LAKELAND, Fla. — Thousands of Floridians have had their lottery winnings withheld by the state because they were overpaid in unemployment — or so they were told.
Lottery wins start DEO "nightmare" for Floridians
Over the past year, the ABC Action News I-Team has sent the names and information of more than 540 Floridians to the state’s unemployment office — long known as the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), now the Department of Commerce— in an effort to help them get their winnings. Many have, and told the I-Team it turns out — they didn’t owe the state anything.
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The exact number of people this problem impacts — or could impact if they win the lottery — is unclear, as the Department of Commerce has failed to provide information on how many Floridians have been flagged as being overpaid in unemployment.
IN FOCUS:
- Winning Big, Losing Out
- Not Alone
- Problems Persist
- Working for You
Winning Big, Losing Out
The I-Team first learned about this issue from a mom in Seminole in January 2023, who sent an email to the I-Team after contacting DEO and was at a loss at where to turn. After explaining her efforts to get information from the state, unable to collect her $1,000 scratch-off ticket lottery win, she ended her email saying, "Please help me! I have 3 kids and my mother I'm taking care of. Those winnings were life-saving for me. I cannot grasp how my DEO account shows no receipt of payment, no over-payment balance EVER - and yet they can just take my money with no rhyme, reason, explanation, or even receipt!"
At the time, Magnetta told the I-Team at the time she felt like this issue could be impacting a lot more people.
"This could put a lot of people in a bad spot that weren’t necessarily expecting to be in a bad spot," she said.
Within days of the I-Team contacting DEO about the issue, Magnetta said she got a call that the state would be sending her a full refund. DEO told the I-Team it notifies claimants regarding any outstanding issues on current and/or previous unemployment claims through their accounts.
But most people, unless they are actively collecting unemployment, do not think about checking an account for unemployment they may not have claimed in years. When winners have contacted the I-Team, their stories are the same—saying they've never received a phone call, letter, or email to alert them they were allegedly overpaid in unemployment.
Not Alone
Public records the I-Team obtained from the Florida Lottery revealed between Jan. 1, 2022, and Jan. 31, 2023, 9,804 winners received a "potential outstanding owed debt alert." More than 7,400, 75% of those debt alerts, were from DEO.
“My $1,000 was sitting at the unemployment office and nobody did nothing. Until we seen your segment on TV," 82-year-old Hilde McMillen told the I-Team, who contacted DEO on her behalf. “Two days later, the unemployment office called me and said, we’re going to send you your money."
Then Maxine Tunstall won $10,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket. After not being able to collect her lottery winnings, Tunstall told the I-Team she called DEO every morning for weeks.
Like so many other Floridians tell the I-Team in similar stories, she was never able to get anyone on the phone line.
“If you don’t get a hold of a person that day, you can call the next day and you’re just going to sit on hold for six or seven hours. How is that right? Our lawmakers, they’re saying they’re here to help you. Yet when I went to my lawmakers, they’re telling me there’s nothing they can do.”
After the I-Team got involved, Tunstall heard from the state. She owed nothing.
“The thing I don’t understand is that; how many people are going through this?” Tunstall said.
Problems Persist
This year, Brittany Wilson, a mother in Lakeland, contacted the I-Team with her own story.
“It was just harder on me during that time, I was financially struggling. So something just told me to go to the store and, you know, just try at my winnings,” she said.
For Wilson, hard times turned to answered prayers.
“I double looked and I double-taked like — this cannot be real! Like me? I actually won the lottery. Is it really me?” Wilson recalled. “I cried. I really did because I couldn’t believe it.”
Wilson won $5,000.
“I was thinking about all the bills I had piled up, just paying those off, and then my kids. My kids are everything to me,” she said.
But when she went to collect her winnings, like so many others, she was handed a piece of paper saying she owed the state after being overpaid in unemployment.
“I was like, this can’t be right,” Wilson said.
She called the state’s unemployment office.
“I’m waiting like almost two hours, at the max, three, just to speak with someone,” Wilson said. “I never got a notification, I never got a phone call, email, nothing. And she just kept saying well, we sent you things.”
DEO has told the I-Team that Floridians should check their unemployment accounts to see if they have a notification about an over-payment.
“If you guys can find out if I’m working or not working to verify if I qualify for unemployment, you should be able to find some way to reach me. And my email on that site is still the same, so I’ve been checking through all emails, never received anything,” Wilson said.
She said something needs to change so this does not keep happening to people.
“Especially with, you know, the times now where everything is going up, and rent’s going up, food’s going up. Let me have this money,” Wilson said.
Two weeks after the I-Team contacted the state on Wilson’s behalf, she was able to collect her lottery winnings.
Working for You
The I-Team has worked to get more information on this issue from DEO — now the Department of Commerce — for the past year, including asking how many Floridians have an over-payment flagged on their account and requesting an interview with someone from the department to talk about the ongoing issue. The I-Team has followed up more than a dozen times. While the Department of Commerce acknowledges the names the I-Team sends over on a regular basis of people trying to get in touch with the agency to be able to get more information and claim their winnings, it has ignored all follow-ups asking for a status on the request for more information and an interview.
Your tax dollars pay the salaries of those working in the Department of Commerce.
Salaries:
- Secretary of Commerce — $177,038.40
- Director of Communications — $103,456.80
- Press Secretary — $60,000
If you're having problems collecting your lottery money or have been told you've been overpaid in unemployment, please fill out our form so we can send it to the Department of Commerce for information.
