A Florida couple says they have a winning lottery ticket and they want their money, but the the Florida Lottery Commission isn't paying.
Ocala resident Joe Curcio thought he hit the jackpot on a scratch-off ticket that shows a prize of $500,000.
When he tried to claim his prize he received nothing at the lottery office.
Curcio said he bought a legitimate lottery ticket at the Turnpike rest area at Fort Drum.
The state said the ticket had a misprint on it.
Curcio and his family said it's not their fault the ticket has a misprint and that he should be paid what he's owed.
"A deal's a deal," Curcio said.
"I believe there's something wrong with the lottery," Annemarie Curcio said.
The lottery said it prints about 550 million tickets per year and there is the possibility of a misprint.
There are manual, computer and visual checks of tickets submitted for prizes, and the lottery said it uses various layers of security.
It also reminds people that the ticket is printed with a warning that all winnings are subject to verification.
Just my opinion here, but if I were to draw up a legal contract and it had a misprint on it, I would still be liable for that contract. I don't see any difference here. They should pay for their misprint mistakes and work harder to make sure there aren't anymore. That is, if in fact, it was their fault.
A mighty big disappointment: maybe they still have some recourse.
A Florida newspaper wrote:
Annemarie Curcio said they were robbed.
"My husband gave them a real $20 bill and they gave him a fake ticket," she said.
I agree with the above comments, and if the mistake isn't obvious, I think they should pay. However, there is a disclaimer stating the Lottery isn't responsible for misprints. Now this is where a boycott would really help!! We need gasoline, but everyone in FL could stop buying scratch tickets for a month and write letters protesting the decision. I read another article in that describes the so-called error, and I still can't figure it out. At least these people aren't poor (not that it should matter) but imagine if someone quit his $7 an hour job and drove to Tallahassee, only to discover his winning ticket isn't valid. So here's a lesson...wait until you have the money in your hand first!
I'd like to see a close-up of the ticket. Otherwise, it's difficult to make a judgment. I doubt if this couple would have made the trip to Tallahassee if it didn't look like a legitimate winner.
That's one of the reasons I don't like scratch-offs with large prizes. The state contrives what they think is a fair distribution of winners and where they should come from and if you don't buy your ticket there then you are a loser. Players have the illusion that every ticket could be a winner similar to the tickets of lotteries with drawings. The state probably never planned on anyone turning in a ticket bought at the Turnpike rest area.
Here is a video showing what they consider to be an error. Apparently they did match the numbers, but the 2 letters underneath did not match. Click on "watch video" to view. (don't know if dial-up will work)
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=67738
What a riot! After the news video about this "mishap" there is an ad for a law office.
I have a question for people who buy scratch tickets. The numbers matched and it clearly shows that $500,000 was won. But underneath the first "1" there are 2 letters "th" which stand for thirteen. Is this supposed to be scratched off and removed by the player? If I paid $20 for a scratch ticket and it read "match 2 numbers and win the prize shows" and I matched 2 numbers and saw $500,000 under one of them, I would assume I won too.
I still think they should pay.
If I sound as if I was disagreeing with you, Spy, I wasn't. I only mentioned the disclaimer because it gives them an "out" if they find a problem with the ticket. If I drove to Tallahassee and was told I couldn't collect, I'd be on every local channel and screaming about it. It's interesting that they would prefer all this negative publicity instead of just paying. Obviously, they aren't worried about the effects of this article. BTW, I am almost certain this has happened in FL before. (I'm still wondering if, when you scratch the number, if the letters that represent it show, although most people wouldn't think about it. I might wonder why "th" was under the number "1" (or not!)
i think the florida lotto should pay them because the florida lotto made the misprint and mistake.
Why don't you just click the video link at the bottom of the post? It shows the video without all the ads.
The reason they put "one" underneath the number 1 and "th" underneath the number 13 is because people could either scratch off the 3 and make it a 1 or scratch off the 1 and make it a 3. I've seen people scratch so hard, the only way they can tell if it's a winner on not is to check the barcode.
I suppose those people could take it to court but it's obvious the barcode says it's not a winning ticket.
Duh?
You are right! Thanks for pointing that out Todd.
I would expect to be paid as well.
It will be interesting to see where this goes.......
The quote you're agreeing with is wrong. He paid with a real $20 bill and they gave him a real ticket. Like most tickets, it wasn't a winning ticket. Unlike most tickets, it happens to have been a defective ticket. Also unlike most tickets, he gets to trade his losing ticket for another ticket, or he can have his $20 back. When's the last time anyone here got a losing ticket replaced for free?
Stay tuned- this ain't over .
Your opinion may or may not match the law depending on the circumstances, but a lottery ticket is a product, not a contract. All the law says about defective products is that the merchant or manufacturer has to repair or replace them.
