Blue Mass Group

According to Massachusetts State Lottery officials, the auditor's reports have led to important reforms, such as requiring everyone who claims a prize over $600 to present government-issued identification. The auditor attributed the high number of payouts going to single individuals to professional cashers. These cashers turn in others' winning tickets-they are paid a small percentage-so the real winners can avoid taxes. But if those cashers were getting prepicked winners, that could be hard to uncover. "There've been quite a bit of improvements since we started identifying these issues," says Glenn Briere, a spokesperson for Massachusetts auditor Joe DeNucci. "The problem is that when there's a lot of money involved, unscrupulous people are always going to be looking for new ways to game the system, or worse."

Furthermore, the Massachusetts lottery has a history of dispensing large payouts to suspected criminals, at least in one Mass Millions game. In 1991, James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious South Boston mob boss currently on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list-he's thought to be the inspiration for the Frank Costello character in The Departed-and three others cashed in a winning lottery ticket worth $14.3 million. He collected more than $350,000 before his indictment.