Posted on 02/20/2024 6:08:53 AM PST by V_TWIN
A man who thought he had won a $340 million jackpot in a Powerball lottery drawing is suing the game’s administrators after they said their website mistakenly showed his numbers as the winning combination. John Cheeks of Washington D.C. purchased a Powerball lottery ticket on Jan. 6, 2023, and checked his numbers two days later, seeing that they matched the posted Powerball numbers.
“I got a little excited, but I didn’t shout, I didn’t scream. I just politely called a friend. I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep,” Cheeks told NBC Washington.
Cheeks went to the lottery office to redeem his ticket and was told the claim was denied because, according to lottery officials, “Petitioner’s prize claim was denied … because the ticket did not validate as a winner by the OLG’s gaming system as required by OLG regulations.”
According to Cheeks, a lottery claims staffer allegedly told him, “Hey, this ticket is no good. Just throw it in the trash can.”
Cheeks recalled, “I gave him a stern look. I said, ‘In the trash can?’
‘Oh yeah, just throw it away. You’re not going to get paid. There’s a trash can right there.’
He did not throw the ticket away. Instead, he decided to sue Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association and game contractor Taoti Enterprises.
In an answer to Cheek’s suit, Taoti project manager Brittany Bailey said that on Jan. 6, 2023, the company was testing a task involving a changing of time zones for the Powerball website, and at 12:09 p.m., the Taoti quality assurance team accidentally posted test Powerball numbers on the game’s live website rather than a development site that is not viewable to the public.
According to Bailey, Cheeks could not have any winning number combination because the test numbers were not the numbers drawn for the Powerball lottery on Jan. 7 since they were incorrectly drawn and posted on Jan. 6.
On Jan. 8, the incorrect lottery numbers were listed next to the actual winning numbers on the DC Lottery website. The Taoti development team took down the incorrect numbers on Jan. 9, Bailey said.
Good luck.
I'm sure he and his lawyer are just looking for a settlement.......everybody thinks they're owed something......another indication of the overall deterioration of society in general.
Was it a Dominion machine?
Stop it or Jim gonna get sued.
The guy is an idiot.
Looking for a payout to go away quietly.......and he’ll more than likely get something.
There was never a win with those numbers.
We can’t sue the weatherman for a wrong forecast, either.
This guy owes his friend a very generous cut when he wins the lawsuit, or more likely when they settle with him. Obviously.
In Ohio, every lottery ticket has printer on the back that you agree to comply with the laws and rules of the Ohio Lottery Commission. I’m pretty sure that among these rules are that they are not responsible for publication of wrong numbers. In other words “too bad, so sad.”
Was it a Dominion machine?
~~~
Post of the day
“or more likely when they settle with him”
That’s what he’s looking for.
Seems “test” screens cause many issues.
“Test’ screens showing candidates projected winner well before polls close or much % counted.
Test in this case (and every case of “test” mistakes) should have been all zeros or such.
If someone is dumb enough to make a test screen so specific, and even dumber to (accidentally) run it live as has happened on tv and other places numerous times, then they are responsible for confusion they caused and need to make that right in some way.
not just “Oopsie”, each time they do it.
Because it’s happening more and more frequent: leaks of all sorts of info, by accident, they say.
Sure this guy doesn’t deserve the full amount but the lottery system displayed information as winning numbers, coming from them. Their information mislead him.
He deserves some thing more than “sorry”.
where is their responsibility for mistakes?
The guy wasn’t mistaken, he saw what they put on the screen.
He’ll get nothing other than 15 minutes of fame. Mistakes and errors clauses cover this type of issue and never get overturned. Only the official certified results mater in this case.
Bad legal theory. INstead, he should have claimed that he relied on the inaccurate announcement to buy drinks at the local bar for everyone and now the outfit that posted the wrong number has to reimburse him for the drinks. I think he would have a case for that.
The guy sounds like he’s not counting on receiving the Dung Beetle Party’s African slave reparation millions for all the cotton he didn’t pick centuries ago.
One time I dreamed that I had won the lottery, but then I woke up and was disappointed. I should sue.
They could buy this guy another lottery ticket and let it go at that. Even that is more than he’s entitled to, but it would be a gesture of goodwill.
I had a similar thing happen to me in the 80’s. The local paper published the winning Lottery numbers for both the Washington and Oregon Lotteries
As I read the numbers, I realized I had won $3M. The only problem was they posted the Oregon Lotto winning numbers for Washington and vice versa.
I guessed I should have sued the local newspaper...
One time I dreamed that I had won the lottery...
And one time I dreamed my ship finally came. Then I woke up, look around, I was at the airport.
Wow... so apparently when a bank makes a clerical error which results in a massive amount of $$ being credited to an account by mistake, the person who’s account was filled with $$ that isnt theirs can sue the bank for the full amount if they deny him the agility to remove the $$ or use it?
“Agility”, yeah I are a good typerer
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