Sounds like this guy is trying to pull what that Ohio women Elecia Battle tried back in January of 2004 when she reported her misfortune of losing a lottery ticket worth $162M to the local police and newspapers before going to the lottery office to make a claim.  When the real winner, Rebecca Jemison turned in the winning ticket, some thought she should have shared it with Elecia because she told such a convincing sob story and other thought Elecia should had gone to jail for filing a false report..

Should they take his word and write a check or is the Florida Lottery being unreasonable by asking to see the ticket?

Wouldn't it be nice if lotteries accepted letters from players that read:

Sir,

Your terminal has made a big mistake, I bought a $20 ticket which I think is worth $500,000 and it does not agree.  I have discussed this with my wife and a reporter from CNN, both which I trust completely and they think you should send me a check for a half million dollars.  I await your check after which I will send you the ticket for inspection and verification.  If I don't hear from you soon, I will seek the advice of a lawyer.

Thank you.
 

If this guy hands over the ticket and walks away expecting to hear from them, a week will go by without hearing from them, he'll call them up to see what's going on, and all the FL lottery is going to say "You never gave us the ticket".

Guru, I doubt if this would ever happen.  There isn't a big conspiracy going on here. Also this story has already gotten so much publicity, it would only be in their best interest to pay the claim if it's a legitimate ticket. 

Are these the same people who counted the votes in Palm Beach County in 2000?  LOL

You cracked me up here.. lol

I agree with you Guru. If they cannot investigate without the ticket or with me standing right there than I don't trust it.  It's like all you need is the barcode number anyway. 

 

My NUMBER FELL!!!

 

 

Official announcement by the Florida Lottery:

"STATEMENT BY THE FLORIDA LOTTERY REGARDING POSSIBLE MISPRINT OF GOLD RUSH TICKET

TALLAHASSEE -- On Monday, May 14, the Florida Lottery learned of a possible printing error on a Florida Lottery GOLD RUSH Scratch-Off ticket. The Florida Lottery is investigating the circumstances of the apparent misprint; however, without possession of the original ticket in question, the Lottery¿s investigation is limited. While preliminary analysis of a photocopy of the ticket seems to indicate that it is a non-winning ticket, a final determination cannot be reached until the player submits a formal claim along with the original ticket.

To safeguard the integrity of Florida Lottery games and to ensure that all valid claims are paid, the Lottery subscribes to standard procedures that must be followed by all persons claiming a prize. These procedures are in place to benefit and protect all of our customers.

Last year alone, the Lottery's instant ticket vendor, Scientific Games, printed well over 500 million Florida Lottery Scratch-Off tickets. While the very nature of any mechanical printing process can never guarantee one hundred percent accuracy - whether you are speaking of newspapers or currency - similar incidents are extremely rare. However, in anticipation of these rare occurrences, the Lottery and its vendor have adopted redundant validation methods to properly identify winning tickets and avoid misprints. In an abundance of caution, the Lottery has also undertaken an immediate and comprehensive review to ensure the continued integrity of our games and confidence of the playing public.

We are extremely proud of our record of paying every valid claim for all winning tickets the Lottery has produced in its 19-year history. In fact, the very foundation of the Lottery's ability to raise funds for education rests solely on the trust our players have in playing our games. To ensure fairness and equity for all players, the Lottery must ensure that the established rules are followed and that prizes are paid only on legitimate winning tickets. That trust is based on two principles: first, that all lottery profits go to education; and, second, that all prize claims are paid for every valid winning ticket."



http://flalottery.com/inet/currentNewsContent.do?searchID=194023

I THINK>>>>>>>LOTTERY SHOULD>>>>>"PAY"

or get a printer WHO CAN..............PRINT..............DARN-it!!!!!!!!!

I'm>>MAD....as HELL>>

.........................RESPECT

Mr or Ms    ........................LOTTERY COMMISSIONER 

.....

In some places your employer is required to pay you your regular salary while serving jury duty if the company has some minimum number of employees. If your company paid people for doing volunteer work they were unusually generous.

http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS/205160332/1025/news

Annemarie Curcio said they were robbed.
"My husband gave them a real $20 bill and they gave him a fake ticket,"

Apparently Mrs. Curcio hasn't bought a lot of lottery tickets if she thinks a $20 lottery tickets that wins nothing is fake.

Either pay the man and his wife or get out the lottery buiness, End Of story!!

Have their been any new developments on this story since it broke, does anyone know ?

I was wondering that too because it was everywhere in the news for a couple of days. Nothing has been said since the Florida Lottery asked to examine the ticket so the News people probably backed off because the circumstances changed.

Maybe somebody explained to those people (and they finally understood) why the "th" is placed under the "13". If you remove all the latex from the scratch-off area, most tickets have a 3 letter code like "ONE", "FIV", or "TEN" that shows how much it's worth if it's a winner. I've seen "FTY" and "HUN", but have no idea of what "$500,000 looks like.

I imangine it would say 5 mill, like I have seen 1 mill, 2.5 mil 1.5 mill under the number.

I'm still scratching my head wondering if they got it or not. I'm just itching to find out. I'm not trying to rub anyone the wrong way, but I am curious.