BALTIMORE CITY MAN GUILTY OF PRESENTING AN ALTERED TICKET TO THE MARYLAND STATE LOTTERY AGENCY FOR $175,000

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today the guilty plea of John Gilbert, Jr., 19, to presenting an altered Maryland State Lottery ticket for payment. The charge, which was filed in the District Court of Maryland on July 1, 2004, arose from the defendant presenting an altered lottery ticket on January 12, 2004 in an attempt to receive $175,000 from the state lottery. Gilbert pieced together the top half of a losing Mega Millions lottery ticket with the bottom half of a ticket containing the winning numbers that he manually played a day after the drawing. He took the ticket to the Maryland State Lottery Agency and demanded the $175,000 pay out.

Investigators immediately knew the claim for money was fraudulent based on apparent discrepancies between the top half and the bottom half of the newly formed ticket. Gilbert, however, would not accept the news that his ticket was altered. Instead, he continued to push for the money. Finally, after being confronted with Maryland State Lottery Agency drawing records, Gilbert conceded that he did in fact alter the ticket in an attempt to take the $175,000. In the District Court of Maryland today, the Honorable Jack Lesser sentenced Gilbert to 6 months probation during which he has to complete 50 hours of community service.

The case was investigated by the Maryland State Lottery Agency, the Maryland State Police and the Office of the Attorney General. It was prosecuted by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Attorney General’s Office.

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