Calif. Lottery misprint leaves 'winners' with nothing

Comment #39

LckyLary — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 02:34:35 GMT

California, LISTEN UP!

REDESIGN your scratch-off tickets, the ones like Crossword where you mark off letters or numbers in that manner, with scratch tickets which are shaded over and the player would remove just the blue shading.

Players...

If you are playing a ticket and ANYTHING looks abnormal like different letters appearing, report it to Lottery HQ, that way you are also helping other people not to get tricked.

Comment #38

RJOh — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:09:51 GMT

I read in another story that even the winning tickets were misprinted and the only way to tell if they were a winner was to check their bar code which means some of the winning tickets could be discarded if players don't check their losing tickets at the retailers. The California lottery has said it will pay up if the winners are confirmed by the bar code on the bottom of the ticket--regardless of the misprint on the scratcher layer.

Comment #37

KY Floyd — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:13:33 GMT

The article says that 4000 of them may have been sold, so at $20,000 each that's $80 million in imaginary prizes. What they lose in future ticket sales will be a drop in the bucket compared to what it would cost them to pay for the bad tickets.

If you want to boycott the California lottery because some tickets were misprinted that's certainly your right, but most of the the sheeple, including the ones who bought what they thought was a winning ticket, will be back in line right away, hoping t... [ More ]

Comment #36

KY Floyd — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:08:34 GMT

A bunch of people are whining and crying. Oh, boo hoo! I thought I won so I should win.

Sorry, but life doesn't work that way.

As far as the error rate in printing the tickets, that's determined by the ratio of bad tickets to good tickets, not how many bad tickets they printed. Somewhere in the setup process the error was introduced, and once the problem happened it was going to happen to the entire run of tickets printed from that setup, whether it was 1, 10, or a million. Those 11,000 t... [ More ]

Comment #35

KY Floyd — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:02:22 GMT

Bummed out? Absolutely. PO'ed? Maybe. Up in arms? No.

There's no question that it would be really disappointing to think you've won a substantial amount of money and then find out it's a mistake, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to something. The rules are clear about the lottery's liability for misprinted tickets, and there's no question that the tickets we're talking about were misprinted. None of the people were unfairly denied a prize they were entitled to for a winning ticket. The... [ More ]

Comment #34

dumars798 — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:03:23 GMT

Sooner or later we will see

some lawyers involved,this

is so upsetting

Comment #33

LckyLary — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:00:37 GMT

CORRECTION: I found a video on abcnews of the actual story, and they were showing the mismatched layers. Maybe the shading is an illusion and the letters underneath are normally an exact match. They layered the wrong latex and so when a letter was scratched in the puzzle layer a different one was underneath. STILL this raises a bigger question: If you see words change to GLEEP and TOOM etc. right before your eyes would you not be A LITTLE SUSPICIOUS that the ticket is flawed? I'd have called... [ More ]

Comment #32

LckyLary — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 02:30:50 GMT

1. Don't count your money (especially on scratch-offs) until you are given a check.

2. Does anyone have a copy of the actual misprinted ticket? I have a program that can show how many words you got. I'd love to see what it looks like onscreen.

3. If anyone wants this program I will share it. All it does is to double-check your Crossword tickets (most states) by entering the info in 2 text files, and it puts up a window showing a simulation of the game ticket with the letters highlighted.... [ More ]

Comment #31

cps10 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:55:23 GMT

Those are good DD...how about:

What's the difference between a sadist and a lawyer?

A lawyer has a nicer office.

- an offshoot from a joke on Seinfeld.

Comment #30

DoubleDown — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:48:31 GMT

I'm sure some of the people holding what appears to be winning tickets will get legal representation anyway...

Hey, that reminds me :

What do you call 3 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean ? A good start.

What's brown and black and looks good on a lawyer ? A doberman.

Why will sharks not eat lawyers ? They don't eat their own.

This is tongue in cheek , so please don't sue me !!! LOL

Comment #29

cps10 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 18:54:43 GMT

Thank you DD and yes, good point CT...if Floyd had one of those tix, no doubt he'd be up in arms.

Comment #28

Coin Toss — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 18:31:19 GMT

Comment from Mrs. Coin Toss (and this is a good point)

Ask all the people siding with the California lottery if they'd feel the same way if they had one of those tickets.

Comment #27

DoubleDown — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:49:52 GMT

Good ideas CT and CPS.

Last time I checked this is a forum. Ideas will be thrown around that are good, bad, and sometimes ugly .

