Sopranos' Vinny Vella fumes over $5M lotto misprint

Comment #32

tntea — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:25:09 GMT

where can this story be located

Comment #31

tntea — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:22:03 GMT

That was the funniest youtube I have ever seen.. Thanks for sharing. I still get kicks out of hearing it.

Comment #30

lorramil — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:06:48 GMT

Sis and I had a 5 million dollar winning instant lifetime riches game 540 NJ ticket Aug 2006 at QuickCheck. We did not secure it. It wound up in the hands of our township and was cashed in by those to whom we turned for help. The police refused to take a lost ticket report unless we could positively say it was stolen and not AWOL. We at first believed it had been found on our property instead of in our property. Some one had been stalking us. We spent two years trying to reclaim it. we even had

Comment #29

LottoAce — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:19:42 GMT

I don't play Scratch off tickets. I only play ball machine drawings.

what I have a problem with, is that the lottery officials mistakes are not just limited to scratch offs.

I wonder how many drawing errors they have made in the Powerball and Megamillions.

I remember one misdraw myself. had I have had those numbers that originally came up that draw and the lottery officials refused to pay me. you can believe that we would have been going to court!

wether or not I would ha... [ More ]

Comment #28

lotto BJ — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:32:32 GMT

Jimmy should get paid,if there were mistakes made on the winning tickets, just think how many losers have been thrown away that was winners it works both ways.NONE of the lotterys have ever acknowledge that they

misprints on losing tickets. it never happens

Comment #27

justxploring — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:25:19 GMT

I agree with you, but I'm sort of in the dark here, because it's been a long time since I've purchase a scratch-off. Has that ever happened

Comment #26

truecritic — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:14:20 GMT

If the number you scratch says 7 and below it is printed svtn or whatever to indicate seventeen, then it is like a check. They should give the person back their money though - or replace the ticket.

If the number you scratch says 7 and below it is printed seven - and the code number that the lottery looks at says it is not a winner - they should pay. My argument is, if everything looks right to the consumer but the only way to tell a ticket is a loser is in the secret code number - the lotter... [ More ]

Comment #25

justxploring — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:26:27 GMT

I think the example of a check is a good analogy. Someone might go to a bank hoping a check is really for $455.00 If it says Forty-five and 50/100 dollars then it's not $450.00.

Comment #24

KY Floyd — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:15:37 GMT

If you read the article again, maybe you'll notice that they didn't sell 4500 tickets that were known to be defective. They knew there was a problem with 4500 tickets, so they weren't sold. No matter how careful they are there will always be some errors. That's one of the reasons that the numbers are printed as numerals and as words. You can hope as much as you want, but he will lose.

Comment #23

truecritic — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:15:08 GMT

RJ

He doesn't have an argument.

I did say regardless of the error on this particular ticket. You are probably right about this particular case.

Comment #22

RJOh — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:40:05 GMT

........after officials at a state lottery office refuted his claims, insisting one of the sevens was actually a number 17.

The official also pointed out an abbreviation underneath the numeral to dispel any further queries.

Vinny argued that the 17 looked like a 77 because of the ink over run but just like any document of value, like a regular check for example, both the printed numbers and the written numbers have to agree. That's not a new rule made up to deny him a prize, that rule has... [ More ]

Comment #21

Guru101 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:44:15 GMT

I agree. In a way it's like a car accident. If you hit another car, even if it was an accident, you're still the one at fault, and you still have to pay. It's the lottery's responsibility to make sure the lowest amount of defected tickets are sold. They neglected to do that, thus they have committed negligence. You can still forget whatever legal disclaimers they have or the letters that are under the numbers; negligence still remains. I would be upset too if I spent $20 on a defected ticket to... [ More ]

Comment #20

truecritic — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:53:42 GMT

So let me get this straight - regardless of the error on this particular ticket, everyone, including the lottery says even if it prints the correct winning number where you scratch, it could be an error. And they won't pay.

Suppose the error looks like a losing ticket where you scratch? But the code number below shows your ticket to be a big winner. How are you supposed to ever know it wasn't a loser? No one I know has every ticket scanned.

I think lotteries should pay for any and all legi... [ More ]

Comment #19

Coin Toss — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:45:19 GMT

They shoped this on the news, and the news report said they can't show a lottery ticket (didn't explain why not) so they showed an artist's rendition.

This is kind of flaky, but underneath the numbers on this ticket, where the numbers are writtne out, the written out number said SEVTN. Vellas was saying change that T to an E and it spells SEVEN and that was the misprint, that it was a 7.

When I saw this I checked an Illinois scratcher and if the number is 17 it is written SVTN.... [ More ]

Comment #18

justxploring — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:37:54 GMT

That's exactly what they did, Pumpi. It's not a winner, but the man who bought the ticket is upset because it appeared to be one when he scratched it. This has happened before as someone pointed out in another post. The bottom line is, when they scan the ticket, that's what they use to determine the outcome. There will always be printing errors, so people need to check everything on a scratch ticket carefully. Personally, I don't buy them.

