Connecticut House votes to give jackpot to winner who missed deadline

Apr 16, 2004, 9:30 am (11 comments)

Connecticut Lottery

A Hamden, Connecticut man who missed a deadline to cash in his winning $5.8 million Connecticut Lotto ticket may get a second chance to hit the jackpot.

The state House of Representatives voted 81-64 Thursday to give the money to Clarence Jackson, 31, who bought the winning ticket for the Oct. 13, 1995, drawing and missed the one-year deadline to redeem it by three days.

But there's a catch.

The issue was referred back to the legislature's Appropriations Committee, because there was no money set aside in this year's state budget to pay Jackson. Even if the committee approves the plan, both the House and Senate would have to approve it.

Jackson said he has never given up hope, and he continues to play the lottery.

"I play Powerball twice a week, every week _ $7 worth," Jackson said. "You have to stay the course. Every single day I think about it. I'm trying to live the American dream. This country was built on dreams. I'm just praying and wishing for the best. What I went through, I wouldn't wish that on Osama bin Laden."

Debate in the House centered on whether the rules should be bent for one person or strictly enforced.

"Ninety percent of what we do here is change the rules," said Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford. "A lot of people are making a lot of money for the exceptions we give here, and we ought to give one more for a hard-working kid."

Rep. William R. Dyson, co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, supports Jackson's cause and said he would not block the request when it came to his panel.

But Rep. Robert Farr, who opposes Jackson's request, said that everyone must abide by the rules.

Jackson was 22 when he bought the Lotto ticket. He has said he didn't discover he was a winner until 15 minutes before the ticket was to expire _ midnight a year after the drawing. When he took the ticket to lottery headquarters three days later, he was told he had missed the deadline. After lottery officials rejected his appeal, he took his case to the legislature in 1997.

AP

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whodeani's avatarwhodeani

I am a little fishy about this story. He just happens to discover 15 minutes before the deadline. What was he doing the other 525,585 minutes during the year? What made him just out of the blue look at the numbers 15 mintues before the deadline? I think he knew long before and for whatever reason decided not to claim the jackpot until he did and got the date wrong. He just went into the lottery office and came up with the story, "well I only realized 15 minutes before the deadline that I was a winner can't you please cut me some slack." I am not a rules are rules type of guy and each case should be judged on its own merits. From what I have read there doesn't seem to be any extenuating circumstances where he sould be granted the money. His only reasoning whould be carelessness and that is not a valid reason. He shouldn't get the money and that is just tough bananas for him.

BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

Whod - I think when it gets close to the deadline of a big unclaimed jackpot, many times articles will appear in the newspapers and it will be mentioned also on the local news stations.  Perhaps he caught wind of it that way and scrambled around at the last (15) minutes and found out he was the winner!

Anyhow, if they bend the rules for him, they are definitely opening up a big can of worms!  Others in the same situation in the future will ask for the same special treatment.  They have to realize that!

NBey6's avatarNBey6

Unbelievable!!!!

whodeani's avatarwhodeani

Ok, so let's say he didn't know he won. If he was able to scramble around in the last 15 minutes and look at the ticket, then he must have known where the ticket was all along. How many people here know where they put something a year ago? Heck, I don't remember where I put something ten minutes ago a good portion of the time. The only way he would know where he put that ticket (that was bought a year ago) is if he had seen it a number of times over the past year. It has been sitting there and sitting there and you don't bother check the numbers????? Every time you buy a ticket, that ticket has the potential to be worth millions of dollars and if you don't care enough to check it, that tells me you could care less if you had that money or not and if you miss the deadline you don't deserve the jackpot.

NBey6's avatarNBey6

I keep all of my tickets for 1 year and then I burn them.

BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

I also think that unclaimed jackpots should go back into that lottery game's current jackpot instead of to the state!  You have to be good to the public sometimes.

CASH Only

The "prize" should go back to the jackpot fund (although IMO Connecticut should join                        "Hot Lotto".) The man "won" when CT Lotto was annuity-only.

weshar75's avatarweshar75

If you can not claim the lottery prize in the alloted time frame you don't deserve the prize.  Your obviously not responsible enough to read the rules of the game and understand them well enought to know when you should claim the prize.  Reversing lottery payouts by the state legislature is wrong and should never happen in any case.  That is why the lottery has rules for unclaimed prizes.  Besides the fact that if he had a winning ticket he should have known that a validation at any ticket terminal in his state would have given him the chance to claim his money the next business day.

Thomas Covenant's avatarThomas Covenant

You people are tough. What difference does it make if he gets his money? I'm glad things worked out for him. I'm glad he got his money.

hypersoniq's avatarhypersoniq
Quote: O
tg636

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I'm glad he beat the odds and got money that the state wasn't entitled to either, and I'm glad he had 8 years in the fire to think about what a lazy person he was for not checking the numbers in the first place. On the other hand, the deadline is well known and how hard is it to check your ticket? If there has ever been anyone else in the past or future of the CT lottery who has been denied a prize because of a missed deadline, I hope they saved their ticket, because I'd be ripping mad if this guy got special treatment while I got nothing. 

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