By Todd Northrop
A Massachusetts man thought he won a $1 million lottery prize until he realized the ticket he had was a misprint.
Paul Pasquarosa of Boston, Massachusetts, was overjoyed when he learned that his Cashword scratch-off lottery ticket had matched three red words, which equals a million-dollar prize.
But luck for the father of two quickly faded when the ticket was determined to be defective.
Instead of becoming a millionaire, Mr. Pasquarosa was in possession of one of the 2,200 tickets for the game that had a misprint.
It was tough news for Mr. Pasquarosa, who is unemployed.
"I'm looking at it; I have three red words. It says three red words wins a million dollars. I called my son and told him things were gonna be OK," Pasquarosa said.
So he was devastated to find out he didn't win anything.
He had three red words — which equals a million on the prize key, but the ticket was defective.
Pasquarosa's lawyer, George Miller, took a look at the ticket. "At first glance I believe this gentleman won a million, but on a closer inspection I saw there was an offset in the printing. Mr. Pasquarosa was not just disappointed, but visibly ill."
Officials with the lottery confirmed that there was a printing error, and they had attempted to remove the 2,200 misprinted tickets from the circulation of 20 million for the game. Unfortunately for Mr. Pasquarosa, they apparently did not remove all the misprinted tickets.
Paul believes that one lesson to be learned from his experience is to always check your ticket before you leave the store. At the same time, he believes the lottery should take responsibility to selling defective tickets.
"Someone should be liable," Pasquarosa said. "They didn't do their job."
Paul's lawyer questioned, "Is this a situation where there are a lot of defects being put out by the lottery? If there is, should they be taking precautions to make sure they're not giving hope to individuals being solicited by the lottery?"
The Massachusetts Lottery is suggesting that anyone with a misprinted ticket should contact their Claims/Legal Department.
He should be the winner of 1M.
One would think there should at least be some consolation prize to atone for such mistakes. To keep good public relations, and as a compromise
to appease the lottery customer, how about a $500 check from the lottery commission? And to give further options, why not offer a choice of
$1000 worth of scratch/on line tickets instead of the check?
If your reading this MA Lottery Commission, loosen your purse strings, and do the right thing!
There should definitely be a consolation prize!! And heck, more than $500! Something standard like 1% of the prize they thought they won? He would get $10,000 then - not bad and will keep away lawyers who would take a bigger bite out of the pie.
**IF** you are reading this MA Lottery Commission: SHAME on you. SHAME! (typed in 'scolding-mother' font)
NOW go and do the right thing.
There's gonna be a policy change now!
The Massachusetts Lottery is suggesting that anyone with a misprinted ticket should contact their Claims/Legal Department.
What does that mean? Do they get an official "sorry loser" , another ticket and some money for their trouble or is it their way of removing defective tickets out of circulation?
I suggested that smaller amount, in lieu of the fact that there were over 2200 defective tickets out there. Obviously $1,000,000.00 would be
the preferred compensation for such a mistake, but something is better than nothing.
Do they get an official "sorry loser"
Yup, then a quick escort and kick to the rear exit leading into the alley.
It was not the playing field or symbols that were misprinted, it was the payout table off to the side of the play area. It was obvious that it was misprinted (or should have been). Crap like this happens. the guy did not win and should not get rewarded. He never even took it to the lottery for verification. Google News the story and you will see a pic of the ticket. Also, Mass lottery FB page gives a better explanation.
Carry on....
CRAP MA
This is what I don't understand can my lossing ticket be a misprint too and if yes will they pay me my millions even though my ticket print says looser. Lol
The back of tickets in jersey reads in part
"Liability for missprints or other errors is limited to refund or replacement."
I'm sure MA. has covered their azz on this also.
It's MA... of course A-covering is job #1. (only place better? rhode island)
Must have went to the wrong Mass Lottery facebook page because the one I saw was from Wikipedia. Ironic that in the article the lottery almost bragged about winning a lawsuit filed by a 94-year-old woman who wanted the cash option for her $5.4 million Megabucks ticket.
You have some classy people running the Massachusetts Lottery.
As always, losing tickets are not misprints.
I read the article that was on MSN.com The Mass. lottery says that there were 2200 misprinted lottery tickets.My question is:IF YOU KNEW HOW MANY TICKETS WERE MISPRINTED,WHY DIDN'T YOU RECALL ALL OF THE TICKETS SO THAT THIS WOULDN"T HAPPEN?HOW LONG WERE YOU GOING TO CONTINUE SELLING THE FLAWED TICKETS?
PAY THE MAN HIS 1,000,000 DOLLARS.IT WILL BE GOOD P.R.
I only play scratch tickets when I go to NY
he did not win a million dollars. As soon as the misprint was discoved they pulled the tix. So many lottery haters around here.
I'm with Cletu$2 on this... it would be GREAT P.R.
