The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal from a Quebec man who tried to claim a $27 million jackpot based on a lottery ticket printed seven seconds after the cut-off time.
On Thursday, Canada's top court said it would not hear Joel Ifergan's lottery case. The SCC dismissed his request for an appeal with costs.
Ifergan purchased two lottery tickets for the May 23, 2008 Super 7 draw at 8:59 p.m., one minute ahead of the weekly draw deadline. His first ticket printed with the May 23 draw date on it, but his second one came out seven seconds after 9:00, with the May 30 draw date printed at the top.
That second ticket had all the winning numbers for the May 23 jackpot, but Loto-Quebec rejected the claim because the ticket said May 30.
"I'm really disappointed in the decision, and it's not because it's about the money," Ifergan told CTV News Channel after his case was dismissed Thursday.
Ifergan says he's entitled to half of the $27 million awarded in the May 23 draw because his tickets were purchased ahead of the deadline, regardless of whether they were printed after it. He blames Loto-Quebec's 10-second processing delay for denying him his share of the jackpot, which was awarded to another winner.
"Loto-Quebec during the trial never argued the fact that my request for the two tickets was in their system at 8:59.47," he told CTV Montreal.
"The deadline that they advertise was for 9 p.m. — which I did."
Ifergan added that Loto-Quebec's slow processing system puts Quebecers at a "disadvantage" when compared to the rest of Canada.
In the rest of Canada, they shut down at 9 p.m. and you can't buy a ticket," he told The Canadian Press. "But everything in their system prior to 9 p.m. gets processed and you get a ticket, even if it comes out five minutes later."
"Had those tickets been bought anywhere else in Canada, I would have been a millionaire seven years ago," Ifergan said.
The career accountant spent nearly seven years and $100,000 in legal fees fighting for his half of the jackpot.
The Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal had also ruled against him in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
"Yes, it cost me a lot of money, but it also consumed me for seven years," he said. He added that the SCC did not provide an explanation with its ruling.
"My crusade is up, I've done all I can, I spent enough money going to the Supreme Court," Ifergan told The Canadian Press
The SCC typically does not provide an explanation when it chooses not to hear an appeal.
Loto-Quebec spokesman, Jean-Pierre Roy, said he is satisfied with the Supreme Court's decision.
"The (original) judgement was clear and convincing that Loto-Quebec procedures were altogether reliable and integrated and were the right ones," Roy said.
He added that no protocol changes are expected in the future.
Ifergan was out for ice cream when he made a last-minute decision to purchase a Super 7 draw ticket
Ifergan says he stopped at a convenience store, where he was told he had less than a minute to buy the two tickets.
The store's owner, Mehernosh Iranpur, says he sold Ifergan the tickets, and Ifergan knew the second ticket was for the next draw.
"I asked him, 'It's for next week. Do you want it or not?'" Iranpur said. "He says, 'No, I'll keep it.'"
Ifergan says he and Iranpur were both confused by the situation.
"It was the first time he'd ever seen it," Ifergan said. "Nobody knew."
But Ifergan told The Canadian Press that he accepted the ticket.
The Lotto Super 7 draw was discontinued in September of 2009 and replaced with Lotto Max. Participants in the Super 7 draw were able select their own numbers or opt for random ones.
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Thanks to hearsetrax for the tip.
you should not wait til the end to buy tickets. give it time. sucks tobe him tho
Umm...... he spent over $100,000 in legal fees when the clerk told him that the last ticket was for the next draw he kept the ticket anyway
Yep. Sad but he shouldn't have waited until the last minute to buy tickets. The terminal was doing it's job and printed the tickets out the way it was programmed to.
you gotta be in it to win it,blame yourself you wait to long to purchase your tickets.As Maxwell Smart would say "99 I only missed it by that much "
2X loser?. Man, that sucks. You should have known that the lottery gods won't budge.
rather a strange tale to say the least ......
but I wonder what his excuses were for buying tickets that late in the evening
intrinsically a ticket printed 10 sec after the draw cut of, could never have been in any way considered to have somehow managed to cheat the system as the draw was still unknown at the time of printing. its more in order to save the loto paying out some prize money, and in the spirit of protecting from cheats, that the rule is in place. if i was running loto and won i would have at least made an out of court agreement to pay his legal costs IF HE AGREED TO NEVER BRING THE ACTION AGAIN., and at least pay $100k to the sucker for his troubles.
Yes, it is a very strange story ... it could have went his way had the first ticket that printed had the winning numbers on it ... also think what the real winner of the jackpot was going through, possibility having to return half of the jackpot, had the court case decision gone another way.
