7 ms·

Years ago I had a friend who's father made a living smuggling cigarettes (and probably other stuff) from Northern Africa to Gibraltar. He laundered his income b

• Too 9y ago
  Where would one find sellers of winning lottery tickets? You must either be a store clerk or wait outside for people to cash them in?
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • dragandj 9y ago
    People who are genuine winners, for example? You pay them a premium for the ticket.
    • Too 9y ago
      Yeah? Where would one find genuine winners? It's not like there's an open market for this, and since winners are random people they are unlikely to be aware of black markets. Paying them a premium is obvious.
      • quuquuquu 9y ago
        Paying them a premium is not precisely accurate. A $100,000 lottery ticket would in the US involve 30-45k in taxes for an unmarried person. So I bet it would probably sell for around $75,000 cash up front, which is a decrease from the sticker price. But if I was the winner, I would treat it as extremely shady and probably just go the legit route for almost any price. The US banking system easily detects large cash deposits under 10k even into bank accounts, and then confiscates the money. And I don't really want to keep $75,000 cash in my mattress.
        • dragandj 9y ago
          But you're not the winner, and among winners, there are some willing to do the deal for some price. Even you. For example, you wouldn't want to keep $75K in your mattress. Would you keep $100K? $750K? A million?
        • icebraining 9y ago
          Couldn't you use a safe deposit box?
        • ringaroundthetx 9y ago
          > The US banking system easily detects large cash deposits under 10k even into bank accounts, and then confiscates the money. so you are conflating two concepts because first you are depositing $75,000 in this example. and no they don't confiscate it just because of that, they will freeze it because of your poor explanation. and if your explanation still sucks, the bank will unfreeze it and give you your money but close your account. it will appear confiscated if you can't accept your account being frozen and argue the point, which will only raise more flags from more people in the institution. but if your explanation was good, and by good I mean generic, then you won't encounter any problems. the deposits over $10,000 will be reported to the government, but then its just the government's problem, and if the transaction wasn't actually problematic then you don't have a problem.
          • e59d134d 9y ago
            He is probably talking about Asset Seizure by government for unexplained income.
            • ringaroundthetx 9y ago
              and he is also paranoid about it and conflating several concepts
      • thret 9y ago
        I'm not too sure about people who are winning scratchies or state lotteries, but there is a fairly well-regulated black market among high-stakes gamblers for losing horse-racing (etc.) tickets. You use them to lay off other winnings so that you don't pay tax. I imagine people looking to wash money also have a market for winning tickets. It's kind of perverse that Americans pay taxes on gambling AT ALL. The rake is already being taxed, so why tax the winners? It's criminal.
        • jamiek88 9y ago
          Yeah it’s double dipping. In the U.K. before they abolished taxes on gambling you has the choice at least. Pay the tax on the stake or the take.
        • kbutler 9y ago
          Lots of things are taxed in multiple ways. Income tax and sales tax, or employee and employer FICA for instance. The tax structure should generally be simpler, but choosing to tax or not tax particular activities is hardly criminal, especially if the intent is to reduce the attractiveness of those activities (tobacco and alcohol come to mind, in addition to gambling)
  • tomascot 9y ago
    Probably someone working on the place where you go to get the money.
  • freeflight 9y ago
    There are online services where you can buy lottery tickets from other countries. This works because not all lotteries require you to be a resident of the country [0]. I guess operations like these would have a pretty good dataset of players/winners approachable for some shady international money movements? [0] https://www.thebalance.com/can-non-us-residents-play-to-win-the-lottery-896646 https://www.thebalance.com/can-non-us-residents-play-to-win-...
  • cityhall 9y ago
    I remember reading about Puerto Rican mafia bosses doing this to show an explanation for how they could afford their lifestyles. It was either known in the community that winners could be sold for cash or they'd have a deal with the stores selling the tickets. Some tickets win big right away and others are brought back to the store for confirmation.
  • fergie 9y ago
    The extended family put the word out and people came to them. Presumably they paid a fee so that winners would get a larger payout.
• 2_listerine_pls 9y ago
  Fidel Herrera, a former Governor of a Mexican State, won the lottery twice.
• detritus 9y ago
  Are you sure it wasn't hashish from Morocco to Gibraltar, along with cigarettes from Gibraltar to Spain on the side? That was the general thing going on back in the 80s and 90s when all the cool dads had their own inflatable launch :)
  • fergie 9y ago
    This was the 80s-90s, and it could well have been as you say.