Comment #17

pumpi76 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:23:33 GMT

i don't understand, don't they let the computer do this? Computers don't maker errors, they can't possibly make errors...Why don't they let the computer take over the situation....

Comment #16

OUTLAW67 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:07:48 GMT

VINNY WILL WIN either 5 MIL, OR 100 MILLION- minus fees( 35%) so its 5 or 65 ny lottery will loose

Comment #15

JimmySand9 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:07:10 GMT

This happened in Florida twice before.

Comment #14

Guru101 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:59:20 GMT

Normally, I would say tough luck, but they acknowledged that the tickets were defected and allowed them to be sold anyway. 4500 of them, and those suckers cost $20 each. That's $90,000 worth of defected tickets. That's way too much. I hope he wins in this case.

Comment #13

petergrfn — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:51:51 GMT

When I read this it reminded me of the scene in goodfellas where Frankie Carbone is saying he can't hit a number. LOL

Frankie Carbone: I could never hit that number

[unintelligible]

Tommy DeVito: Frankie, Frankie, Frankie. What the f... does 528 have to do with 460? I can't believe this guy. F...in' 528 ain't even close to 460. Now what the f... does that got to do with anything?

Frankie Carbone: Eh, I been playin' that numba for three years

Comment #12

justxploring — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:56:21 GMT

You know what I look like after telling everybody I won? I look like some big ass.

Then just shaddupa you face!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFacWGBJ_cs

Comment #11

dejack03 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:28:59 GMT

I agree 100%. For them to allow 4500 tickets to be sold with a known error that could indicate false positives...I say they should eat this one and pay the man the money.

$5,000,000 to the NY Lotto is POCKET CHANGE. I believe it is an appropriate penalty for their incompetence in not preventing these tickets from being delivered to the end buyer. It will be a message to other lotteries to GET IT RIGHT when they print their tickets. God forbid a single mother on welfare with 4 kids get this ti... [ More ]

Comment #10

KY Floyd — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:06:27 GMT

Scratchers are like checks. The numbers that matter are printed twice, once as numbers and a second time as words. If the number he thinks is a 1 doesn't say one under it, then it's not a 1. Thinking you won doesn't mean squat when your ticket isn't really a winner.

Comment #9

Lotto*Love — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:06:54 GMT

NOTE TO SELF*

Next time I think I have a winning ticket....blow it up to billboard size just to make sure so I don't look like an ass.

WHAT EVER! I would so make them lottery people swim with the fishes

Give em da money

Comment #8

ptcruiser70 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:15:26 GMT

you dont mess with the sopranos they are all about bussiness you might get hurt

Comment #7

DC81 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:09:29 GMT

Someone is gonna get whacked

Comment #6

fja — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:45:36 GMT

Time to go to the mattressess Vinny....

Those lottery officials are pimps,,,they never could have out fought Santino

Comment #5

nanolike — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:35:08 GMT

Sorry Vinny this really really bites. I hope you do bring them to their knees!

Once I got a lotto ticket out of a machine and there were only two numbers on the ticket the others where not even there so there were 4 spaces invisible not a thing where numbers should have been. ___ ___ 23 ___ 42 ___

Didnt know what the hell to do with that ticket, maybe fill in the blanks myself

Comment #4

four4me — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:25:23 GMT

And what if there were more big money winning tickets among the 4500 tickets they destroyed. I guess that doesn't matter to the lottery.

Comment #3

ThatScaryChick — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:11:45 GMT

This is one reason why I dislike scratch off tickets. It's too easy for printing errors and other mistakes to occur. And if you believe you have won something, they can say, Nope it was just a printing error.

Comment #2

BaristaExpress — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:45:09 GMT

Lottery spokesman John Charlson is blaming a rare printing issue for the mix-up, admitting an ink problem affected 4,500 tickets, which have had to be withdrawn. That statement in it's self should have been what happen to the whole run of tickets for that game! No excuse for anything less than to be done to avoid this type of thing that is about to happen to the New York Lottery! You see if they destroyed 4500 tickets then they should have destroyed the whole run and started over after the probl... [ More ]

Comment #1

MaddMike51 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:25:48 GMT

Maybe instead of calling in the lawyers he should ask Tony Soprono if he'll make the lottery an offer they can't refuse.

Sopranos' Vinny Vella fumes over $5M lotto misprint

Lottery Post — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:18:00 GMT

Former The Sopranos star Vinny Vella is threatening legal action against New York state lottery officials after they rejected what he believes is his $5 million winning ticket.

The 61-year-old actor who played Jimmy Petrille on the hit U.S. drama purchased an Extravaganza lottery ticket last Thursday, June 12, at a New York store to be in with a chance of winning a share of the $500 million jackpot.

He was shocked to discover what he believed to be two sevens on the scratch ticket which wo... [ More ]