CLEVELAND — News 5 Investigators uncovered the Ohio Lottery is looking into “potential fraud” in its Keno game. The questions surround a Keno promotion for the month of September that abruptly stopped after the second week.
“Keno and I…we get along pretty well. It’s been good to me,” said Carrie Herman from Medina.
She contacted the News 5 Investigators when the Keno promotion changed.
“I don’t typically leave work and go straight to the Keno machine at 4 o’clock on a Tuesday,” said Herman. “I did that because of the promo.”
WHAT IS KENO? WHAT WAS THE PROMOTION?
Keno can be played at bars, restaurants, and gas stations, where every few minutes random numbers are drawn, and if some of your chosen numbers match them, you win.
Herman showed us an ad that stated every Tuesday in September, from 4 to 5 p.m., all Keno tickets purchased with a Booster would receive a Double Booster, meaning more money if you win.
“People probably play more aggressively than they would…spending more money per ticket for a longer amount of time,” said Herman.
By the third Tuesday, Herman told us she bought tickets but didn’t know the Ohio Lottery had altered the promotion from all boosted tickets to one in every 20 tickets.
“I didn’t receive an email,” said Herman. “I double checked my email that I have hooked up to the account.”
Keno player Keith Tarski from Cleveland’s west side wasn’t happy either. “It was a little disappointing and people were kind of surprised that they changed it mid-stream like that,” said Tarski.
LOTTERY: 'SUSPICIOUS PURCHASING'
We asked the Ohio Lottery what happened. Its original statement was somewhat vague, referring to “irregularities” and the “integrity” of the Keno game. So, we didn’t stop there. We continued to ask the Lottery, the governor’s office, and the Ohio AG for more details.
The Lottery then wouldn’t go on camera but did say it “observed suspicious purchasing activity in the first two weeks…that couldn’t be ignored,” and that it’s “looking into this as potential fraud.”
We asked if someone had hacked into the system. The Lottery said no and that it “cannot comment further (on the) on-going investigation.”
TRIED TO INFORM PLAYERS, NOT ALL GOT MESSAGE
It also said it tried to inform players of the promo change in several ways, including its app, website, social media, and so forth. But Herman showed us an ad for every Tuesday, all the tickets were still on the machine when she bought her tickets the third week.
The potential fraud now under investigation left players frustrated. “(Before knowing about the change) there’s already people that put like $40, $50, $60 bucks off the rip hoping to catch something big,” said Tarski.
“By the time I got home, I looked at them and realized that none of (my tickets) were Double Boosted,” said Herman.
The Ohio Lottery told us it’s heard from players who feel the promotional change was because people were winning too much, but it said that is not the case.
