Posted on 02/19/2024 1:49:37 PM PST by nickcarraway
A Washington DC man who thought he won a jackpot worth $340m (£270m) has sued Powerball and the DC Lottery, who claim they published his numbers by mistake.
John Cheeks said he felt "numb" when he first saw Powerball's winning numbers matched his ticket in January 2023.
But when Mr Cheeks presented his ticket to the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG), his claim was denied.
"One of the claims agents told me my ticket was no good, just to throw it in the trash can," he told the BBC.
Instead, Mr Cheeks held on to that ticket and found a lawyer.
He is now suing the lottery for damages, in the amount of the Powerball jackpot, plus the interest he would have earned on it per day - totalling $340m.
'Accidental error'
According to court documents, Powerball and a lottery contractor, the DC-based Taoti Enterprises, claim the confusion arose from a technical error.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
” I’m not saying that he is owed the full amount, “
I am. He bought a ticket with those numbers. They put those numbers up as the winner and left them there for three days.
They have to pay him, and probably the other guy they claim was the winner.
Take their lesson and move on and treat number publishing as a serious thing in the future.
Balls are Harder to Fix.
Bet he didn’t have any problem getting a top notch attorney to work on contingency for this one!
Actually they would make Trump pay every Democrat with a ticket.
That won't happen. In fact, the balls (lol) drawing had a better chance of picking some weird combos than a random-number generator. That's what lotteries use now.
” they aren’t televised anymore because they don’t draw balls anymore. It’s all computer generated now.”
Easier to cheat. Would you bet on Roulette if the abandoned the wheel and used a computer to say red or black and what number?
“Would a newspaper that published an incorrect set of numbers be liable?”
No, they are not the legal entity RUNNING the game of chance. The Powerball people were.
If I remember correctly some local court backed the casino.
Gee, that's a surprise.
/s
Sounds like the ‘wrong person’ won, so they need a do-over.
No, he is owed nothing. If he reads the rules, he will find out that the Powerball lottery is not responsible for misreporting of the numbers, that the numbers drawn in the televised drawing ARE the NUMBERS.
If the lottery supplied the numbers they should pay. If a news organization reported the wrong numbers then he is owed a huge apology.
Good point.
Read the Powerball rules at www.powerball.com.
What people think is “fair” is often more based on emotion than on the law.
Technical error goes to the customer, not the lottery.
Any numbers runner from 100 years ago knows that you better have your sh!t together when you start telling poor folks that they are rich then yanking the rug from their feet.
"And to Ralph Kramden, my favorite bus driver, I leave my Fortune."
It’s been rigged since they got rid of the live drawings.
A Sparks NV, Safeway store in 1978, I always put all my change into it. It took only nickles, so I would get anything under $5 in of course nickles, and feed it into a progessive slot. On the way out one day, I hit the jackpot which was $5,000. They paid out $50 bucks.
This is settled case law.
From ATMS spitting out money to mismarked cars, steaks, malfunctioning casino machines etc.....the list is endless.....he has no case at all.
He doesn't deserve squat. Those weren't the numbers drawn.
So "they" pick the winner just like our fake elections with the rigged voting machines and millions of stuffed mail-in or dropped off ballots.
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