While those that side with the CA lottery certainly add flavor to the discussion, seems like it could be done without calling others whiners.

DD

Comment #26

cps10 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 16:18:56 GMT

Good response CT

At this point, it would be a good publicity move for them to take the total amount of top prizes, let's say there are 10 of them...get the $20,000 x 10 = $200,000 and divide it equally among all winning tickets, whether they be printed correctly or misprinted. That would certainly save face for them. It might not be a whole lot of money, but this way, the situation can resolve itself without the lottery losing too much money, and they can just discontinue the game. Something... [ More ]

Comment #25

Coin Toss — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 16:06:58 GMT

Regardless of what the California lottery can legally do to cover their butts, what they seem not to realize in this case is:

1. Something like this convinces the public, the lottery players that the house rule is Never give a sucker an even break

and

2. What they're going to save but not honroing the misprinted tickets is very likelt going to cost them many times that in regard to the scratcher sales over the next few weeks.

People will thins why bother, when you think you've g... [ More ]

Comment #24

cps10 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:11:41 GMT

Comment #23

lucky146 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 14:52:31 GMT

Whiny cry babies? Nobodies whining or crying. Merely pointing out that CSL seems to be an extremely unprofessional operation. Im sorry but 11,000 misprinted tickets is WELL beyond any sort of reasonable printing error rate. Heck, they didn't even compensate the lady for her travel time or gas money to get to the claim center. Ya know why? Because all the lottery really cares about in the end is taking your stupid money.

PS Hope it dont happen to you, but ya never know.

Comment #22

justxploring — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:41:00 GMT

I often do not agree KY Floyd, but he's absolutely correct. This has happened before, by the way. Sometimes tickets are printed incorrectly. So are winning numbers in the newspaper. Stuff happens!

Once I got $2,600 more in my paycheck and turned my check back to the payroll department. I was only clearing $800 every 2 weeks they paid me what commission I would have earned for that period!! (should have taken the money and run!) Got to admit I had to think about it for a while.

Comment #21

justxploring — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:30:40 GMT

Maybe someone on eBay will buy it

Comment #20

BobP — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 06:57:48 GMT

In this case the second biggest mistake would be to give the lottery the bad ticket. If any consumer action takes places where the people holding these tickets get anything more then a free ticket those who handed them in have nothing to prove they ever held one.

Besides it would be nice to have a winning ticket to frame even if it turned out to be bogus, nice collectable. BobP

Comment #19

KY Floyd — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 05:58:26 GMT

Good lord, what a bunch of whiny cry babies. It's too bad that some people drove to a claims office, and I think they should get something better than a simple replacement ticket, but it seems that most people here are missing a number of things, the most important of which is that those people didn't buy winning tickets. They didn't buy winning tickets that the lottery said were losers in order to avoid paying, they bought losing tickets that looked like winning tickets, because of the printing... [ More ]

Comment #18

cps10 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:43:35 GMT

DD

That's basically what they're saying...sorry, our fault, we'll try not to let it happen again! Bums in CA...

Comment #17

DoubleDown — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:50:15 GMT

I agree cps..

Oh no , there's a printing error on your paycheck- thanks for playing our game...see you next month, meantime here is a coupon for a free big mac for the time being.

Shame on you, California lottery !!

Da Govanuh needs to step in and squash this like a bug

Comment #16

cps10 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:58:09 GMT

Agreed. It's not the bettor's problem. They went in thinking they were buying a legitimate lottery ticket. If you can't trust that your ticket is valid, then why even bother? It's bad judgment on the part of CSL to let this slip by with a free scratch off. Are you kidding me??!

Maybe when their paychecks come to them (lottery boards, etc), maybe the State should say, Oh crap...these checks are no good...they were printed wrong. Sorry. But thanks for that month's worth of work you did.... [ More ]

Comment #15

cps10 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:56:01 GMT

You also are right Drive...this certainly qualifies as one the biggest gaffs in lottery history, brought to you by your friends at the CSL. It's crazy how this happened. Terrible publicity and they are handling it completely the wrong way.

Comment #14

cps10 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:54:52 GMT

Mike

Thank you for your response. You are spot-on with this one. This is also why they ask you to sign the back of them, because like checks, lottery tickets ALSO are legal tender in that if it is not signed, anyone can turn it in.

