With him, that, the ballots return. This is a popular method to participate in the big Lottery draws of the year and that has raised some doubts about its operation after what happened a couple of weeks ago in the town of (León), with more entries than tenths awarded with El Gordo.
In Villamanín, the Festival Commission, in an attempt to restore peace to this town of 900 inhabitants, an association to manage the conflict with the rain of millions of ‘El Gordo’.
The case has focused on a little-known reality: the ballot is not a tenth and its validity depends on how it is made and how it is managed, as reported by EL PAÍS with the keys to the operation of the ballot system.
What role does State Lotteries and Betting play in the ballots? None in his management. From the State Lottery and Betting Society of the State (Selae) they explain it: “Lottery points of sale only sell tenths and receipts. The participations are part of the uses and customs and are managed by associations or non-profit entities, without any responsibility arising from that management on the part of Selae.” A participation, adds a spokesperson in statements to EFE, “is not a valid document to collect any prize, only the tenths and receipts are.”
What do you really buy when you buy a ticket? A participation right is purchased on a tenth that the person issuing the ballot claims to have and that, legally, represents “a private contract for the transfer of a potential prize” between both parties, explains the professor at the International University of Valencia (VIU) Javier Sánchez Rubio. Whoever sells the ticket agrees to pay the proportional part of the prize if the number is successful. It is not a tradition without legal effects, but a contract between individuals and for its full validity it must meet a series of requirements, without which it will be null or fraudulent.
What must a ballot include to be legal? It must include the name and date of the draw, the number of the tenth, its price and the actual amount being played, the surcharge or donation if there is one, the complete identification of the seller (name, ID or company name and, if applicable, seal) and, as Sánchez Rubio points out, the tax warning: 20 percent withholding on prizes over 40,000 euros.
What happens if you touch the number on the ballot? The buyer cannot go to a lottery administration, because the person who collects the tenth is the seller or depositary and, once collected, he is obliged to distribute the prize among the buyers. The bill is not a collection document, but rather a claim document against the person who issued it, the expert indicates. And from SELAE they add: “It is the responsibility of each entity or association to collect the information that identifies each participant and the percentage that each one plays, in the case of prizes equal to or greater than 2,000 euros.”
What happens if the seller of a ticket does not pay the prize? If there is any unjustified resistance or delay in payment, the owner of the ticket can initiate legal action to civilly claim his prize, plus the corresponding interest, according to Sánchez Rubio. If you also verify that there has been an attempt at fraud, such as selling shares without tenth to back them, intentionally selling more shares of the tenth or making forgeries, you can file a complaint or complaint. The Penal Code classifies these cases of fraudulent conduct that exceed the civil and private spheres into various types of crimes, and the most frequent is fraud.
What consequences could there be for having sold more shares than the corresponding ones? The professor from the University of Valencia maintains that “buyers always have the right to demand from the seller the payment of the entire prize that, according to their participation, would have corresponded to them, except for some exception such as if the seller, with due notice of the draw and due diligence, had alerted of the error and had attempted to correct it with appropriate means.” The seller is obliged to pay the total prize for the shares even if this amount exceeds the value of the prize obtained with the official tenth, “responding for this – he states – with the existing prize to be collected and with the rest of his own assets.” However, despite what has been said, it also understands that “if it is a mere error without fraudulent intent (such as, for example, which may be due to an error when printing the shares), seller and buyers can also try to reach out-of-court agreements that can facilitate collection.” They can resort to formulas such as immediate but limited payment (that is, with a proportional reduction in each share to jointly assume the ‘excess’ sold), by deferring part of the payment, or with a mixed formula of these two. If an agreement is not reached, the courts must be in charge of establishing the possible final responsibilities of the seller and the percentages of collection by those affected.
