Lottery dream shattered for N.C. couple

Comment #26

spy153 — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:10:40 GMT

Me too, I prefer not to fool with them. But my hubby.... Oh baby! That's a different story.

Comment #25

DoubleDown — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:53:25 GMT

The scanned bar code trumps everything, as we have seen with the Florida snafu.

The lottery HQ should have verified before posing these people with the big check.

Jarasan is right, the NC lottery operates like the Keystone Kops...

Comment #24

stavros — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:33:21 GMT

Did they actually have the ticket validated in the store? It sounded to me that they just hopped in a cab and went to the Lottery Commission office.

Comment #23

tntea — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:13:00 GMT

lay away from the scratchers...

I sold 12 $10 tickets yesterday to one guy and he received NOTHING.. not even a ticket...

That is bad.. $120 in the trash in less than 20 minutes

Comment #22

percygrinder — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:41:34 GMT

Thats really sad. I think the lottery comp should be pay them more because they should have mad sure before they take the people pictures. That must be really embarassing. They should be thought a lesson also.

Comment #21

LckyLary — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:07:04 GMT

UPDATE: I have found a video about this story at mms://wm.wfmy.gannett.edgestreams.net/news/052507_lottery_wfmy1.wmv and it turns out that there is NO barcode to scan in and the ticket they were showing on the News didn't have a 46 or 48 over the $250K so it must have been a different ticket being shown. Anyway it's possible in the string of #s if they are OCRed or hand-entered could turn a 6 into an 8 (but it would be extremely rare that it also matched a $250K winner in the database), but... [ More ]

Comment #20

LckyLary — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:35:59 GMT

I am guessing this is what happened, the barcode when read gave a different string of numbers than under the barcode. The ticket agent probably punched them in manually and not scanned the barcode itself but the Lottery HQ did. I am assuming that is where the numbers didn't match? If it was in the play area itself then why didn't this come up when the agent scanned it??? I must be missing something. I do know that a lot of times they will put a number that looks almost like a winning number, i.e... [ More ]

Comment #19

KY Floyd — Mon, 28 May 2007 04:52:09 GMT

The article doesn't say anything about looking at the ticket with a microsope, though that would be a pretty obvious, and perhas the first, forensic technique in the event that there is any question about the authenticity of the ticket. My guess would be that when the guy said there was a microscopic piece he simply meant it was a very small piece. As far as the statement about not relying on eyesight, the validation process is to make sure that what looks like a winning ticket really is a win... [ More ]

Comment #18

emilyg — Mon, 28 May 2007 02:01:23 GMT

I agree.

Comment #17

jarasan — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:38:59 GMT

Is this an alternate reality? You gotta be kidding me. There is a barcode on the back of the ticket that is scannable ANYWHERE (in the state played). As a matter of coincidence I walked in behind a 1 million dollar scratcher winner going to play my numbers Wednesday night. How did we know? Just like every scratchey winner the clerk scrathes off to reveal the number code, which they key and then scan the barcode into the terminal and it verifies the prize with a print out. The print out said

Comment #16

justxploring — Sun, 27 May 2007 15:30:30 GMT

Yes, csfb, I realize that's the case. It's like writing a check. The numbers need to match what is written out beneath Five hundred sixty-three and 25/100 dollars after you fill in $563.25

But my comment was in response to the fact that nobody seemed to notice they missed a tiny spot until the ticket was put under a microscope. As others have written, can you imagine getting your photo taken with that big check and celebrating, only to find out you didn't win? I need to read this art... [ More ]

Comment #15

csfb — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:26:29 GMT

I agree. I do not know how a scratch ticket looks, but if there is a word under each digit, than that word prevails.

Which brings to mind this rule on legal construction: In case of discrepancy between a digit and a word, the word prevails. For example, if the printed digit looks like a '6' but under that digit, the word 'eight' is printed, than 'eight' prevails.

Comment #14

Lkydeb*594 — Sun, 27 May 2007 07:15:33 GMT

yep, I totally agree. I never play scratch-offs.

Comment #13

Coin Toss — Sun, 27 May 2007 06:22:50 GMT

It seems stories like this are happening more often.