All that dragging on for years ... although I would think the real winner felt some relief after the first court decision went their way.
...
Bummer for him. I realize this is Canada, but I would swear that in some states, the ticket machines actually shut down or go offline for an hour or two when the draw deadline passes. Presumably to prevent something like this being disputed. Is that real or am I mis-remembering it?
And my headline would have said "misses" jackpot by seven seconds, not loses.
good luck everyone.
This is the lottery, almost doesn't count.
This man isn't entitled to anything. Nobody ever wants to take into account the butterfly effect. If you wrote down 6 numbers on a piece of paper right now for tonight's Mega Millions, didn't play them, and then those numbers came out tonight, the vast majority of people would be thinking to themselves "Oh my God, I just lost out on millions of dollars". No you didn't. The numbers would have most likely been different had you played them. I know it's hard to believe, but it's scientifically correct.
If it were his own numbers I would empathize. The same numbers might not have been pulled had the machine produced the ticket even a second earlier. He should not feel robbed, and I think it was silly to sue. I also think it's weird that the machine doesn't go offline for an hour or two after the cut off time for each official drawing. He was told as much and accepted the ticket anyway. It might have been his strategy to play minutes before the drawing. I know people who do this.
You would think all lotteries would close a game out at least 5 or 10 minutes before the draw time ... that should be good enough to "clear" the system of any slow printing tickets.
I think in PA the games close 5 or 10 minutes before the actual drawing ... not 100% sure ... I also think MM and PB stop printing new tickets 45 minutes or an hour before the drawing ... again not 100% sure about that time deadline.
CW
I hate to see this kind of thing. Ultimately, he shouldn't have waited until the last second to buy his tix, but it's sad to see someone lose out on so much by so little...
Some lotteries close down all terminal sales for around 15 minutes prior to drawings. PA Lottery doesn't do that. For long as I can remember - far back as late 1980s, sales continue with tickets printing for the next day and/or being rejected. For most numbers games, cut off time is seconds before 6:57 (about 2 minutes prior to actual drawing) for Evening, and seconds before 1:06 for Day (computer draw occurs at approx 1:10). Some PA in-state jackpot games have had earlier cut-off times of approx 6:55, but not sure any do now.
As for purchasing tickets requested prior to cutoff, but not yet printed, the terminal will generally reject those requests and credit back the wager. Just the other week I played a Big 4 number straight/box just before cutoff - the straight ticket printed, the boxed ticket rejected. The self-service terminals flash a huge message when cut-off occurs, and leaves no doubt as to whether a ticket made it or not. In PA, one is more likely to have their "late" wager rejected verses printing for the next drawing.
For large jackpot games, such as Powerball and Mega Millions, stopping sales well in advance is good. Most, and maybe all, PB / MM jurisdictions stop sales aprox 1 hour prior to drawing. Less chance of something going wrong, and avoids unfortunate situations as that Canadian man experienced.
BUMMER:
Well that happened to me once about 20 years ago and the WA lotto had a 10 mins cut off time before 8 PM.. I bought a 3 dollar QP 3 mins after the cut off time.. To my amazement all the numbers come up straight and i checked the ticket over and over again and it was dated for Monday's drawing.. I was not happy and kicked stuff around..
Hum, I wonder if this gambling man will move to a different province in Canada that still prints out same-day draw tickets only?
I don't know of any states' lottery retailers that do that here in the good 'ole U. S. of A.. However, to attempt to fix an abundant anger situation, some vendors used to unplug their lottery machine terminals come 9PM and say something like: "Sorry the machine is down, please come back tomorrow after 6AM." But, the 'to-the-wire impulse folks' got upset about that methodology too.
Now, the vendors don't unplug their lottery machine terminals, instead usually say (when I am rush buying), "I think the cut-off time just ended; do you want to buy the ticket either drawing?" To which I always reply, yes, let's give it a whirl. They usually examine the printed out ticket to teach themselves concerning timing. Several online games, several different cut-off times.
The store's owner, Mehernosh Iranpur, says he sold Ifergan the tickets, and Ifergan knew the second ticket was for the next draw. "I asked him, 'It's for next week. Do you want it or not?'" Iranpur said. "He says, 'No, I'll keep it.'"
It's no different than buying tickets for the next ten drawings, the numbers are drawn in the eleventh drawing, and then claim he should be paid because he "intended to play" and has the play slip to prove it. Ifergan knew the ticket was for the May 30 drawing and got the ultimate gambling slap in the face when the numbers were drawn on May 23.
