Question: Can Hawaii residents play the Mega Millions lottery, for example? The reason I’m asking is that on the local news I heard one of the news anchors say his uncle on the mainland bought some tickets for him during the recent lottery. I always thought, because we have no gambling here, residents of Hawaii cannot play in lotteries.
Answer: Under Hawaii law, paying someone outside of Hawaii to buy a lottery ticket would be considered gambling and, thus, would be illegal.
“As long as the elements of consideration, chance and reward exist, it would be a gambling scheme no matter where the actual drawing takes place,” according to the Honolulu Police Department’s Narcotics/
Vice Division. “If someone from Hawaii were to pay for a ticket, to include giving someone money to purchase a ticket for them, it is still gambling.”
Vice officials also said the situation is similar to Internet gambling: “Participating in Internet gambling from Hawaii is illegal even if the gambling website is based outside the United States where Internet gambling is legal.”
On top of that, they say it’s also illegal if someone here obtains lottery tickets by purchasing an item, such as a T-shirt, and the seller includes the tickets.
“If money is used in any way to obtain the tickets, even indirectly, the activity could be considered a gambling scheme,” vice officials said.
However, if you purchased the tickets while visiting another state where gambling is legal (every other state except Utah), you could claim the winnings.
See archives.starbulletin.com/2002/03/25/news/kokualine.html for more of an explanation.
HPDhas information on gambling at honolulupd.org/nv/gambling.htm.
Question: I recently received two text messages from Walmart on my mobile phone. The messages said that I was selected to receive a free $1,000 gift certificate. All I had to do was go to “www.walmart.com.wmgc.
biz” for my prize. I have not signed up for any prizes from Walmart and have never given Walmart my mobile phone number. Is this a phishing scam? The text message was sent from 310-435-8887.
Answer: You are smart to be wary of any unsolicited message saying you have won “a prize.”
You are advised not to reply to such messages or open any attachments.
Walmart posted a warning March 12 on its website — www.walmartstores.com/PrivacySecurity/10840.aspx — about “a sudden increase in scam text messages referring people to a site where they can ‘claim a Walmart Gift Card’ by entering certain private personal information.
These attacks that take place through SMS text message technologies to personal mobile phones are scams and are in no way sponsored by or affiliated with Walmart.”
This is an example of a “SMiShing” scam involving SMS (Short Message Service)/text messages, which asks for personal/financial information, as opposed to a “phishing” scam, which uses emails to fish for the same kind of information.
The Federal Trade Commission has a Web page with information on how to deter or deal with identity theft.
Mahalo
To some city workers who showed lovely aloha to an old lady (80-plus years) cyclist on April 6. The first was the police officer who stopped traffic in all directions and waved me through at the corner of Paki and Monsarrat avenues, where roadwork was being done. Then, at the top of Monsarrat, there was more roadwork, and a worker stopped spraying the lane I was in long enough for me to pass. The third time, I was returning along Kalanianaole Highway and trying to pass a trash pickup truck. Between pickups the driver stopped to let me pass. — Jan Newhart
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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
