Stolen Lottery Tickets Good, JPS Says
It doesn't matter if the lottery ticket was stolen or found lost, the Junta de Protección Social de San José (JPS), says it will pay out the prize to anyone who presents a winning ticket.

The announcement came yesterday by the JPS - the state authority on lotteries - after Stanley Ulloa gave back to the JPS some of the 500 "enteros" of the Gordo Navideño (the Christmas lottery) that he found. Ulloa said he received only a "thank you" for his honesty by JPS officials.

An "entero" is an entire lottery ticket that can be purchased as a whole or in fractions of 40.

"We cannot deny to pay a prize and in addition we have no way of questioning of how he person obtained the lottery ticket. We have to pay if we feel suspicious to inform the judicial authorities to investigate", explained Luis Polinaris, JPS president.

The Gordo Navideño is the traditional holiday lottery that has the largest prize of all the lotteries during the year. The draw this year will be held on December 17.

Currenlty there 500 "enteros" that are not in the hands of their rightful owners.

The news made the headlines of the print newspaper yesterday when 200 "enteros" were lost by a messenger of the Coopelot, a co-operative of lottery vendors, as the tickets flew out the back of the pick up truck, while the rest of the were stolen in Desamparados on Tuesday.

Polinaris said, although they know the series and numbers of the tickets lost and stolen, they cannot be excluded from the draw. The JPS is asking anyone who is possession of the lost or stolen tickets to please give them back to their rightful owners.