It's been a charmed decade for Ali Jaafar. The Watertown man keeps hitting it big on the Massachusetts State Lottery, winning millions of dollars from thousands of scratch tickets. For the past two years, Jaafar has held the title of the state's winningest lottery player. But he is just one of hundreds of individuals who repeatedly cash in on the Massachusetts lottery. The lottery does not know how some of these so-called "frequent winners" manage to win so often. Many of these players hold win streaks that Michael Sweeney, executive director of the state lottery, said "defy all mathematical logic or reason." While some people believe these players are coming by their prizes through luck, effort — or both — Sweeney said he's concerned illicit activities, like money laundering, could potentially be involved. And for the last 10 months, he's been working on a way to stop giving the spoils to certain victors. Payouts Flow Amid Policy Delay Last August, Sweeney told the Boston Globe that he was working on a new policy to stop the lottery from making massive payouts to frequent winners. He said that plan would be in place on Oct. 1, 2017. However, more than half a year later, no policy is in effect. In that time period, close to 80 frequent winners have cashed out more than 4,000 prizes totaling at least $22.8 million, according to a WBUR analysis of lottery records obtained through public records requests. From Oct. 1 through mid-March, Jaafar alone won more than 700 prizes — 549 were scratch tickets that hit $1,000 — and collected more than a $1 million. University of California Berkeley statistics professor Philip Stark calculated that "if every Massachusetts resident spent $5.7 million on scratchers, there would still be less than a 1 in 10 million chance that any of them would win $1,000 as many times as Jaafar" did on scratch tickets. This improbable wave of luck has brought into question whether a state lottery that touts itself as the nation’s most successful may be vulnerable to manipulation.

Since last October, close to 80 frequent winners have cashed out more than 4,000 prizes totaling at least $22.8 million.

A lottery spokesman said the agency is now in the “late stages” of implementing the new rule it pledged last year. The policy will flag and freeze payments to people whose repeated good fortune raises suspicions. Win $1,000 or more at least 20 times within 12 months, and the lottery will freeze your future winnings for 90 days. You could cash in again after that freeze, but if you win another 20 times, your prizes will be held for 180 days. This is more forgiving than Sweeney's original proposal. Last summer, he told the Globe he wanted to trigger the freeze at six wins of $1,000 or more in a 12-month period. Had this original limit gone into effect in October, nearly 500 winners would have had to explain their luck. Those players cashed close to 7,200 wins worth about $34.5 million. "While admittedly perhaps we're not moving as fast as some people would like us to, what we're trying to do is we're trying to get this right," said Sweeney. He said it took longer than expected to shore up the details of the new policy. Sweeney wanted to come up with language that could withstand legal challenges. He also cited the ongoing process to make the rule a part of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations. Lottery officials in both Florida and Georgia created new policies in the wake of scrutiny around frequent winning. In Georgia, there have been a handful of lawsuits challenging the state's withholding of big-money prizes through a policy change similar to the one being created in Massachusetts. “What we are trying to do, and what I think my responsibility is in part, is to try to make our process as thorough and as complete as possible, so that if someone does appeal [a freeze under the policy], we’ll have very strong standing in whatever judicial setting," Sweeney said. "What I'm trying to do is to make the process legal, constitutional and for it to stand up in court." Number Of Frequent Winners Keeps Increasing Suspicions around the incredible gambling successes among frequent winners in Massachusetts are not new. State auditors first outlined concerns on the matter nearly 20 years ago in a 1999 audit of the lottery. "Statistically, these multiple winners would have had to purchase hundreds of thousands to millions of tickets in order for them to win so many prizes and 'beat the odds,' " then-state Auditor Joseph DeNucci wrote in the report. The audit found that the state's top winner won 319 times for a total of $412,482 — or about one-fifth of the wins and the money Ali Jaafar won in 2017.

Ali Jaafar was the top lottery prize-getter last year, winning more than 1,500 times for a fast $2.25 million.