He should have bought a good watch with part of the $100,000 he spent instead of making himself look like a fool.
"He should have bought a good watch with part of the $100,000 he spent instead of making himself look like a fool."
He was probably advised by his lawyer to continue fighting, regardless of the lower courts rulings.
wow that hurts .
If the lottery sold the ticket, which they did, they should honour it.
Players in Quebec should boycott Loto-Quebec in protest and subscribe to other lotteries instead
I only play by subscription, I never buy tickets in a store.
Blaming the Lottery machine for missing out on millions is nothing but a bad joke. That machine was ready and able to print out his ticket whenever he wanted * meaning earlier- if Joel shows up at the last minute..how is it the machine's fault?
Had he won...he would have created an avalanche of nonsensical lawsuits.
Spot on Guru101
But there is always the possibility that the man was intentionally playing close on purpose for specific reasons undisclosed and thus consequently ran out the clock
Eddessa-Knight
Heisenberg Effect:
Werner Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist was a quantim forerunner saying that an event did not exist unless witnessed & when observed the event becomes changed
Joel forget Loto-Quebec and play Megabucks Doubler from the Massachusetts Lottery. You Don't need to travel you can subscribe from the comfort of your home over the phone.
Is that what you're doing? I thought only residents of Massachusetts could do that.
Well, if he had both numbers on a playslip, and slip was insert before 9pm or 8:59:45., and the second ticket came out on 9.00.07
Would you consider him as a winner though?
They sold him a ticket for the May 30th draw. He wants that ticket to apply to a different draw. He even knew before he paid for the ticket that it wasn't for that draw.
Loto-Quebec did nothing wrong here. It sucks, but let it be a lesson to not wait until the final seconds of purchase time to buy your tickets.
That's not fair, he won fair and square that's all that matters.
This was simply player error. This is going to haunt him to the end, but it was his fault. Rules are rules. Sucks to be him but I feel for the guy. You have to play to win, he did play to win and won but still lost, go figure. Timing is everything.
They did honor the ticket. Unfortunately none of his numbers came up in that drawing.
Most terminals in the US have draw break for 15-30 minutes before the draw where all sales and validations are suppressed.
This is why it pays to mark the advanced play option. This way, he wouldn't have to wait until the last minute to buy his tickets that would be set for future drawings.
It never pays to pig around with the Lottery maifasto: You snooze. You lose.
Timing is everything. Lesson for all ,don't wait until last minute to get your tickets.
Does anyone find it interesting, and rather ironic winning numbers actually came up on a ticket like that? I thought there was some similar happenings in the United States.
No. Simple reason being that playslips don't count, only actual tickets do. While a 10 second wait for a ticket to print isn't usual, it happens nevertheless. I've had ticket requests take longer than that. It's a risk of playing too close to cut-off.
On a related topic, some have mentioned "draw breaks" - some lotteries literally shut down all terminal sales for around 15 minutes prior to drawings. To me that seems a primitive way of running a lottery; annoying to customers and less sales. I'm glad PA Lottery, and many others, keep selling tickets straight through drawings - no waiting, no having to come back, etc. And shows that the lottery has confidence in their computer system to properly handle cut-offs and numbers files.
This guy should just come to the realization that he is a loser, not only in the lottery but the game of life as well.
In Ohio you can play MM up to 10:45 PM on drawing night (up to 15 minutes before the drawing) and PB up to 10:00 PM on drawing night (up to one hour before the drawing) before the terminal switches to the next drawing date. The fact that one has different rules than the other doesn't effect anything, it's the drawing date on the ticket that counts and the tickets can't be canceled.
The time stamp that determines when the ticket was printed and the guy was clearly told it was for the May 30 drawing. Compared to some of the other lawsuits, this is just another example of players having no clue what they are buying.
You're correct. In North Carolina the ticket purchase deadline for Powerball, Mega Millions and Cash 5 is 9:59 PM, with the drawing held at 10:59 PM. From 9:59 until after the drawing, the computer terminals in all ticket sales locations go offline, and you cannot purchase a ticket period. It's done the same way in other states.
Canada needs to get with the program and start doing things the way North Carolina and other U.S. states do it. I don't blame the guy for being seriously ticked off.
If sales had stopped completely, instead of getting one ticket for that night's drawing and one for the next drawing he would only have gotten the ticket for that's night's drawing. Nothing would be any different than it is. He was offered the chance to refuse the ticket, but he chose to accept it, so he doesn't even have an argument that he lost a dollar, never mind the jackpot.
If the ticket was being processed before the deadline then I say give him his share.
RL