Why buy lottery tickets? Have fun? Test fate? Feel the joy of participating in an exciting game? Of course, for these reasons too. However, most participants are attracted by the potential to get rich quick. For example, having spent only 150 rubles to buy a Russian Lotto ticket, a person dreams of hitting a million dollars right away. Having received in the end only a few hundred rubles or was left without a win at all, people get upset, stop believing in luck, and some of yesterday’s lottery “fans” suddenly turn into ardent critics of this entertainment.
Most of the cones go to Stoloto, the largest distributor of state lotteries in Russia. Today, 80% of the solvent population of the country are familiar with the products of this brand. After all, Stoloto’s portfolio contains most of the most famous lotteries: Russian Lotto, Golden Horseshoe, Housing Lottery and many others. And due to their popularity, they gather around them both a large number of devoted admirers and an army of incredulous skeptics.
What kind of reviews you will not find on the Internet: “Russian Lotto is a scam”, “Stoloto is a hoax”, “All lotteries are a scam and a scam” and the like. There are all sorts of experts who devote a lot of time and effort to investigating alleged lottery fraud by lottery organizers and analyzing possible fraudulent schemes for distributing lottery winnings.
You can often find the statement that there are no winning tickets at Stoloto. More precisely, tickets that would bring a fabulous amount. Conspiracy theorists believe that the results of draws, in particular in the popular Russian Lotto lottery, are known in advance or are rigged during the draw. Allegedly, the barrels in the Russian Lotto bag have differences, for example, they differ in temperature, and the presenters can easily pull out the desired combination of numbers. And for the gullible public, then figureheads are found who talk about how they were lucky enough to hit the jackpot. Real participants can only be content with small amounts. This, of course, is a delusion and another myth.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of lotteries in the country grew rapidly, provoking a real boom – during the shortage, clothing prizes were worth their weight in gold. But gradually the number of participants in such entertainment began to decline, since many lotteries actually turned out to be real “scams”, no prizes for winners, no taxes to the state.
Everything changed in 2014, when the state took over this poorly regulated area, solving the problem radically: private lotteries were banned, and the remaining state ones came under the control of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation. Only these two government departments can henceforth be the organizers of all the lotteries that exist today. The same structures very carefully monitor the process of holding draws with the help of independent control systems. The Stoloto lottery company acts as a distributor and operator, advertising national lotteries, selling their tickets, and paying out prizes. The activities of the distributor and operator are controlled by the Federal Tax Service in an online format. The tax authorities have constant access to Stoloto’s financial documents. That is, participants can be sure that all draws, without exception, are held under the control of the state, and the payment of winnings is carried out in accordance with the letter of the law, in full and on time. It turns out that the transparency and honesty of lotteries is guaranteed by the state, and not by some random company.
Anyone can watch a large number of state lottery draws, which are held using lottotrons, in real time at the Stoloto lottery center in Moscow. Since the date and time of the draw is indicated on the ticket, it is easy to check the reality of what is happening and the absence of fraud – for this you just need to visit it on the appointed day and hour.
Each drawing of the “Russian Lotto” is controlled by a special circulation commission. Any adult citizen of the Russian Federation can enter it. Members of the lottery commission carefully check all the barrels and the bag before the start of the draw: the quantity, the presence of a complete set, identity in size, temperature, tactile sensations, etc. So, those who are unsure of the purity of the experiment can be advised to become one of the members of such commissions to “see and feel” everything.
As for the fake winners, this myth is also easily debunked: not a single so-called Stoloto deception whistleblower has been able to prove the links between the distribution company and the people who received large and truly record prizes. Public scandals ended in a complete fiasco of unfortunate whistleblowers.
Stoloto employees are also among the winners, since they are not prohibited from participating in the operator’s lotteries. And sometimes they themselves become heroes of happy stories. This is because the victories of real people are very inspiring to buy a lottery ticket, and anyone can win. And this is the best incentive to try your luck yourself along with all the other participants. The winners are people of various professions and social statuses – these are housewives, pensioners, workers, doctors, and businessmen who do not hesitate to bet on luck. And many of them are ready to talk about themselves without hiding from the public, to give interviews together with their loved ones, who shared the joy of victory with them, openly demonstrating a real lottery experience with a happy ending.
