put much stock in~

カンザス州で米宝くじ「メガミリオンズ」の当選券の持ち主が名乗りをあげました。その一方、メリーランド州では、7児のシングルマザーのマクドナルド店員 が当選券を所持しているとマスコミに語りましたが、肝心の当選券がどこに行ったかのわからなくなったことを明らかかにして、混乱を引き起こしています。従業員同士で互助会の形で宝くじを購入しているという事情が背景にあるようです。
put much stock in~は通例否定文で使われ、「（物・事など）を重んずる、（人を）信用する」という意味です。宝クジという一種の賭けにはピッタリのしゃれた口語です。（UG）

Meanwhile, Maryland lottery officials have been responding to a flurry of questions from the media this week after a Baltimore-area woman told the New York Post that she had one of the winning tickets. However, in a bizarre twist of the story, Mirlande Wilson, a 37-year-old single mother of seven who works at McDonald's, told the Post on Friday that she isn't sure where she last had the ticket.
"I'm still looking for it. I haven't even looked in my uniform pants yet," the Post quoted Wilson as saying. "I'm still looking everywhere to find it, in my purse, everywhere."
The state's lottery director said Thursday he hasn't seen the ticket, but he also says no one else has come forward saying he has it.
Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery, said Tuesday she doesn't "put much stock in that story."
"She claims she won," Everett said. "She can't produce a ticket. ... In our opinion, until they walk in that door, hold that ticket, produce valid identification and our security people can process and validate it, it doesn't matter."
If Wilson is determined to be a winner, a showdown could be brewing with her McDonald's co-workers. They are demanding a share because they say they pooled their money to buy several tickets. Wilson has said the ticket she bought was separate from that.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/06/us/kansas-lottery-winner/index.html?hpt=hp_t2