Florida Lottery won't pay $500,000 winner, called 'misprint'Previous TopicNext Topic

The way the lottery regulations are written, the validation procedure rules. The couple with the ticket will not get anything except the $20 for the ticket through the courts. However, there is precedent for people taking their case to the legislature which can authorize full payment of the ticket ($500,000) through the legislative process...

duckman

Had you gotten that ticket I'm pretty sure you'd be singing quite a different tune.

For $500,000 I'd imagine you'd be screaming like a banshee (who wouldn't?)

Just my $.02, the lottery shouod pay them, otherwise, the message being sent is indeed, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Justxploring has it right, Floridians should boycott FLA scaratchers for a month, but of course the lottery knows that won't happen.

As good ole attorney Johnny Cochrane would quote in the courtroom:

If thats what the ticket say, you must pay!

Dont't dey have aHaaaaaaaaaaaa

      "RECALL"

MOST car companieeeeeeee'sssssssssss..........PAY for MISTAKE's

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Send E-MAIL thank'n your local lottery "fer" L@@K'n out fer "U"!!

Nice that they can arbitrarily decide if something is a 'misprint' or not... how would WE know if they are telling the truth or not ?

They can say the barcode says about anything they want, as far as being 'correct' or not.

"I zoomed in on the video, I can see what happened."

Did you notice that the line under the top row of numbers was partly scratched off so I'm wondering if part of the 3 was scratched off too? I doubt that Florida or any other state lottery will payoff a jackpot on ticket "that looks like" a winner whether it was a misprint or over zealous scratching.

"What happened when they scanned the ticket at the Store, or did they bother to do that?"

I believe they drove straight to the lottery headquarters in Tallahasse, the ticket was scanned there, and called CNN after they were the told the ticket was a misprint.

Probably quite a few tickets get thrown away because people don't carefully check their tickets. If somebody isn't sure they can have the clerk where the bought the ticket (or any lottery terminal) scan it.

How could you prove that unclaimed tickets were mistakenly thrown away because of misprints?

One of the many lessons learned here is that for you scratch off players

in theory all you have to do is choose your ticket and go get the barcode

scanned.  If they claim its a looser get your ticket right back and scratch

it off later if you'd like.  They try to entertain you with silly games but

get to the point.... did I just choose a winner  BARCODE BARCODE BARCODE

  I mean you should see the people trying to figure out these crossword puzzles

Asking for help on words like thats going to determine if they win or not

If lottery winners were decided by a jury then every player with a good lawyer would win.

i travel a lot and in the parking lots of convenience stores people are scratching away. i'd say the majority are addicted so the boycott talk is a waste of time. on the legal end if you're fighting the state and they make the rules it's not impossible but pretty hard to win. if you just have to gamble take $5 buck and pick mega numbers and bank the rest and just avoid the silly scratch offs.

The ticket was never a winner and it only looks like a winner because either the 3 (in 13) wasn't printed on the ticket or it was scratched off. Since both the barcode and the "th" under the number prove it was a 13, I doubt Florida will set a precedent and pay him the jackpot unless they want long lines of people that have figured out ways to remove 0 - 9 and match all the "1s" and expect to be paid too.

The ticket says "If any one or more of YOUR NUMBERS match any of the WINNING NUMBERS, you win the prize shown below your matching number(s)". The customer isn't worried about letters and barcodes. If the lottery doesn't want to be help responsible for misprints, they should change it to say "If any one or more of YOUR NUMBERS with THEIR corresponding letters match any of the WINNING NUMBERS with THEIR corresponding letters, you win the prize shown below your matching number(s) and their corresponding letters". It says right on the ticket if the NUMBERS match, you win. It says nothing about the letters or barcodes, nor is there a disclaimer on the back stating anything about the letters or barcode. You might say that's nit picking, but we're talking about a lot of money. So much money that could change someone's life. Details are extremely important when talking about matters like this and now the FL lottery is just brushing it off like it's no big deal. I hope these people sue not just for the prize, but also for false advertising, lost wages for the time off they took while claiming the ticket, and the gas it took to go to lottery HQ and back.

Associated Press - May 17, 2007 4:33 PM ET

The Florida Lottery is refusing to pay a $$500,000 prize until it can inspect the scratch-off ticket, which officials say appears to be a misprint.

The ticket holder says lottery officials told him the top number was actually a misprinted "13." A lottery spokeswoman says the ticket still needs to be turned over for a full inspection.

"If any one or more of YOUR NUMBERS with THEIR corresponding letters match any of the WINNING NUMBERS with THEIR corresponding letters, you win the prize shown below your matching number(s) and their corresponding letters".

You didn't mention your experience with scratch-off tickets, but people do actually scratch the numbers off the tickets and the only way to determine if it's a winning ticket is to check the barcode.

According to your logic, if there is a 1 in the prize section of a ticket, all anybody would have to do is find a way to remove the 0-9 from 10-19 and claim they won that prize regardless what the barcode or what the letters under the numbers are.

"You might say that's nit picking, but we're talking about a lot of money."

The only nit-picking I see is being done by a used car salesman (go figure) that probably scratched so hard he removed the 3. What happens when the ticket is inspected and there is evidence the 3 was removed; will the ticket holder be charged with fraud?

And it's also possible by measuring the spacing between the numbers on the top row that it was actually a 1 and they might have to pay him.

Too late to try to remain anonymous but he still has time to line up financial advisers.

I don't think it would be necessary to change the front to say "If any one or more of YOUR NUMBERS with THEIR corresponding letters match any of the WINNING NUMBERS with THEIR corresponding letters, you win the prize shown below your matching number(s) and their corresponding letters", but I do think there should be a disclaimer on the back of the ticket as well as what the customer should look for in a defective ticket like the one in this story. When talking about the amount of money and number of tickets involved in scratch offs, details need to be at the extreme!

Every lottery ticket I've ever seen says that it is subject to the official lottery rules, or words to that effect.