$20M lawsuit against Hoosier Lottery gets class-action status
Posted: 7/11/2008 1:35:36 PM
Judge lets others join $20M suit over defunct game
Lottery exaggerated number of prizes on its Web site
If you lost playing the Hoosier Lottery's Cash Blast scratch-off game two to three years ago, you could still come out a winner.
If you still have your ticket, that is.
A $20 million lawsuit accusing the lottery of overstating the number of available prizes was granted class-action status last week by a Marion Superior Court judge, opening the suit to anyone who purchased a Cash Blast ticket and lost between May 2005 and July 2006.
Though the issue with the Cash Blast game was a one-time problem — and the game has since been discontinued — the lottery continues to be criticized about issues with scratch-off games. The specific concern with those games is that tickets continue to be sold after top prizes have been won.
The class-action suit, filed early last year, pertains only to the Cash Blast game. The suit alleges the lottery advertised more than $8 million in prizes for the Cash Blast game that were, in fact, not available.
More than $20 million in losing tickets were purchased in that period, and the suit seeks a refund for anyone who bought any of the losing $10 tickets.
Lottery spokesman Andrew Reed said the lottery does not comment on pending lawsuits.
If the suit is successful, anyone who joined the class action would likely have to file a claim for a refund either by submitting their losing ticket or signing an affidavit stating they lost, said David Brimm, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys. Brimm said many players, especially those who expect to claim their winnings on their tax returns, hold on to their losing tickets so they can write off those losses.
Judge Gerald Zore's July 3 decision was based on the claims of 49 people who had submitted affidavits saying they played the game because they thought there were more prizes available than existed. Their affidavits included the losing tickets.
Jeff Frazer, Carmel, and Jeff Koehlinger, Auburn, filed the suit in Marion County after Frazer had purchased $40,000 in tickets and Koehlinger spent $2,470 on the game.
The overstatement of prizes occurred because half of the 5 million Cash Blast tickets printed were defective, according to their claims.
The lottery reprinted the 2.5 million tickets but did not announce that the prizes associated with the defective tickets were no longer available.
On June 22, 2006 — more than a year after taking the flawed tickets off the market — the lottery noted on its Web site that seven of the initial 10 $250,000 prizes associated with the game remained available, the suit says.
By July 7, 2006, after realizing it had too many prizes listed on its Web site, the lottery announced that the number of $250,000 prizes remaining had dropped to one. The number of prizes of $50 or more fell from 65,570 to 5,197.
While the odds of the game never changed, the suit says a high volume of tickets were purchased because it appeared many top prizes were still available.
Five days after the lawsuit was filed in January 2007, the lottery began issuing $10 coupons to anyone who sent in a losing Cash Blast ticket, the claim says.
Source: Indianapolis Star
