Massachusetts has a new rule to stop repeat winners — but so far, they keep winning

Nov 12, 2018, 2:59 pm (19 comments)

Massachusetts Lottery

He's done it again, and not just for the second, third or even 10th time. For the 1,246th time this year, Ali Jaafar has hit it big on the lottery.

State records show that since Jan. 1 the Watertown, Massachusetts, man has won more than $1.8 million from lottery retailers all around Massachusetts — with most of his riches coming from scratch tickets revealing $1,000 prizes. Jaafar is on track to be the winningest lotto player in Massachusetts for a third consecutive year, and nothing yet seems to be getting in his way when it comes to winning.

Not a streak of bad luck. And not a new state policy designed with the specific purpose of cracking down on people who rake in large lottery prizes with what many see as remarkable frequency — winners just like Jaafar.

Announced last year, the policy went into effect, after a delay, on July 27. It allows lottery officials to investigate — and ultimately penalize — anyone who wins 20 or more lottery prizes valued at $1,000 or more within a calendar year. If the lottery director determines a person's lucky streak is "factually or statistically improbable," the new policy allows the lottery to freeze the player's payouts for months.

Lottery records reveal, however, that the players with the highest frequency of winning are still collecting tremendous wins, despite the policy.

Letter of the law

On Aug. 14, the lottery sent letters to 54 people it says "fit the definition of 'high-frequency prize winner' " to let them know about the new policy and its consequences, lottery records show.

"We are enforcing the policy immediately," reads the letter signed by lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney.

The lottery declined multiple requests for an interview and instead asked that questions be submitted via email.

"Implementing this policy is a major step forward in addressing potential issues of money laundering and other illegal activities and the potential avoidance of outstanding child support liabilities, and taxes and fees owed to the Commonwealth," Sweeney said in his emailed responses Monday, adding that the policy "remains a top compliance issue for me."

Since the policy took effect, Jaafar, each of his two sons and at least 10 others have individually won enough to trigger a potential hold on their awards. All of those individuals, except for one, were sent letters notifying them of the policy. But, for those 13 people, lottery records show the agency did not suspend their prizes.

Together, those frequent winners — who could have had their prizes withheld under the new policy — have won about $1.7 million from July 27 to Oct. 9.

Gregory Sullivan, research director at the Pioneer Institute and the state's former inspector general from 2002 to 2012, has researched vulnerabilities in the lottery in the past.

"There is a phenomenon in state lotteries," he said, "where certain individuals defy all laws of probability and statistics" with the rate of their success. He explained that often, people who frequently cash in lottery tickets aren't winners at all — but are instead collecting wins on behalf of others trying to evade taxes.

The lottery's Sweeney also says he believes it is likely frequent cashers are not actually winning — but cashing in wins for others.

"This is a well-known problem, you know, not just in Massachusetts," Sullivan said in a phone interview Tuesday. "But it is a well-known problem in Massachusetts, and it has been for some time."

He called the Jaafar family's wins "astounding" — "especially [because they're] in one family."

600 wins since policy went into effect

Ali Jaafar won 256 times and collected more than half a million dollars since the policy began. That's an average of nearly three and a half wins of at least $600 every day.

The 60-year-old's two sons, Mohamed and Yousef Jaafar, share their father's winning ways. In that same period, 28-year-old Mohamed has won 190 times, and 25-year-old Yousef, 158 times.

The three Jaafar men are the state's top three lottery winners between July 27 and Oct. 9, together winning a total of 604 times for more than $970,000, records show.

Four hundred and sixty-four of the Jaafar family's wins in that period were made after Aug. 14, the day the lottery sent letters to frequent winners alerting them to the new policy.

This total includes the family's significant winnings on Sept. 5. Within that single day, the three men won 33 times for a total of $35,500 in places all around the state. Ali Jaafar purchased his winning tickets that day in Oak Bluffs, Lexington, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Somerville and West Roxbury.

2018 will be a memorable one for the Jaafars. The trio has won close to $3 million so far this year, with more than 2,000 wins in over 700 locations. They have won the lottery in 40 percent of the state's towns and cities where the lottery can be played.

"I don't want to speak. Nor do I care what you guys have to make up," Ali Jaafar told a reporter Wednesday morning before hanging up his phone. He asked the reporter not to call again before hanging up a third time.

'Why is the practice continuing?'

Sweeney said the lottery "will not comment on any specific individual."

