Thread: Lottery ticket sales

Can our employer punish us for lottery ticket sales?

My question is: I work at a grocery store. I am a supervisor, and we were trained yesterday on selling state lottery tickets. My problem is this: If a customer purchases a lottery ticket & then changes their mind & wants their money back, or if we, as employees, make a mistake in the sale of a lottery ticket, (no matter the $$$ amount), we are required to pay for the ticket, or face termination. We don't believe that this is fair or legal. One of the corporate officials helping in the training stated that "This is just good customer service", and that other employees at other stores in the chain have had to buy tickets to rectify mistakes, some of them even up to hundreds of dollars in amount, herself included. Another issue I have with this personally is that my religion forbids the purchase of lottery tickets, and although I won't be purchasing any, can I be forced to sell them to other customers when it violates my religious beliefs (and, ironically, my employers share the same religious beliefs!). If this will give me an out from being involved in this whole issue, or if this business practice is illegal, please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you
P.S. I also spoke with a personal friend yesterday who is an attorney, and he said this wasn't legal...