This is so wrong. Mistake or not they should pay him what the ticket had printed . It wasn't his fault he received a misprint of a ticket. What would they think if he gave them a misprint currency for the ticket. Wouldn't they want him to make it good?
They knew exactly how many were faulty and those tickets must have serial numbers of some kind and on top of that they can typically track where the scratchies went and at minimum send out notices to this effect, asking retailers to pull and return according to their standard protocols. I have been reading of so many faux pas lately on the part of the vendors and the lottery, I begin to wonder what's coming next? It's not good business to turn this guy away empty handed in the sense that an incident as this fuels the conspiracy theorists who are eager to suggest they knew there was a failure and decided to make as much money off the faulty tickets and do damage control if they're caught with their pants down e.g. one of the 22k happens to be a winner or APPEAR to be a winner. I am not suggesting they pay him a whopping million but give the guy a few goodies along with complimentary tickets. The odds are always in their favor he won't win off of any of them any way!
It should be a FACTORED CONTINGENCY.
This reminds me of the airlines. They're always delayed (I travel a lot) but if you're a few minutes late for checking in time, the clown in the tight skirt and plastic smile tells you the paperwork has been processed and on its way to the pilot, they can't board any more passengers. I then have to pay for a one way ticket that costs more than the round trip and take a later flight while the plane is still on the ground! When they're late I have to leverage the weight of congress to get a voucher in compensation for my inconvenience.
Each redesign does look more and more like Monopoly money.
I'm not a "lottery hater".But I do believe in fair play and that includes fair play by the state lotterys.
WOW!!!! that's jacked UP!!!!!
Not understanding why this game was not pulled until all of the mis-printed tickets were accounted for.
Not understanding how the lottery player can look at a scratch-off ticket and know that it is a mis-printed ticket.
The lottery commission knew they had mis-printed tickets in circulation and did nothing to nitify the general public. Those tickets could be construed as fraud. The lottery commission knowingly sold defective tickets.
Yes, the lottery commission should make good on every mis-printed ticket in this game that is redeemed to the paltry sum of $10,000.
Unknown how the MA Lottery functions per se. Can say that in actuality its a defective product and as such the guy can file a complaint and be A: reimburst the value of cost. Meaning if ticket cost him 20$ he gets back his twenty or B: If emotional damage occurred to the point of deception, He can file civil suit.
The Lottery in essence Hedged its odds for profits from selling them losers. If publically "THEY KNEW" about the misprints, they had a DUTY to recall it.
Not a beleiver in just handing over a million to the misprint error ticket holder, yet do think the guy deserves re-imbursement for the "FAULTY- MISPRINTED" Ticket. They owe him compensation, its no different in the business world...bad product equals compensation.
I think strongly since this was not the customer's fault, the lottery officials should pay this man because he's an innocent person in this situation.
Again, i was the pay table on the ticket that was misprinted. Not like a misprinted number matched with $1MIL under it. Mass lottery handled it well.
Its like a PRANK I seen on a video online and the birthday girl thinks she won $10,000 on a scratcher ticket and then everyone is laughing while she cant understand why everyone is laughing, they're laughing because the scratcher ticket is a NOVELTY FAKE PRANK TICKET.
Then she reads the back of the ticket and it says you can collect your winning from the tooth fairy or Santa or something like that. hahaha she says very funny you all. I hate all of you!
Ok in jest maybe its funny because its a prank. Yet The lottery wants us to trust them and they are supposed to be run by the government.
THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THE LOTTERY TO OVERLOOK HOW THEY TURNED THIS MAN LIFE UPSIDE DOWN. He may even need counsleing for this. I was suicidal when I chose all 6 numbers in the lotto and then didnt win because the retailers machine was down and I had all 6 numbers on my playslip. I also got nothing. And it hurt bad. I was suicidle for a few days I wont lie. For the lottery to just overlook this is beyond reprouch.
The remedy for this is to give them a win anyway of at least $1000 even the public will agree.
Or have a second drawing where all the people who got the bogus tickets put them into a hat and a winner is chosen and given the million dollars.
That will teach them to not make these type of mistakes again.
The way the lottery should should be held accountable for things like this is like the pharmacist who give a patient the wrong medication and he dies.
There should be punishment for the loottery making bogus tickets
And I wonder how much advertising went into the commercials promoting people to play vs making the public aware of the bogus tickets so people didnt get their hopes up. I bet the poor guy had no idea that the lottery had even printed bogus tickets and really thought he won!
This is just complete bull!
The lottery should have a second chance drawing, but do they no! thats because their crooks! Any honest person would feel so terrible for this poor guy they would do anything to repair the DAMAGE they CAUSED! He did nothing wrong at all and they go on with their lives while his already hardship has just become 100 times worse. I know the pain I had all 6 numbers right before and the retail machine was down.
Ok I was running late and couldnt make it to the next store so it was somewhat my own fault but this guy did nothing wrong.
I wouldnt ever trust a lottery like that! Rotten vultures.