Instead, he focused on the new policy, saying a review is now triggered whenever a person wins 20 $1,000-plus prizes in a calendar year. "The policy allows for an internal review of a high-frequency prize winner prior to making any determination or imposing any penalty. We have an active pathway on these issues, have implemented them and will continue to do so," Sweeney said in the email.

Sullivan, the former state inspector general, says the policy is a wise step, but he questions its effectiveness. He questions what happened to the crackdown.

"If there are people out there who are acting as illegal agents, cashing lottery tickets for other people for the purpose of evading taxes, for example, then that should be shut down," Sullivan said. "And the lottery has adopted a new reg[ulation] that allows them to initiate investigations and notify the people, which they have reportedly done. But the question is, why is the practice continuing?"

The lottery says it is working with the IRS as well as federal and state law enforcement agencies, including the Massachusetts State Police, in "ongoing investigations."

"We are acting with caution to ensure we do not jeopardize those investigations," Sweeney said. "Our goal is to make a lasting impact."

"In other words, they want to catch them in the act," Sullivan said in response to Sweeney's comment. "... It seems to me they'd be able to investigate [the Jaafars] earlier, but ... now that the regulation is in effect and people are notified, it is possible that they have the state police investigating this with the names."

Sweeney insists the lottery "games are as, if not more, secure than ever before," and frequent winners are not changing the odds of winning for anyone else.

A separate case in New Jersey

"Thank you," Yousef Jaafar replied, when a reporter spoke to him in the doorway of his family's four-bedroom home Saturday morning and said he appeared to be a "really lucky person." He confirmed he studied business analytics in college and did marketing for his father's company, a business registered with the state as Assorted Phone Cards, Inc.

He declined to speak about his family's lottery wins or an ongoing racketeering case in New Jersey's Middlesex County Superior Court that prosecutors have described as a "large-scale international bank fraud ring that operated a multi-million-dollar scheme to steal from banks and corporations." Yousef and Mohamed Jaafar — and the brothers' mother and sister — are among 46 people who have been indicted in the case, and the brothers have pleaded guilty.

"I know you called [a few months ago], I said, I didn't want to talk. There's no change from then and now. I don't want to talk. Thank you," he said. "Please. No one will want to talk. We're all set."

According to the 2016 indictment, prosecutors say the alleged criminal enterprise in New Jersey set up fake "entrepreneurial" businesses "expressly created to receive fraudulent wire transfers of money from unsuspecting victims." Those businesses, prosecutors say, were set up to launder money, often sending it overseas to China and other places.

The Jaafar brothers both pleaded guilty to a second-degree conspiracy to commit theft by deception charge.

They are both scheduled to be sentenced on May 3, 2019.

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Comments

music*'s avatarmusic*

"They are both scheduled to be sentenced on May 3, 2019." 

 Both passports have probably been surrendered. No chance to flee. 

 Looks like these lottery crimes are being taken seriously by the Massachusset's Lottery.

bigbuckswede

I say this every time. Go online and register all players like us in Sweden. Then this type of fake ”winners” will go away. From 1st of jan 2019 similar rules are also applied to horse racing in Sweden. You need to play with your drivers licence when you play at a store.

s5thomps's avatars5thomps

The Jaafar's are on to something. No one should win that much. Might be an inside job are they figured out a way to game the system. The article doesn't mention if it was Scratchers or Lotto tickets or a combination of both. States normally list the amount of winners left in a particular game. Maybe they just check what winners are left in a particular game and buy in bulk.

oate's avataroate

This could all have been avoided if Mass Lottery had rewatched Aladdin and remembered that Jafar was the bad guy.

noise-gate

Why do l have this vision of Ali & his Sons driving throughout the State, in vans, all tricked out with ATM machines. With signs on the side stating" We pay cash for winning lottery & scratch off tickets."

..absolutely no questions asked!

Need200K

This has to be buying others winning tickets...Can't win again and again and that too from all over states..They seems to me like a Lottery winning ticket buyers

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

Something definitely not right with this.

One time in Vegas a Keno writer and her boyfriend had a plan to hit a Keno game for the max, $50,000 at the time. 

Here's how they got caught, not only did the try to past post the numbers drawn but they7 had the first 15 numbers drawn...up until the time no one had ever hit 15 numbers, not sure if anybody ever has as of yet. 

The Keno manager was called to verify the ticket and had security with him. 

