Florida Lottery Fraud Signals Raise Questions for Treasure Coast Retailers

A statewide investigation by Fresh Take Florida has identified dozens of lottery retailers and their relatives collecting an implausible share of scratch-off prize money — a pattern that statisticians and lottery watchdogs say points toward systematic fraud at the counter, not extraordinary luck.

The findings carry direct implications for Treasure Coast players. Whether similar patterns exist at licensed lottery retailers in Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties remains unconfirmed. The TC Sentinel has filed a public records request with the Florida Lottery seeking retailer-winner overlap data for all three counties. [NEEDS VERIFICATION: No local retailer or player has yet been identified in the statewide dataset; FOIA response is pending.]

The Fresh Take Florida data, drawn from nearly 1.5 million winning scratch-off claims between 2015 and mid-December 2025, found that roughly 50 store owners statewide cashed in at least half of their store's winning tickets — all worth $600 or more, the federal reporting threshold. At least 30 licensed retailers claimed 50 or more such winners. Combined, lottery store owners collected more than $26 million over that period.

The investigation profiled Akil P. Patel of Boca Raton, who cashed 358 tickets worth $600 or more since 2015 — nearly 300 of them at a Delray Beach market owned by his uncles. His total take from that store alone exceeded $500,000. Will Cipolli, an associate professor of mathematics at Colgate University who reviewed the data, said reaching that win total through legitimate play would require purchasing more than 1.8 million tickets.

"It's more reasonable that something unusual is happening in the background than this would happen at random," Cipolli told Fresh Take Florida.

In Fort Myers, Nurul Islam — owner of Sky Food Mart — cashed 118 winning tickets worth a combined $234,000, representing 45% of his store's total big winners since 2015. Islam said he buys books of tickets in bulk and attributes his record to that habit.

Dawn Nettles, who has monitored the Texas Lottery since 1992, offered a different explanation. She said the most common fraud scheme involves store clerks scanning customer tickets before returning them as apparent losers, then claiming the prizes themselves.

"The player doesn't know he's won, and they tell him it's a loser," Nettles said. "And then they take it and cash it in."

None of the individuals named in the Fresh Take Florida investigation have been charged with wrongdoing. Patel, Islam, and others either denied cheating or did not respond to requests for comment. Florida Lottery officials declined interview requests throughout the reporting process.

In a written statement, lottery spokeswoman Alecia Collins said the agency's Division of Security "monitors retailer activity, reviews complaints, and works with the State Attorney's Offices when needed," and that "appropriate administrative, civil, or criminal actions are taken, including arrests, prosecutions, and retailer contract terminations where applicable."

That statement does not address how many Treasure Coast retailers have been reviewed, disciplined, or terminated under the Retailer Integrity Program. [NEEDS VERIFICATION: Florida Lottery has not provided district-level enforcement data for Martin, St. Lucie, or Indian River counties.]

The Florida Legislature has not passed a bill this session imposing new disclosure requirements on lottery retailers or mandating algorithmic audits of winner-retailer overlap data. [NEEDS VERIFICATION: Confirm whether any active legislation addresses lottery retailer fraud in the 2025 session — bill number, sponsor, and committee status required before publication.]

For Treasure Coast players who hand their tickets to a store clerk for scanning, the risk described in the Fresh Take Florida investigation is not theoretical. It is a transaction that happens thousands of times a day at gas stations, convenience stores, and delis across the region.

The TC Sentinel will report the results of its public records request upon receipt.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.