DC Man Sues Lottery After Being Told $340 Million Win Was 'Mistake'

6,654 Views | 74 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Booma94
boulderaggie
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Ever see those videos of people with the fake scratch off $5K winning tickets? Those folks are PISSED when they read the fine print "Redeem at yo mamma's house."

Imagine $1,000,000!
eric76
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JobSecurity said:

I would be pissed but I wouldn't sue over it lmao. He didn't win, he's owed nothing. This is black and white
Exactly.

In the latter 1970s, there was a flyer in the newspapers with a code on it that gave each reader a chance to win a prize of something like $25,000 or $50,000 (I don't remember the exact amount.) I went to the grocery store and my code appeared to match the winning code on the display.

It turns out that the code on the display was not the winning code, but the same code that everyone who didn't win got. There were enormous numbers of people who were excited that day that they had won the prize.
eric76
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BMX Bandit said:

Zergling Rush said:

I'd agree if it was posted for an hour or two....The wrong numbers were up for three days on an official lottery website.

He went to bed at least two nights thinking that his life was changed forever due to incompetence at the lottery. The lottery's Errors & Omissions insurance should kick in for at least $250K.
so how is he "damaged"? he thought he was a millionaire. did he go spend money immediately?

being excited and then let down is not damages.
I can see that he would have some cause to be upset if he had the real winning number and threw the ticket away because it appeared to have lost.
El Gallo Blanco
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eric76 said:

BMX Bandit said:

Zergling Rush said:

I'd agree if it was posted for an hour or two....The wrong numbers were up for three days on an official lottery website.

He went to bed at least two nights thinking that his life was changed forever due to incompetence at the lottery. The lottery's Errors & Omissions insurance should kick in for at least $250K.
so how is he "damaged"? he thought he was a millionaire. did he go spend money immediately?

being excited and then let down is not damages.
I can see that he would have some cause to be upset if he had the real winning number and threw the ticket away because it appeared to have lost.
I can also see how the actual scenario would cause someone to be extremely upset. If I thought I had just won $150MM (after taxes etc) and didn't have to worry about anything for the rest of my life and could set all my loved ones up as well, and a few days later, I find out the wrong numbers were posted, I would be pretty devastated TBH...and livid.

I am not talking about law suit or proving damages....but that would be an insane emotional rollercoaster. One of the first things I would do if I won that type of money is tell my 70 y/o father (who had some financial misfortune in recent years) that he was finally free and could now relax and never have to worry about money, or answering to others, ever again.
JamesPShelley
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MooreTrucker said:

BMX Bandit said:

Quote:

What about all the folks that tossed a possible ACTUAL winning ticket because they saw the numbers on the website and thought they hadn't won?
that would be interesting theory if they could prove it
And if they tossed them, they probably can't prove it. I was just pointing out that it's not all as cut and dried as a "frivolous turd" and "blood-sucking lawyers".
Now that's the epitome of redundancy.

aggiehawg
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I am sure the lawyer sent a demand letter before filing this suit. The lottery officials should have anticipated some bad press, pay him nuisance money and get a signed NDA and assignment back. 250 maybe 500,000. Then the lottery entity turns around and sues the quality assurance contractor under subrogation.
The Kraken
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MooreTrucker said:

BMX Bandit said:

Zergling Rush said:

I'd agree if it was posted for an hour or two....The wrong numbers were up for three days on an official lottery website.

He went to bed at least two nights thinking that his life was changed forever due to incompetence at the lottery. The lottery's Errors & Omissions insurance should kick in for at least $250K.
so how is he "damaged"? he thought he was a millionaire. did he go spend money immediately?

being excited and then let down is not damages.
What about all the folks that tossed a possible ACTUAL winning ticket because they saw the numbers on the website and thought they hadn't won?
They would have thought they were one number off, which still gives them a nice payday, so no chance they would have thrown a ticket away. Depending on whether it was one of the 5 regular balls ($50,000) or the Powerball ($1MM). That's assuming a winning ticket was sold on that drawing, and was in New Jersey...so, highly unlikely, anyway.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
aggiejayrod
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Lake08 said:

I can actually see the argument that their official site had his numbers posted. Not knowing the disclaimers on the site, one could argue he should get something……and I can't believe I am saying this.

