Ohio Lottery's biggest winners unable to cash out in person after cybersecurity incident

Edward Riley first tried to cash in his $1,000 Ohio Lottery scratch-off winner this week at Giant Eagle in Ravenna, but grocery workers told him they don’t handle winners that large and sent him to a casino.

The 85-year-old Portage County man next headed 20 miles east to Hollywood Gaming at the Mahoning Valley Race Course but crapped out there, too.

A “cybersecurity incident” at the Ohio Lottery on Christmas Eve has indefinitely thrown that service offline at the state’s casinos, racinos and all of its  “Super Retailers,” leaving big lottery winners in a lurch.

Riley — and anyone else trying to cash in an Ohio Lottery ticket worth more than $599 — has only two options at the moment: Mail the ticket into the Ohio Lottery Central Office in Cleveland (and risk it getting lost or stolen en route) or use an Ohio Lottery smartphone app that direct deposits money into winners’ bank accounts.

Riley opted for the phone app but said he’s not tech savvy and it took him four hours to figure it out. And, because it’s his first time depositing winnings through the app, he’ll have to wait another 10 days to get his money.

“I’m 85. I can’t wait forever,” Riley said Thursday.

He's frustrated that people who sell and cash lottery tickets aren’t warning players about the cybersecurity incident.

“People who play the lottery need to know what’s going on,” Riley said.

But cashing in may be the least of Ohio lottery players’ concerns.

“We now have reason to believe that an unauthorized third-party obtained access to information belonging to our customers and retailers,” the Ohio Lottery said in a press release that has been repeatedly updated since the Dec. 24 cybersecurity incident.

The Ohio Lottery has advised customers and retailers to be on the lookout for identity theft and fraud. It’s also advising people that they can help protect themselves by placing a fraud alert or security freeze on credit files by contacting Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit agencies.

It’s unclear, however, if the person or group behind the computer hack has used anyone’s information.

“While the cybersecurity investigation is ongoing, the state wants to reiterate that if any consumer data was compromised, it will take all measures to provide a credit monitoring service to protect Ohioans,” the Lottery has said.

The Ohio Lottery said it would notify any impacted customers as “quickly as possible and in accordance with applicable laws.”

Gambling through Ohio Lottery machines and tickets remains safe, it said, because its machines and technology were not impacted by the cybersecurity incident.

The problem with big payouts appears to be tied to Ohio Lottery officials’ efforts to mitigate the threat by taking some of its systems offline.

It’s not clear when casinos and other authorized facilities will have the ability again to pay out winnings over $599, but players have a limited time to cash in.

Winners have 180 days to claim prizes from an Ohio Lottery drawing or the date a scratch-off game is scheduled to close.

The Ohio Lottery has not provided detailed information about the security breach and who may be behind it. But the agency is continually updating information here: https://ohiolottery.com/security

Riley, meanwhile, said he is lucky because he doesn’t need his $1,000 immediately.

But others, he said, depend on getting their winnings instantaneously, noting he’s known gamblers who have died by suicide over money.

Riley said he won the $1,000 playing a $50 scratch-off game called Billions. The top prize in that game is $1 million a year for 20 years.

Riley, who has been playing the Ohio Lottery since it began in 1974, said his life is quiet now since his wife died and his four children are adults.

“I have my dogs and lottery. This is what I do,” he said. “That’s the big excitement in my life.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cybersecurity incident delays payouts for big Ohio Lottery winners