America’s Kurdish millionaire
A website gets locals to purchase tickets for international buyers.
PORTLAND, ORE.— The Oregon Lottery had a winner. But for more than three months, the $6.4-million (U.S.) jackpot went unclaimed. Then, on Dec. 1, an Iraqi man walked into the lottery office in Portland asking for his money. Lottery officials weren’t sure what to do. The ticket was indeed the winner. It had been purchased for $1 at a store in Bend, Ore. But the man, who lives in Baghdad, had bought it through the Lotter, a website that gives customers access to the 45 largest lotteries in the world by sending locals to buy the tickets.
“Is this legal?” Oregon Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said officials wondered. “Of all the what-ifs, we never imagined, ‘What if this guy from Iraq walks in?’ ”
In the end, the man was paid, but only after a review by the Oregon Justice Department and lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office in Portland. Federal law prevents ticket purchasers from other states from winning. A New Jersey police officer learned that lesson in 1994 when a Houston judge blocked his attempt to collect a $10.5-million jackpot from the Texas Lottery. But the law says nothing about international purchases.
The Lotter, which lists payment processing centres in Belize and Cyprus, does not list a telephone number and did not respond to emails seeking comment.
The site is one of several that allow customers to buy lottery tickets via computers or phones. The sites usually charge a small percentage of the cost of each ticket.
It took the Iraqi winner three months to get a U.S. visa to make the trip to Portland.
In an unprecedented move, lottery officials said they were not releasing the man’s name because he feared the newfound wealth would endanger his family in Iraq.
In his only interview, he told the Portland alternative newspaper Willamette Week that he is Kurdish, 37 years old, married with two sons and owner of a trading company in Iraq.