From archive.org this was the disclaimer in January 2023
Quote:

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained on this website. This website, however, is not the final authority on winning numbers, prizes, games, or other information. Winning numbers are not official until validated by the DC Lottery and its independent auditors. All winning tickets must be validated by the DC Lottery before prizes will be paid. You must be 18 years of age or older to play the games of the DC Lottery. DC Lottery 2023. All Rights Reserved


Currently it's exactly the same except 2024 versus 2023.

The regulation also pretty much bones him:

Quote:

613.1 The dissemination and publication of winning numbers by telephone or in the media is for informational purposes only, and the Agency shall not pay a prize based upon information obtained from the LOT LINE or any source other than the official draw results electronically recorded in the central computer system.

615.4The Board, the Agency, the Multi-State Lottery Association and their employees, agents and contractors shall not be liable for any prize or other claim arising out of the publication or dissemination of estimated prize amounts or erroneous winning number information.

615.5This section shall be applicable to any and all means by which prize information may be communicated to any person(s) or the public at large.




Code was last amended in 1993 so it's applicable to the January 2023 drawing.

I'm not saying he's hosed but….
aggiehawg
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aggiejayrod said:

Lake08 said:

I can actually see the argument that their official site had his numbers posted. Not knowing the disclaimers on the site, one could argue he should get something……and I can't believe I am saying this.

From archive.org this was the disclaimer in January 2023
Quote:

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained on this website. This website, however, is not the final authority on winning numbers, prizes, games, or other information. Winning numbers are not official until validated by the DC Lottery and its independent auditors. All winning tickets must be validated by the DC Lottery before prizes will be paid. You must be 18 years of age or older to play the games of the DC Lottery. DC Lottery 2023. All Rights Reserved


Currently it's exactly the same except 2024 versus 2023.

The regulation also pretty much bones him:

Quote:

613.1 The dissemination and publication of winning numbers by telephone or in the media is for informational purposes only, and the Agency shall not pay a prize based upon information obtained from the LOT LINE or any source other than the official draw results electronically recorded in the central computer system.

615.4The Board, the Agency, the Multi-State Lottery Association and their employees, agents and contractors shall not be liable for any prize or other claim arising out of the publication or dissemination of estimated prize amounts or erroneous winning number information.

615.5This section shall be applicable to any and all means by which prize information may be communicated to any person(s) or the public at large.




Code was last amended in 1993 so it's applicable to the January 2023 drawing.

I'm not saying he's hosed but….

Such disclaimer language did not work for Trump, now did it?

But here is a better question, why did the lottery officials say the numbers they give out for publication are not to be trusted?

Are they changing the numbers behind the scenes?
The Kraken
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aggiehawg said:



But here is a better question, why did the lottery officials say the numbers they give out for publication are not to be trusted?

Are they changing the numbers behind the scenes?
The number selections are shown live online.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
JJxvi
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This guy shouldn't get $340M but there absolutely need to be some kind of punitive result for the lottery commission. Hiding the winning numbers for three days while is fraudulent.
BMX Bandit
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aggiehawg said:

I am sure the lawyer sent a demand letter before filing this suit. The lottery officials should have anticipated some bad press, pay him nuisance money and get a signed NDA and assignment back. 250 maybe 500,000. Then the lottery entity turns around and sues the quality assurance contractor under subrogation.
given this is the original pro se lawsuit filed, its a safe bet that did not happen



Quote:

why did the lottery officials say the numbers they give out for publication are not to be trusted?

in case there is a mistake or error in what is published. the actual drawing is what matters


Quote:

Are they changing the numbers behind the scenes?
would be hard to do with a drawing they do live on youtube.
taxpreparer
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aggiehawg said:

aggiejayrod said:

Lake08 said:

I can actually see the argument that their official site had his numbers posted. Not knowing the disclaimers on the site, one could argue he should get something……and I can't believe I am saying this.

