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Our Opinion: Home and Garden Show allows spring to take root (in spirit)

‘Hiking the Natural Beauty of PA’ to be topic of lecture at Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock

I recently discovered an old thank-you card containing a &#8220;Cashing thru the Snow&#8221; lottery ticket that was dated 2014. I scratched off the card and discovered that I had &#8220;won&#8221; $250.I thought to myself, I have to give half of this amount back to the person who gave me the ticket. Right?Well, it turns out that if you don&#8217;t cash in your ticket within one year after the end of the ticket sale, you get nothing. I have looked on the flashy front of many Pennsylvania Lottery tickets and don&#8217;t see this proviso.From a financial standpoint, you would think that the state would love to legally delay the payment of a lottery ticket for as long as possible. It becomes a free loan. The fact that my stolen money goes to a senior citizen makes the state a version of Robin Hood.Until Pennsylvania plainly highlights its theft warning, the time limit should not be enforceable. In the age of computers there is no reason why tickets could not be tracked for perhaps five years.Looking at the machine, I saw no mention of a time limit. So when you buy one of these tickets the money is taken prior to your knowing of the time restriction. After you buy the ticket, that warning is only on the back of the ticket.Hopefully someone in the state of Pennsylvania will address these concerns.Joseph DuPontTowanda

Letter to the Editor: Beware time limits for claiming lottery prizes, says sore winner