A Bay County convenience store clerk was arrested after a Florida Lottery security investigation said he kept a scratch-off compliance ticket that was meant to look like a $1,000 winner and later sold the claim for $800. Investigators said Rohail Khan was taken into custody after the case moved from a routine store check to an allegation of stolen lottery property.
The Florida Lottery said the operation began at Bay Food Mart in Panama City, where Khan allegedly did not follow required steps after processing the simulated prize ticket. Instead of returning the ticket and claim instructions to the customer, investigators said he kept both, setting up a chain of events that brought the same ticket back into the lottery system days later.
That is why the case drew attention now. Shortly after the compliance operation ended, the ticket was scanned with the Florida Lottery mobile app. Days later, someone traveled to lottery headquarters in Tallahassee and tried to claim the prize tied to that same ticket, even though investigators said it had already been improperly held and sold. Florida law does not allow lottery prize claims to be transferred or sold.
Khan was charged with one count of dealing in stolen property and one count of unlawfully selling the right to claim a lottery prize. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.
Florida Lottery Acting Secretary Reginald D. Dixon said retailers are entrusted with following strict procedures that protect players and keep every lottery transaction fair, and he said the Division of Security will continue compliance operations and pursue accountability where violations occur. The lottery said its games generate billions of dollars annually for education funding across Florida, including support for the Bright Futures Scholarship Program.
The friction in this case is not just that a ticket went missing. Investigators said the same piece of paper was later scanned through the Florida Lottery mobile app and then turned in at headquarters in Tallahassee after it had already been kept and sold, a sequence that points to how quickly one retailer’s lapse can become a criminal case. For the lottery, the arrest is meant to signal that compliance checks are not symbolic; for Khan, the next step is the court process that will determine whether prosecutors can prove the ticket was treated as property that should never have left the store.