Re: the Mass. lottery, doesn't Mass. have an awful lot of repeat winner wise guys winning draw games?

Bleudog101

Though Massachusetts isn't a big state per se, I know from growing up there that no way could Ali have bought all those tickets by himself.  I'm referring to a previous article about him getting tickets all over the place including Nantucket in one day I believe.  No way, been there and quite a ride out in the ocean to get there and back.  Now if it had been Martha's Vineyard that is significantly closer to land. 

Whatever he and family have going on I say go for it while you can.

Stack47

According to the 2016 indictment, prosecutors say the alleged criminal enterprise in New Jersey set up fake "entrepreneurial" businesses "expressly created to receive fraudulent wire transfers of money from unsuspecting victims." Those businesses, prosecutors say, were set up to launder money, often sending it overseas to China and other places.

The Jaafar brothers both pleaded guilty to a second-degree conspiracy to commit theft by deception charge.

I guess that's suppose to mean if you're related to a crook you must be a crook too?

noise-gate

The last time l checked, the genie of the lamp spent most of his time in Arabia.Jaffar is probably from that part of the world, or his ancestors are. All l am saying is: The lamp, was never found.Big Smile

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by s5thomps on Nov 12, 2018

The Jaafar's are on to something. No one should win that much. Might be an inside job are they figured out a way to game the system. The article doesn't mention if it was Scratchers or Lotto tickets or a combination of both. States normally list the amount of winners left in a particular game. Maybe they just check what winners are left in a particular game and buy in bulk.

I Agree! and they probably buy winning tickets at a discount too.

"Maybe they just check what winners are left in a particular game and buy in bulk."

A player in Texas did that by buying rolls of tickets in games that had lots of unsold large denomination winning tickets. The idea was the store would get more rolls of tickets giving them a better chance of getting a jackpot winner. The cost of play is more than than the average player is willing to spend and possibly what Jaafar is doing.

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

"no way could Ali have bought all those tickets by himself."

Maybe that's what will bring him down. If he files claims for just two tickets that he claims he bought himself but the time and location of the sales makes that impossible they can nail him for perjury at the least. It's not conclusive, but winning that much and not claiming to be a professional gambler suggest that he's not buying the tickets himself. Or perhaps that he has a bad accountant. If he does try to take advantage of the tax benefits of being a professional gambler he'll be setting himself up for federal charges.

That no legal action has been taken yet doesn't mean the net isn't getting tight.

lucky6025

He doesn't have to buy tickets,all he has to do is have anyone buy them and he pays for them...Gift...everyone buys tickets as gifts birthday/christmas any occassion, doesn't say you have to buy them just have to know where it was bought and maybe the buyer, so pretty hard to prove this is not what is going on.Yes i do believe he is buying winning tickets people don't want to turn in themselves for what ever reason,but with A good lawyer I think he could beat the Lottery.The Lottery pretty much plays the same game, large player pools (company/work group/relative) that win mega million/powerball One person claims ticket and pays taxes on it, then he has to pay others in pool, those people have to claim that money and pay taxes on that money. so State is double dipping , collecting taxes on same money twice.Other States allow pool players to have each pay seperate tax for each player on jackpot amount, so tax is equal to each person and tax only collected once. Way it should be.

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by lucky6025 on Nov 13, 2018

He doesn't have to buy tickets,all he has to do is have anyone buy them and he pays for them...Gift...everyone buys tickets as gifts birthday/christmas any occassion, doesn't say you have to buy them just have to know where it was bought and maybe the buyer, so pretty hard to prove this is not what is going on.Yes i do believe he is buying winning tickets people don't want to turn in themselves for what ever reason,but with A good lawyer I think he could beat the Lottery.The Lottery pretty much plays the same game, large player pools (company/work group/relative) that win mega million/powerball One person claims ticket and pays taxes on it, then he has to pay others in pool, those people have to claim that money and pay taxes on that money. so State is double dipping , collecting taxes on same money twice.Other States allow pool players to have each pay seperate tax for each player on jackpot amount, so tax is equal to each person and tax only collected once. Way it should be.

Your last sentence hit the nail on the head as far as paying pool players.  Here in KY, IN and I believe OH where I play they will cut separate checks.  Like you said the way it should be.  There's room for improvement in my home state IMO.   One cut separate checks and two get on-line gaming.

 

 

BTW Framingham is where I was born and grew up in Holliston.

 

Best of luck to you.

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