The life of state-controlled lotteries is greatly spoiled by cyber scammers who profit from the love of Russians for this leisure format. They create sites that are clones of well-known national lotteries, for example, they make fake pages on social networks on behalf of the same Russian Lotto. Or they send out e-mails with a notification of a false win, in order to receive which you need to transfer a certain fee. Moreover, often such mailings are received by people who have never tried to buy a lottery ticket. Whereas the golden rule of any lottery sounds like this: to win, you need to at least buy a ticket. And nothing else!
But gullible citizens fall for the tricks of scammers, pay imaginary taxes or buy fake tickets. Without receiving anything in return, they post negative reviews on review sites or social networks. The fact that the distributor himself is not related to fake resources is not understood by all victims of fraud. As a result, the reputation of Stoloto suffers.
For Stoloto, the fight against Internet fraud and ensuring the safety of lottery participants is of great importance. We can say that this is a matter of honor. Every year, the company, together with cybersecurity specialists, identifies scammers who, under the guise of popular national lotteries, deceive ordinary people. Together with law enforcement officers, criminal cases are initiated, and resources are blocked.
In the first half of 2022 alone, 18,709 fake resources of popular state lotteries were discovered and blocked. Of them:
10,168 – fraudulent sites;
8473 – fake posts, accounts and groups in social media;
64 – fake mobile apps;
4 — email addresses from which phishing was sent.
Despite this work, the number of scammers continues to grow, which is largely due to the growing popularity of the lotteries themselves. According to experts, a surge in fraudulent schemes was observed in the second quarter of last year: then the number of false messages, fake pages and groups on social networks and messengers acting on behalf of Stoloto increased significantly. Therefore, in parallel with the activities to identify and block fake resources, the company that distributes state lotteries constantly informs about simple rules of digital hygiene.
What you need to remember in order not to fall into the trap of Internet scams?
Perhaps the main rule is to purchase electronic tickets only on the official Stoloto website www.stoloto.ru or in the official mobile application.
Never click on suspicious links from emails or social networks. Fraudsters can not only convince you to buy a non-existent ticket, but also steal bank card details or infect your gadget with a virus.
Do not transfer any contributions online, either before receiving the winnings or after. Stoloto never requires this.
Know how taxes are paid on winnings. Often scammers deceive and mislead people with this. Stoloto pays taxes on winnings from 15 thousand rubles. You do not need to pay tax on winnings up to 4 thousand rubles, but in the amount from 4 to 15,000 thousand rubles you must pay yourself, for this you need to file a tax return. The main thing – remember: the winner does not have to transfer any money to pay the tax!
If, after buying a ticket, you received a call allegedly from Stoloto with a request to provide bank details and codes for transferring the prize, in no case do this!
What should current and future lottery participants know in order to avoid disappointment and not join the ranks of those who indiscriminately accuse lottery players of cheating? Several tips.
First, you need to approach participation with faith in success, but at the same time with a cool head. According to statistics, the higher the prize amount, the lower the probability of winning it. Conversely, the chance of getting a small prize is much greater. But it’s not guaranteed either! Buying a ticket does not mean winning.
According to Stoloto statistics, in lotteries distributed under this brand, every fourth ticket wins on average. But we are talking about all the winnings – from the smallest to the largest. Of course, the more often you participate in lotteries, the more opportunities you have to win a prize. But even a regular ticket purchase will not necessarily lead to a multi-million dollar prize. And this is how any lottery in the world works!
Each ticket is just a chance to become a winner. And the odds are the same for everyone. Therefore, in the event of a defeat, you should never put an end to your luck. Great luck should always be treated as a miracle, not as a pattern. And also take other people’s victories as an incentive and be inspired by the stories of the lucky ones. Indeed, thanks to the lotteries distributed by Stoloto, 26 real millionaires appeared in the country last year.
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