Player voids mistake ticket, but it turned out to be the winner
ST. JOHNS — A St. John's lottery player may have saved a dozen dollars while cancelling an overcharged lottery ticket, but missed out on a $30 million jackpot.
A customer at the Corner Store, a convenience store in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John's, ordered a $12 ticket on May 21, leading up to that night's Atlantic Lottery Lotto Max jackpot.
"The [clerk] printed it off and made a mistake on the machine, and it came out $27. She offered it to the customer and she said, no, she didn't want it," store owner Shawn Noel told CBC News on Thursday.
The clerk followed procedure and immediately voided the ticket, meaning that the numbers printed were put back into play.
However, no other ticker buyer in Atlantic Canada purchased them, meaning that a $30 million jackpot went unclaimed.
"Bad, bad luck," Noel said with a chuckle.
"It's nobody's fault. Rules were followed, right to the T. Right by the book."
Noel and his store shared in the loss of luck. As the vendor, he would have pocketed one per cent of the prize, or $300,000 or, as he called it, "a nice little chunk" of cash.
"[But] I feel bad for the customer. That's a lot to play on your mind. What's 10 or 12 dollars on 30 million?" he said.
Jennifer Dalton, a communications official with Atlantic Lottery Corp. in St. John's, said the incident is highly unusual.
"It was big news for us, certainly, here around the office," she said Thursday.
"To our knowledge, we've never had such a potential of a winning prize, being so large, for a cancelled ticket."
Cancelled tickets are actually quite common. Dalton said customers cancel about 52,500 tickets every month, for a variety of reasons.
"It's always their choice whether they want to continue with the purchase or not," she said. However, she acknowledged that the jackpot that got away may make some customers think twice when they see a set of numbers that don't meet their initial fancy.
"I'm sure there's going to be lots of people out there reconsidering whether they want to cancel tickets," she said.
(Click to display in gallery)
Thanks to Mike from Ottawa for the tip.
this is a great example of why you should always buy tickets that are mistakes, well of course if you can afford it. I feel bad for the potential winner. i could not imagine what he/she is going through right now knowing they could have been $30 million richer
If I cancelled a ticket worth that much I think I'd be sick for the rest of my life.
"To our knowledge, we've never had such a potential of a winning prize, being so large, for a cancelled ticket."
Cancelled tickets are actually quite common. Dalton said customers cancel about 52,500 tickets every month, for a variety of reasons.
Lets see now 52,500 canceled tickets every month, this ticket would have cost $27 but figuring the average cancelled ticket is worth $10, that's 52,500 x $10 x 12 months or $6,300,000 per year in mistakes and this is the first time any one remembers one that would have won the jackpot. Not a very good argument for buying mistakes. Mistakes have about the same chance of winning a jackpot as any other ticket.
I like to buy mistake tickets if I have the money to because you never know what might happen.-weshar75
yea your right about mistakes having the same chance of hitting as tickets that are not. but seriously... do you want to end up looking like an idiot for not buying a mistake ticket that could be worth millions??? sorry sir but KOBRA want be that guy
sweet Refafu! this is the reason I am not pushy. I would have probably took those tickets
and forked over the $27...ok maybe not all 27 of them but atleast 12 of them or something.
I've done it many times but obviously luck has not been on my side. So far!
Maybe tonight I'll be lucky with the powerball jackpot. I'm getting me $10 worth.
I think I would also be quite ill. But then, I've never had to cancel any of my tickets before.
Although I do feel bad for the guy, I think his life is going to turn out for the better: my psychological counselor told me about a survey of 21 lottery jackpot winners, and only 1 of the winners said that he was happier after winning the jackpot.
I would be sick, lol.
The store owner looks like he's sick. lol
One day, I ran 5 play slips, and I played the winning number, straight.
I didn't check my tickets and playslips until I got home, but, I knew I played the winning number.
Well, I checked my tickets and my playslips, and the cashier did not run my playslip with the winning number on it , :-(
He/she ran one of my playslips twice. I was heated.
Any tickets that are a mistake, I purchase, if I have the cash on hand.
I was upset over, $600, I would have to be hospitalized for awhile over some Millions.
It's probably just that the guy didn't have the money to buy it. Heck...many are just playing with extra money or money they shouldn't be spending in the first place. When you're living paycheck-paycheck....27.00 is a lot of money to spend on a lottery ticket & ESPECIALLY one made by mistake. I've canceled quite a few myself, but luckily none of them have come out. I've also bought the mistakes and still....they never came out. All I can say is Lord, Bless His Heart!
i buy canceled tickets, it actually paid off in the past, although it doesnt happen to me often..and why did those 20 out of 21 end up less happier is because they probably did all the wrong things
That would stick with me for the rest of my life if that happend. lol
O well, life goes on.
Think how the clerk that made the mistake must feel, if he/she had said my mistake I'll buy it, he/she would be set for life.
I can't even imagine. That is alot of money to be gone.
He Played It the way He Saw It: Winning the Jackpot was Not Meant To Be!
OMG..I Think I Would Have 2 Be Hospitalized Too!
i was thinking the same thing you said. the poor guy may not have had enough money to cover the extra tickets. I'll tell you what... if i was him i sure would not want to know what could have been.
Everytime I have cancelled a ticket, or got to the register to change my ticket numbers.... well...
it happened, the number came out. So, I buy all mistakes now. Missed $600 on one, and $2500 on the other incident.
Missing the million, as mentioned in this story of the $30ML would have sent me in orbit!
I buy them even if I have to go to an ATM for more money.
I've even bought tix from someone who was in line in front of me, and didn't want what the clerk handed them. The only good reason to not buy mistake tix is if you just don't have the money.