Of course not. I'm guessing the whining will go on for days.
Too bad I deleted my other post. It mentioned several other cases where players received misprinted tickets in FL. It's not as uncommon as I thought, and I don't think anyone ever collected a dime, but they got their $20 back.
I sort of agree with you, but not with the same attitude. I don't think it's whining at all. Sure the Law supports the view of the Lottery. However, many times companies that are protected by disclaimers get sued, don't they?
All the law says about defective products is that the merchant or manufacturer has to repair or replace them.
Were the people who got injured (or killed) compensated when the Firestone tires failed on the SUVs? Just curious. When a child seat fails to protect a baby, does it only have limited liability? I suppose what you were saying is that nobody was injured, so they only had to replace the ticket. If I got that ticket, I'd be having a nervous breakdown so then my family could sue the Florida Lottery for damages!!
Technically, it's not what is printed on the game portion of the ticket that matters. What counts is the ticket ID# (or barcode) number and verification code or codes when compared to the lottery's list of winners. With that in mind, it is best to have all "losing" tickets checked.
This also brings up a question of liability on the part of the ticket printing company, although their liability may be limited only to the cost of the ticket.
Maybe this person could round up a few thousand losing scratch tickets and take them in to a lottery office to be checked, citing that the loser could be a misprint and might actually be a winner..
:)
Funny!
This thing will most likely wind up lawyer vs. lawyer.
reminds me:
What is brown and black and looks good on a lawyer ?
a doberman
what do you call 25,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean ?
a good start
Why do sharks not bite lawyers ?
they don't eat their own
I slay me.....
What is brown and black and looks good on a lawyer ?
a doberman
I zoomed in on the video, I can see what happened. The 1 over the $500,000 is printed correctly but the "1" over the "TH" above was meant to be a "13" with something like "THRTN" or whatever. Somehow the right side of that got blocked. The odds of that happening exactly that way must be enormous in and of itself. I think the Lottery should pay them something, even a smaller prize, unless there are 10,000 other such tickets out there. What happened when they scanned the ticket at the Store, or did they bother to do that? Just ran off to Lottery HQ with it? Understandable, but I'd not do that without validating first at the Store. These scratch-offs are notorious for teasing players, leave you with only one letter missing, or you get a full house but the "champion" gets a royal flush. I play them sparingly because I don't know what the real odds are and I think I have a better shot on Numbers or Lotto.
Florida may print 100 million or more lottery tickets every year. I wouldn't expect misprints to be terribly uncommon, in terms of hearing about them, but a couple hundred out of 100 million is only 1 bad one in 500,000.
Yes, people get sued all the time. Often the plaintiff has a legitimate claim, but too often it's because too many people think that if they suffered some sort of misfortune it must be somebody else's responsibility to make things better for them. Just like the subject at hand. Some guy buys a losing lottery ticket, and because a misprint made him think he won, a lot of people think he should be paid half a million dollars.
What I said about defective products was about problems that simply prevent a product from doing what it was intended to do, not product liability. That should have been clear from the context.
What I said about defective products was about problems that simply prevent a product from doing what it was intended to do, not product liability. That should have been clear from the context.
Yes, I was just being difficult.
This has happened before in the past. I do remember reading news articles on Lottery Post about the same ticket (Gold Rush) having misprints. I've noticed that they do reprint that game because it is popular. With the last batch there was a misprint and on this batch there was a misprint. Anyone see a pattern?
In my honest opinion they should pay. They drove to headquarters (look at gas prices) and the numbers matched. Even if it wasn't a winner the lottery should respect their customers with more than the $20 they got in return.
Now is the Florida lottery trying to just get out of paying is right. How do they know that the mis-print isn't the other way around and the number 1 (one) is correct and the letters under are the mis-print and should have said "one" and thirteen would be thtn I think in WI. all teen numbers in scratch offs are four letters not two. I don't play them that much as I don't feel I win enough to justify spending the money on them, especially in my area I don't see many winning scracth offs sold.
CNN.com has a copy of the misprinted ticket. If ever there was a time for dedicated lottery players to unite and rally around a cause - here you have it! This couple should fight until they prevail. I have no doubt that public sitiment is on their side and if they have the wherewithal to stand, they will emerge victorious!!!!
I think this case indicated an unfair business practice by FL lottery, and people in FL should form a class-action law suit.
FL lottery has multiple layers of security to prevent misprint from claiming prizes, but it did not form same layers of protection to prevent customers from mistakenly throw away winning tickets because of misprint. That is an unfair business practice to cheat on people's money. People in class action should pull out all the FL lottery scratch ticket prize claiming history, sue FL lottery at fault for any unclaimed prizes, and ask FL lottery to pay all those money back to the players.