If he picked the numbers and presented a legitimate winning ticket then he is entitled to all monies won so pay up Illinois Lottery!!!

Why did he wait 2 years?

...honest question.

late edit:
I KNOW that the MegaMillions has a minimum time to claim your prize.  All lotteries do...

According to USAMega, IL has 1 year in order to claim your prize before it's forfeit.  That's the maximum amount of time that any of the states get.

He had a year to make his claim, if he waited longer then Illinois owes him nothing.  Sounds like he want the court to say that rule shouldn't apply in his case.

If he purchased the ticket on that date and it was for the drawing on the same day (for 250M) then he's full of crap because that drawing had no winners. Unless somehow in the millions of tickets sold, his numbers somehow came up missing. There were also no second tier prize winners from Illinois. If the ticket was bought for the 31st when four people split the 330M jackpot then it still wasn't his, however maybe he was one of the three who won a second tier prize out of IL? Maybe it was a 10,000 dollar prize or lower, oh well whatever. There's not a lot to go on, did he wait over over a year to try to claim it? If so then its his own damn fault and should take some responsibility for his own stupidity. Who waits that long to try and claim a prize? Did he lose it and then find it later? Again, that's not the fault of Illinois.

Illinois didn't screw Johnnie Cooper, Johnnie Cooper screwed Johnnie Cooper.

The way I read the article, it only says he filed suit April 14th.   He may have been trying to collect and only now filed the lawsuit.

That's the way I saw it too..after exhausting all attempts to collect, then he filed suit. 

I would like to know why they are refusing to pay him. Did he really have the winning numbers? Was the ticket edited somehow? Was he late trying to cash in the ticket? I wish we had more information to work with.

I don't understand how they can just refuse to pay someone who has the winning ticket.

I'm going to be honest.  I don't believe he has a winning ticket.  I just think this person wants to get something for nothing.  A lot of people think they can out smart the lottery and try to get whatever they can out of them by altering a ticket.  When they realize the State Lotteries aren't DUMB they will test the intelligence of the judicial system.

I would like to have more information in order to help solve this mystery.

I don't believe an altered ticket had anything to do with it but the article is lacking in all the details.

Not to call the guy a scam artist, but I'm not sure I believe him.

Nothing against anybody about to read this part:

I think this man might just be a slick lawyer.  The article states he's representing himself in the trial, so there's little to no overhead cost to attempt to sue the Lottery.

If he loses (likely) - He'll say some strong words and skip of to do whatever it is he does without it costing more then just a little time.
If he wins (not likely) - He'll collect an "unspecified amount", likely with "Pain and Suffering" or some such attached.

Perhaps we're msising some piece of crucial information in the overall scope of things... but I'm less likely to believe.

According to MegaMillions.com, nobody had matched all 6 numbers for the drawing.

The economy is going down..... phony lawsuits are going up.                 ....any questions?

No, but there have been NUMEROUS attempts by complete idiots to collect using altered tickets.  Like the lady from New York that taped two tickets together...  I would say if it's not altered...  There is something. 

Wasn't that a great story?

That was great!!!  I still laugh about it today.  Just look at the ticket.  OH, those numbers on the bottom don't mean anything!!!  And that is $10 under the 9...  Not forty which is printed below it...  That must have been a typo right?

Either way, I have a problem trusting what people say.  ESPECIALLY when money is involved.

HA!  That reminds me of something a long time ago, when the GA Lottery first started (and I was in elementary school).  I would see stories on the news about people cutting out the prize amounts from losing tickets and pasting them onto another losing ticket to make it look like they matched 3-like grand prize amounts (and subsequently getting arrested).

The crazy things some people will do...

Because it says East St Louis this smacks of a Jesse Jackson style shakedown attempt.

Find a cash-rich target, in this case the lottery.

Threaten them with "bad pr" if they don't give in.

Hopefully you've picked a target (chump) that will settle out of court even if you are wrong.

I think the clown in East st Louis is actually thinking he can appeal this one all the way up to Obama.

HMMMMMMMM

I am still scratching my head....not enough info

I don't understand how so many people can read the article and apparently not notice that it has absolutely no information that's actually useful for determining whether or not the guys claim has any legitimacy. According to the article, the guy says he bought a ticket that was a winner and the lottery refused to pay. There's absolutely no information to support his claim.

The only thing I feel sure about  based on the article is that the guy went whining to a newspaper and the paper wrote a story, seemingly without investigating the claim or contacting the lottery.

Representing himself?

I suspect if he had a legitimate case that he would have a flock of lawyers begging to represent him.

The problem is he never said how much he is owed.  The cost of a flock of lawyers could exceed the amount of the prize if he didn't do  better than a 4+1.   Beside if the state used the prize to repay money owed the state, it could all be gone.

Medication Time!  Go to the half door!

  Rules are rules ..... snooze you lose.

Irrational stuff,  probably some type of drug abuse.