Sends a real bad message to the playersand doesn't put the lottery in a good light, not much better than carnival game operators bending the sites on the pellet guns so you can't shoot all of the 3 of Diamonds out.

Comment #12

Kidzmom — Sun, 27 May 2007 04:55:37 GMT

The couple did get hasty....BUT....the lottery office should have validated and checked the ticket before all the photos and congratulations..Heck I would have thought I won too...lol

Comment #11

psykomo — Sat, 26 May 2007 22:49:11 GMT

wellcum the WORLD of SHO business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wellcum to the WORLD of LOTTO business!!!!!!!!!!

welcome 2 USofA

IF and only IF YOU R a CITIZEN of the USA.........let D LEADER's

KNOW>>>>>>>>WE DON't NEED ..........BOARDER PROTECTION!

THE more people THEY let into the USA increases D ODD$$$$$$

PSYKOMO will win >>>>JACKPOT$

LOL

PSYKOMO

Comment #10

BBBx3 — Sat, 26 May 2007 21:32:11 GMT

But there was no cheating, they just got hasty and didn't stratch off the entire ticket. I feel bad, but it wasn't the lotteries fault. They shouldn't have given them the big check before it was validated though, duh

Comment #9

RJOh — Sat, 26 May 2007 21:24:31 GMT

Scratch-off tickets are designed to tease, lots of losing tickets are off by just one digit to encourage players to buy more tickets. If every player who was off by just one digit was awarded $200 taxi fare, the lottery would go broke, this couple got lucky.

Both the couple in Florida who hired a lawyer and this couple who's trying to contract the Attorney General want close to count as a win and it ain't going to happen.

Comment #8

psykomo — Sat, 26 May 2007 20:50:59 GMT

another (1) bites dee dust

...................again and again and again AHhhhhh it hurt's

............so dam BAd

LOL

PSYKOMO

Comment #7

delS — Sat, 26 May 2007 20:38:43 GMT

These stories are occuring very frequently if you ask me. Something is amiss

Comment #6

chasingadream — Sat, 26 May 2007 18:28:27 GMT

oooo thats so sad. At least they paid the taxi cab bill

Comment #5

Littleoldlady — Sat, 26 May 2007 16:04:39 GMT

That is why I don't play scratch-offs very often..there is always that room for error and cheating..

Comment #4

RJOh — Sat, 26 May 2007 15:54:49 GMT

After having had several close calls myself, when ever I think I've won a prize that's unusually large I recheck everything twice. For scratch-offs that means totally cleaning off the latex and checking both the numbers and the text under each number to make sure they both agree. Since I mostly play jackpot games that means also rechecking the drawing results too. I've checked my tickets with the wrong drawing results and thought the clerk was pulling a fast one when told my $150 ticket was o... [ More ]

Comment #3

weshar75 — Sat, 26 May 2007 15:22:43 GMT

Moral of this story is- SCRATCH THE ENTIRE SCRATCH TICKET! -weshar75

Comment #2

justxploring — Sat, 26 May 2007 15:02:05 GMT

I really don't know what to say, except huh? This is not like the other story where the couple didn't even submit the ticket for validation. The Whiteheads were already congratulated and pictures were taken!

We were able to determine that there was a microscopic piece of latex still on the lucky number area, and our prize analyst scraped that area and we were able to determine that the number 48 is in fact a 46, Carter said.

Does this mean that nobody can rely on a winning scratch... [ More ]

Comment #1

Bradly_60 — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:58:03 GMT

Wow that would really suck. Get all the pictures and claim forms filled out thinking you won a pretty good amount of money and a little scratch material remained on the number to make you think you won. Ouch!

B-rad

Lottery dream shattered for N.C. couple

Lottery Post — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:51:00 GMT

Randolph and Sandra Whitehead planned to get out of their small house, buy a car they could depend on and pay their bills. After all, they had just won $250,000 in the North Carolina lottery.

But those dreams came crashing down when their road to riches took a sudden U-turn.

On May 1, Randolph Whitehead bought a scratch-off ticket at the Rocky Mount BP station on Centura Highway. They had the surprise of their lives.

Me and her looked at it together, Randolph said. I put on my glasse... [ More ]