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A Washington DC resident has taken legal action against the Powerball lottery for denying him a $340 million prize, even though his ticket had the winning numbers displayed on the lottery’s website.
On January 6th, John Cheeks bought a Powerball ticket and chose numbers that were significant to him, such as his family’s birthdates.
According to Mr. Cheeks, he missed the live drawing but discovered that his numbers were the winning combination when he checked the Powerball website the following day.
“I became slightly enthusiastic, but I refrained from yelling or shouting. Instead, I politely contacted a friend. As he suggested, I snapped a photo and then went to bed,” he shared in an interview with NBC.
However, to his surprise, he was denied when he visited the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) the following day to collect his prize.
According to the OLG, the number displayed on the Powerball website was used for a trial and did not match the actual winning combination that was drawn on January 7th.
Therefore, when the ticket was presented at the OLG, it did not appear as a winning ticket.
According to Mr. Cheeks, a staff member instructed him to discard his ticket in a bin at the lottery office in DC. However, he chose to store it in a safe deposit box and seek legal advice instead.
On October 4, 2023, Powerball tickets will be shown in Surfside, Florida.
“Mr. Cheeks remembered the conversation at the office where he said, ‘This ticket is invalid, just throw it away.'”
“I shot him a disapproving glare and asked, ‘You mean in the garbage bin?'”
“Simply discard it. You won’t receive any payment. The trash can is conveniently located right there.”
The lawsuit also included the Multi-State Lottery Association and game contractor Taoti Enterprises as defendants.
The lawsuit claimed that the defendants gave a dishonest statement by announcing a different winning number two or more days after the winning Powerball number was announced on January 7, 2023 through January 9, 2023, citing a system error.
According to a statement from Brittany Bailey, who serves as the project manager for Taoti, the company’s quality assurance team was performing tests on a task involving the conversion of the Powerball website’s time zones from Coordinated Universal Time to Eastern Standard Time.
The quality control team mistakenly published a sample Powerball number on the website at 12:09 PM that day. They were meant to be conducting the test in a development environment, but instead shared the sample number live.
According to her, the numbers on the test did not match the ones chosen in the Powerball lottery on January 7th.
Unfortunately, Mr. Cheeks’ attorney, Richard Evans, has stated that he has not been presented with any proof to back up the allegation made by Powerball’s contractor.
If an error occurred, the issue becomes: How do you address it?
In a previous incident, the Iowa Lottery made a mistake by posting an incorrect combination online due to a human error. This event established a precedent for the current case, as the temporary winners were still allowed to keep their prizes ranging from $4 to $200.
“The contractor acknowledged their mistake and compensated the winnings,” stated Mr. Evans.
The Independent has contacted Powerball for a statement.
Source: independent.co.uk
