become the latest U.S. state to embrace esports betting, thanks to a newly proposed bill aimed at expanding the state’s regulated wagering market. State Representative Ed Neilson has introduced House Bill 1636, a legislative push that seeks to amend Pennsylvania’s 2017 Gaming Expansion Act to include esports betting. This is Neilson’s second […]

Pennsylvania Casinos Set for Modernization as Slot Machine Requirements Face Major Overhaul

Pennsylvania’s gaming industry is on the verge of a significant shift as Senate Bill 840 moves closer to becoming law. The bill, which recently passed in the state Senate, proposes reducing the mandatory minimum number of slot machines at Category 1 and 2 casinos from 1,500 to 1,000, offering operators much-needed flexibility to stay competitive […]

PA’s Skill Game Controversy Heats Up with Hundreds of Machines Removed

As it turns out, March was a big month for Pennsylvania’s gambling scene, but not for the usual reasons. Instead of new online casino launches or sportsbook promotions, the spotlight turned to a statewide crackdown on illegal gambling devices. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, in partnership with the Pennsylvania State Police, spearheaded a coordinated sweep […]

New Fanatics Casino App Now Live in Pennsylvania

Fanatics, best known for its sports merchandise empire, has officially launched its standalone online casino app for Pennsylvania players. The new platform allows direct access to casino games without needing to go through the Fanatics Sportsbook, marking a significant step in the company’s expansion into the Keystone State’s growing iGaming market. While the web version […]

WSOP Online Breaks New Ground with Four-State Network

The WSOP Online platform, operated by Caesars Entertainment, Inc., has broken new ground in the regulated US poker business by bringing together players from four different states. Now that Pennsylvania has joined Nevada, New Jersey, and Michigan in providing a common player pool across all four states, Caesars has positioned WSOP Online as the only site […]

Similar Stories in Gambling

Pennsylvania Lottery Wins Commercial Gambling Lawsuit

While Pennsylvania is certainly one of the most vibrant gambling markets in the United States, there has not been a shortage of issues plaguing various aspects of these operations. Most of them have been relatively easy to handle but some have dragged out for quite some time. One of the most notable ones is a […]

Online Gaming Elevates Pennsylvania Lottery’s Sales

Online gambling has proven to be quite a big deal during the duration of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, something that was a breath of fresh air for the gamblers and several gaming operators. Though unforeseen, the Pennsylvania Lottery has turned out to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the surge in online gambling traffic. […]

Pennsylvania Lottery Strives to Stay Afloat Amid Pandemic

Just like many other sectors of the Keystone State’s online gambling industry, the Pennsylvania Lottery has also been feeling the pinch. Needless to say, this is a pretty huge blow for the state especially considering how important the lottery is to social programs for older Pennsylvanians. The PA Lottery uses all of the revenue it […]

Cost of Pa.’s Search for A Lottery Partner Rises to $1.3M

For quite some time now, the Keystone State’s lottery has been searching for a partner that will serve both its games and gaming systems over the next decade. This search for partners has been both wildly controvertible and also quite costly. The cost can somehow be justified since it is reportedly going to pay at […]