YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A former Ohio Lottery Commission employee has been sentenced to probation for stealing $115,000 in instant lottery tickets and cashing in winners.
WFMJ-TV in Youngstown reported a judge in Mahoning County ordered David Dragelevich on Monday to pay restitution and serve five years of probation.
An Ohio Inspector General's office report released last May said Dragelevich would keep tickets returned from an unidentified retailer, then enter in a lottery database that they'd been resold and cash out winning tickets. The report says Dragelevich told State Highway Patrol investigators he cashed some tickets.
The 40-year-old man from the Youngstown suburb of Poland resigned from the lottery in January 2014.
Authorities say the scheme was uncovered after a supervisor found scratched-off instant tickets in his state-issued van.