Indiana Lottery may spend $1M to settle lawsuit

Jun 26, 2006, 7:09 am (6 comments)

Indiana Lottery

A lawsuit over a winning $5 scratch-off lottery ticket may end up costing the state of Indiana more than $1 million.

Indianapolis resident Tom H. Smith bought a $2 "instant win" ticket in 1996 and won $5. But he didn't try to collect the prize until months later and was told it was too late for the payout.

Smith appealed to lottery headquarters, saying he had no way of knowing the game had ended, and eventually filed a lawsuit against the Hoosier Lottery.

Others joined the lawsuit, saying they also tried to redeem winning tickets but missed a deadline they didn't know about. The suit went to the Indiana Court of Appeals and to the Indiana Supreme Court.

But Esther Schneider, who was appointed to be the Hoosier Lottery's executive director in 2005, said she wanted to settle the suit, which has already cost the lottery more than $450,000 in attorney fees.

"I thought, 'OK, how do we make this thing go away?'" she said.

A proposed settlement filed in Marion Superior Court this month would give Smith $15,000, and the lottery would set up a $600,000 fund to pay others entitled to back payments. If a judge approves the settlement, hundreds of other people could also collect on tickets purchased between 1989 and early 1997.

The lottery has since changed the way it ends payouts for scratch-off tickets. Each ticket sold now includes a precise date by which players must redeem their prizes.

AP

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

Badger's avatarBadger

Not having the ending pay-out date on the tickets is just sheer amateurism.  Makes one think Moe, Larry and Curly are running the lottery there. So they reap what they sow.

ochoop17

I know Bobby Knight  got a bounce out of that.

bellyache's avatarbellyache

At should of put an ending date on the tickets a long time ago.

JAP69's avatarJAP69


Could have did it for a reason and got caught on it.
State of Indiana you know.

Plus they are selling their highway sytems to foriegn countries.
Bad state of affairs in Indiana.
Might better dissolve the state and let it be taken over by someone else.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

indiana has the worst lottery period.no state comes close.it smacks of corruption.......

Just6ntlc

I hope the lawsuit is settled soon. Indiana has one of the worst lotteries in USA.

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story
Guest