Jarett Heindel, a server at a Boise restaurant, spends much of his free time chasing down hidden fortunes across the state.
The 30-year-old and his friend developed a strategy for playing the Idaho Lottery’s scratch-off games, which cost between $1 and $20 each and offer top prizes of $1,000 to $250,000. The games are sold at 1,000 retailers across the state.
Playing lottery games is gambling, but Heindel says he sees it as something more.
“It’s almost like an investment in yourself,” he said. “The more we buy, the more our odds go up. It’s still a risk, but it’s a calculated risk.”
His proof it works? He and his friend won $27,000 in September on Jukebox Bingo, a $3 scratch-off game. They bought the winning ticket in the rural Elmore County town of Hammett.
Their strategy is to wait until 97 percent or more of a game has been sold — the Lottery updates sales on its website — then call stores across the state to see who has the game left. List in hand, they hit the road.
“We’ve spent hundreds of hours, driving around buying tickets,” Heindel said of road trips to Coeur d’Alene, Rupert and “almost to Yellowstone.” “It’s a lot of work,” he said. “It almost consumes your life.”
“It’s like a race to find it before someone else does,” Heindel said of the modern-day treasure hunt.
Heindel and his buddy thought they were close to getting several winning scratch-off games last week, when they heard the Lottery had pulled the games. The games in question were Cashtown, Goldfish, Vault Buster and Lucky Dog.
“We spent all this money and time, and all of the sudden you’re just going to pull this game out from underneath us,” Heindel said. “It was very, very frustrating and disheartening.”
But Idaho Lottery officials say they didn’t “pull” the games. They just announced the games had ended — not because all the top prizes had been claimed but because they had no more tickets to distribute to retailers.
Though the games are officially considered over, the tickets left in stores are still available for sale, and players can claim prizes for those games through July 2, said Lottery spokesman David Workman.
Once the top prizes are claimed, the games are pulled from retailers’ shelves.
Lottery officials don’t recommend that players use Heindel’s strategy, which they believe is flawed.
“Just because a (winning) ticket hasn’t been claimed doesn’t mean it hasn’t been sold,” Workman said. Sometimes it takes a while for people to claim their prizes, or even realize they have a winning ticket.
Nevertheless, a lot of prize money has yet to be claimed on the four scratch-off games that ended last week:
• Cashtown: One of two top prizes of $3,000 has yet to be claimed.
• Goldfish: One of two top prizes of $4,000 has yet to be claimed.
• Lucky Dog: One of three top prizes of $10,000 has yet to be claimed.
• Vault Buster: Neither of two top prizes of $10,000 has been claimed.
The Idaho Lottery has between 26 and 32 scratch-off games running at any given time. It issues between 500,000 and 900,000 of the $1 and $2 tickets.
Most games are on the market for about 30 weeks, and top prizes are randomly seeded through the game run.
Players have 180 days to claim their prizes after the official end date.
It’s not uncommon for top prizes in scratch games to go unclaimed. Last year, $1.47 million went unclaimed. The money goes into the annual dividend, which benefits Idaho schools.
Katy Moeller: 377-6413
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