That way at least you can tell yourself there was nothing you could do when you get the bad news.
You have a very good point Rjoh, My decision is every time I would accept a 10 and 20% mistake like a tip (depending on the experience) not 100% so I would told the clerk just give some of those not all, not because of the money been short but because I’m not really fan of people telling me what to do with my money, I know I should be used to by now right(US Gov)… hey maybe store is doing this as a side business who knows.
If I missed the pot, that’s because it didn’t belong to me in the first place so beat it
Yea, I know what you mean. I missed on $200 because I didn't check my tickets just a couple of weeks ago... BUT WORSE...I missed on $40k as I DIDN'T play my NY Take 5 numbers and they HIT. So I think of it this way, I GAVE the 80k winner (who would have had to split the winnings with me) 40k, I am just THAT nice...
If you think of the movie SIGNS then just maybe she had someone watching over her and she didn't know it.
This is exactly why I go ahead and purchase the mistake tickets.
But, like others pointed out, it is a big difference going from 12 to 27. If she only had 12 or 15 to spend, coming up with the remainder can be tough.
As a system player I make out play slips with the combinations I want to play so I have no interest in playing someone else's mistakes. I suppose if you were buying quick picks, someone else's mistakes would be fine.
Personally I'd still suggest playing the ticket instead of canceling it. Though I can't remember which ones, I've read about 2-3 people who won big with tickets they thought about canceling. The guy who wanted 3 numbers on individual tickets comes to mind first, the cashier printed off 1 ticket with 3 numbers instead of how he wanted but he kept it instead of having her cancel it.
Plus having to live with knowing you had the winning numbers right there in front of you would pretty hard. You'd always have that 'what if' in your head.
its a ploy by the lottery commision to get more money.
see..look that could have been the winning ticket.
don't cancel...give us more money:)
Really, it was only a matter of time before it happened. Technically speaking, had the customer bought the ticket, she would not have necessarily won. Most people aren't going to see it this way. Most people are going to believe she missed out on winning millions. Which is unfortunate, because the woman who didn't buy the ticket could very well be one of the people thinking this way. If she doesn't know about what happened, then I hope she never does. If she does, then I hope she doesn't think too hard about it.
Another thing I'd like to know is how this story came about. And really, I don't know why it should have been brought up at all. Did the Atlantic Lottery bring it up or did the store owner? A canceled ticket is a canceled ticket. It is NULL and VOID. Nobody, not the Lottery nor the store owner should have made a story out of this. Something like this can traumatize a person, especially considering most people are under the assumption that she would have won millions of dollars had she bought the ticket, when in reality, nobody really knows. The Atlantic Lottery and the store owner should both be ashamed for making a story out of this.
Edit:
Apparently the Atlantic Lottery were the ones who brought the story to light. This is something they should have kept to themselves.
A guy who used to work for me once bought a "mistake". He was playing Pick3, and to save time sometimes bought a weeks worth on one trip to the store. The clerk misunderstood, and printed 5 for the same day. Per procedure, the clerk asked if he wanted to "void" them and he nearly jumped out of his skin to tell her "no".
He said, "this is karma", and he was right. He quintupled his win because of the error.
Like RJ said, however, you have the same chance with mistakes. I've been playing and paying for EVERY mistake since that time, and it hasn't brought me one red cent. No big deal, I know the chances going in.
Also, it depends on the individual store policy. There is some convenience store near me that makes it's cashiers pay for any mistakes. Can you imagine that one? Being bummed out that your mistake just cost you $27, only to have it win you $30M.
If winning the jackpot was not meant to be, why bother playing in the first place? Unless you find entertainment value in just throwing your money away. If I'm going to play a lottery game I'm in it to win it. I'm laying my money down to put myself in a winning position.
I think everyone who buys a lottery ticket dream about winning the big prize, it's just there are those who aren't surprised when they don't and are entertained by the fact they had a chance of winning.
It is not a great example of anything. I always bought my mistake tickets and they never won. I think if someone meant to win the ticket cannot run away anyhow. What is interesting to me is how did they find out the cancelled ticket had the winning numbers?
The Atlantic Lottery made a statement saying they also check tickets that have also been voided. They saw this ticket matched all the numbers and they apparently wanted to make a story out of it, which I think should have never happened. Most people will feel that if she had bought the ticket she would have won, perhaps even the lady that declined to purchase the ticket. This type of thing can make a person sick. But really, nobody knows for sure what would have happened if she would have bought the ticket. More than likely, she WOULDN'T have won. Unfortunately, it's hard for anyone to see the results and want to believe that she wouldn't have won if she did buy the ticket. There really isn't a story here. I can't believe the Atlantic Lottery made a story out of this. This is going to have a negative impact on people for no reason whatsoever.
The reason he didn't buy the mistake tickets is because he's a cheapskate.
Parallels can be drawn. It's like you're in a saloon and there's a broad smilin at ya from the other side of the bar. Everybody knows ya gotta at least buy her a drink or ya ain't gonna get nothin.
Well, Lady Luck was on the other side of the bar smilin at this guy but he was too friggin cheap to buy her a drink.
So he didn't get nothin.
I've had mistakes like having a extra on my ticket by accident and they ask if i wanted it void. Of course i always by the ticket as is and also by a extra ticket of how i wanted it. There's a few times where i had my tickets in the washer which where destroyed and lucky i wasnt the winner.
I agree with the poster that said that the lottery commission should not anounced this. It only is going to make the person that didn't buy the ticket feel horrible.
It's all part of their plan to sucker people into buying more tickets.