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Oregon Lottery officials back bill to bar sale of winning tickets, cite fraud and collection gaps
Summary
Witnesses at the House Commerce and Consumer Protection hearing described a small but persistent secondary market for winning lottery tickets and urged clearer law and administrative tools to prevent fraud and avoid allowing winners to evade child‑support and other collections.
Chair Sosa opened a Jan. 30 public hearing on House Bill 3115, which would prohibit the purchase and sale of winning lottery tickets. The Oregon Lottery described the secondary market for tickets as small but real and urged clarifying statutory language and administrative fixes.
The lottery’s senior communications and policy manager, Matt Shelby, said the agency is neutral on the bill but supports clarification. “As a state agency, we’re neutral on the bill, but we do appreciate, Rep. Lively for continuing this discussion and bringing it forward,” Shelby said. He described several motivations for sellers: convenience, deception, and anonymity. Shelby said convenience drives sales when claiming requires travel to a payment center; video lottery jackpots of $1,500 or more must be claimed at a state payment center, and that requirement can motivate sellers who do not want to take time off work or pay for travel.
Shelby also described deceptive tactics: “someone in the bar you’re playing at gives you some false information, like the state’s going to take 70%…
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