By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The first apparent attempt to defraud Arkansas’ new lottery was not exactly a foolproof plan, Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue says.

Little Rock police arrested Ruth Dennis, 56, of Camden, after she went to the lottery’s headquarters Monday afternoon and presented a ticket that police and lottery officials said had been altered to look like a winning ticket worth $3,000.

Passailaigue said today lottery employees knew immediately the ticket was fraudulent. Part of another ticket had been cut and pasted onto Dennis’ ticket, he said.

Lottery employees called police, then stalled Dennis until officers arrived and arrested her on suspicion of fraud, a felony. Dennis claimed she did not know how the ticket came to be altered, according to a police report.

“She might as well have walked in with a Monopoly game card that said ‘Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not collect $200.’ That’s about how stupid this whole thing was,” Passailaigue said.

Even if the altering of the ticket had not been apparent on sight, it wouldn’t have fooled the lottery’s electronic confirmation system, he said.

Passailaigue said he does not expect to see many similar incidents.

“Usually you get a few of these arrests when you start up the business, and then word gets around with the crooks that this is an easy way to go to jail,” he said.