They should be compensated far beyond a free ticket. And yes, the printer should be liable. If a handful get out, that is reasonable error rate, and those also should be compensated, but *gasp* FOUR THOUSAND of them? Inexcusable, and they should hang on the line... [ More ]

Comment #13

johnph77 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:47:40 GMT

In order to retain their credibility CA needs to pay the winners then seek reimbursement from the vendor. Period. It shouldn't be the responsibility of the bettor to seek reimbursement from the CSL's vendor.

Comment #12

mjwinsmith — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:33:23 GMT

They're good and bad in all operators, that's really not the issue.

Vendors that have contracts with the state to print tickets should have some type of audit process to catch these type of glitches, and when they don't they are liable. Get a lawyer and sue, maybe not the state since they can get out of anything, that's just the way it is and what people are allowing the state to get away with. But the contractor should be liable for misprints and the financial burden they create.

The ave... [ More ]

Comment #11

Drivedabizness — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:17:48 GMT

Every instant ticket, as well as the posted game rules and State law, state that the Lottery will not pay tickets printed in error. To pay those tickets would come right out of profits, which would hurt contributions to education. Unless of course you levied a hefty liquidated damage against the ticket printer - that might provide an incentive for them to do better quality control. Maybe call on them to make good on the tickets... (as GTECH once did when they had an online game problem in the UK... [ More ]

Comment #10

cps10 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:04:02 GMT

Mike

I know there are some shady online operators, but the big boys give very little trouble to the average gambler.

This whole situation regarding CA is downright reprehensible. I agree...anybody can come up with the old printer error situation...that shouldn't be our problem as players as if they go on sale to the public, then they should be good to go.

Comment #9

mjwinsmith — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:57:11 GMT

If it was me I'd get a lawyer and sue.

Printing error is not my problem, that's what insurance is for and the state should have insurance for such situations.

Crap like this make you wonder about the Lotteries as a whole which is the bigger picture.

Bring back the local bookie, LOL (smile).

And the idiots in Washington want to stop on-line gambling, heck the internet gamers never pulled this crap as far as I know.

Comment #8

RJOh — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:05:44 GMT

All lottery games need lots of losers to be profitable, if a mistake cause there to be lots of winners instead the game could be a financial disaster and no state is going to be a party to that. The facts are when a scratch-off game is designed the number of possible winners and losers are fixed, and if a winning ticket isn't on the roll of tickets from which you're buying you have not chance of winning. That's the reason I seldom buy one. Unlike the games with drawings, everybody have an eq... [ More ]

Comment #7

bambini — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:43:34 GMT

Shame on them, scratchers are the best cash cows for the lottery, they should eat their mistakes just like the rest of us.

Comment #6

cps10 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:39:36 GMT

This is disgusting and dispicable. Next thing you know, some poor sap in El Segundo will hit the Super Lotto for $19 million and the State will claim that it was a printer error ...sorry, better luck next time. Here's a free lollipop for you, sucker.

Comment #5

Briand069 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:36:09 GMT

The California Lottery is very sorry that this error has occurred and will reimburse any player who purchased a misprinted ticket for the cost of the ticket. The Lottery will continue to pay the prize for any winning tickets.

This is posted on the Ca Lottery website. I wonder if this means they will pay all the winners even on the misprinted ones or just real winners?

Brian

Comment #4

CASH Only — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:24:07 GMT

Did she think of having a clerk check her ticket? Maybe she thought if she did that, the agent would say it's not a winner, with the clerk refusing to give the ticket back to her.

Comment #3

Raven62 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:01:09 GMT

They should Honor the Ticket

Comment #2

DoubleDown — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:17:22 GMT

They should make them good, but remember it's THEIR game, so they make the rules .

It would be a good gesture, but since when does the lottery commission and good judgement get mentioned in the same sentence

Comment #1

lucky146 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:12:43 GMT

That is really disgraceful. They should honor the ticket if they made the mistake. But I guess when your dealing with *the lottery* you should expect sleeziness.

Calif. Lottery misprint leaves 'winners' with nothing

Lottery Post — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:35:02 GMT

Many people thought they struck it rich playing one of the California Lottery's Scratcher games. But they didn't, and lottery officials blame a misprint, an error, to explain why some folks got a free game ticket instead of thousands of dollars in cash.

The Luna family thought Christmas had come early.

My understanding is I won it fair and square.

Lucy Luna was playing the $3 Scratcher Word Crossword. The ticket says scratch letters to reveal 10 words win $20,000.

Lucy scratch... [ More ]