Italian prosecutors allege former Lottomatica employees targeted lottery jackpots

Five people who previously worked for Lottomatica are accused by Italian prosecutors of exploiting their access to company systems to find scratch-off Gratta e Vinci tickets that were certain to win. In connection with the case, €25m has been seized by the authorities. The allegations have not been established, and the defendants are entitled to the presumption of innocence. It is for a court to determine whether the preventive measures should stand.

Prosecutors say the group wrote software of its own design that pinpointed four winning tickets worth €24m in total. That method, the allegations continue, allowed them to find the highest-value tickets and the shops to which those tickets had been sent, after which relatives and acquaintances were dispatched to buy them. The prosecution maintains that no physical interference with the tickets took place, since the scheme is said to have relied purely on manipulating data. Each of the five is described as having IT skills and as having logged into the servers with corporate credentials belonging to them.

The prosecution's position is that knowing in advance where the wins would land stripped the lottery of its chance element, which in its view made the jackpots void. During the investigation, police froze the bulk of the assets tied to the five suspects. Officers also took 25 properties located in a number of Italian provinces, plus cars, motorcycles and assorted financial accounts, all held for the length of the probe.

A long legal road lies ahead for the five accused. The court found their defence statements unconvincing, according to the report, and responded by issuing a formal summons to appear while asking for the assets to be seized. Lottomatica holds the state licence to run the lottery in Italy and answers for its games.