This would've never happened in the EU or the US. You send someone to the closest ATM and the guy with the winning ticket gets paid on the spot. IN the EU they would've called cops on you right there when you said you don't have money.
Then the guy hires thugs to help him redeem his winnings of $200? Where I live those guys would charge at least $100 each for help. Nobody would come to your aid and risk a 2 day stay in jail for a few bucks.
It definitely does happen in the USA.
In the city I used to live in, there was a basketball court next to a small skate park. There was a guy playing basketball who had a gold necklace from his deceased grandma. He put the necklace on the ground with his things when he was playing basketball, so it wouldn't get damaged or broken. When he came back, his gold necklace was gone. Someone had stolen it.
There were words exchanged and some type of altercation. The guy with the missing necklace left the basketball courts. Then he returned with 2 truckloads of thugs. And a big brawl broke out. Don't remember if he ever found his missing necklace but it was the talk of the town for awhile.
When I was in high school, there was a student who brought a gun to school who was showing it to his friends in class. When school ended, there was a helicopter flying above the school which was very unusual. The student with the gun was taken down by police, at the bus stop. Within a few minutes of him being arrested, a few carloads of thugs showed up as if to show moral support for their arrested gun touting member, but they didn't do anything.
The US doesn't allow for those types of small lotteries to be operated by independent buisness owners. It can only be done illegally, under the table. Which there definitely is a lot of underground illegal gambling that is known to happen. That could be the main reason, we haven't heard similar stories from the USA.
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Was the reason behind them not paying out winning tickets on time discovered? Fast payouts is something gamblers definitely favor. It they can't payout winning tickets on time. It could indicate they're having trouble with credit or liquidity. The smart move is to take business somewhere else.
On the opposite end, lotteries should probably not allow someone to exceed credit to a point where they owe $5. That could cross the line into hustling. They could never payout winnings and simply offer credit to every winning gambler, until all of them turn into a losing gamblers. And it would be more of a hustle and scam than a legitimate business.