From archive.org this was the disclaimer in January 2023
Quote:

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained on this website. This website, however, is not the final authority on winning numbers, prizes, games, or other information. Winning numbers are not official until validated by the DC Lottery and its independent auditors. All winning tickets must be validated by the DC Lottery before prizes will be paid. You must be 18 years of age or older to play the games of the DC Lottery. DC Lottery 2023. All Rights Reserved


Currently it's exactly the same except 2024 versus 2023.

The regulation also pretty much bones him:

Quote:

613.1 The dissemination and publication of winning numbers by telephone or in the media is for informational purposes only, and the Agency shall not pay a prize based upon information obtained from the LOT LINE or any source other than the official draw results electronically recorded in the central computer system.

615.4The Board, the Agency, the Multi-State Lottery Association and their employees, agents and contractors shall not be liable for any prize or other claim arising out of the publication or dissemination of estimated prize amounts or erroneous winning number information.

615.5This section shall be applicable to any and all means by which prize information may be communicated to any person(s) or the public at large.




Code was last amended in 1993 so it's applicable to the January 2023 drawing.

I'm not saying he's hosed but….

Such disclaimer language did not work for Trump, now did it?

But here is a better question, why did the lottery officials say the numbers they give out for publication are not to be trusted?

Are they changing the numbers behind the scenes?


That was my thought, also. You guys are such rubes. The lottery commission "said" those were the wrong numbers. Yeah, if I had to pay it out, I might make the same claim.
BMX Bandit
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Quote:

That was my thought, also. You guys are such rubes. The lottery commission "said" those were the wrong numbers. Yeah, if I had to pay it out, I might make the same claim.
so you think the actual numbers drawn were the numbers on his ticket? really?

other than racism, whats the reason they wouldn't want this man to win?
aggiehawg
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The Kraken said:

aggiehawg said:



But here is a better question, why did the lottery officials say the numbers they give out for publication are not to be trusted?

Are they changing the numbers behind the scenes?
The number selections are shown live online.
Are they really? Or recorded before? Do you know for sure? I don't.
aggiehawg
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BMX Bandit said:

Quote:

That was my thought, also. You guys are such rubes. The lottery commission "said" those were the wrong numbers. Yeah, if I had to pay it out, I might make the same claim.
so you think the actual numbers drawn were the numbers on his ticket? really?


Those were the numbers being reported from the lottery officials

No quality assurance test situation would report those and not correct that for three days.
BMX Bandit
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Quote:

Those were the numbers being reported from the lottery officials

No quality assurance test situation would report those and not correct that for three days.
those were the numbers on the lottery website posted a day before the drawing even took place. no one with the lottery told the contractor that posted the wrong numbers that those were the winning numbers


not sure what you mean by quality assurance test "reporting those"
aggiehawg
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BMX Bandit said:

Quote:

Those were the numbers being reported from the lottery officials

No quality assurance test situation would report those and not correct that for three days.
those were the numbers on the lottery website posted a day before the drawing even took place. no one with the lottery told the contractor that posted the wrong numbers that those were the winning numbers


not sure what you mean by quality assurance test "reporting those"

This.

Quote:

claim that the confusion arose from a technical error stemming from a quality assurance team running tests on the website. On that day, powerball numbers matching Cheeks' ticket were published to the website "accidentally," according to the defendants.
Soooo, no one posted the real numbers, for several days? Can't have it both ways on this.

This is a crap case but not one lottery officials should ever want to fight that battle. Very stupid. Settle it out of court and make it go away. It is not like they don't have the funds available.

This is easy business 101 decision. They knew they screwed up or their contractor did. Pay the nuisance value and make it go away.
BMX Bandit
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Quote:

Soooo, no one posted the real numbers, for several days? Can't have it both ways on this.
what do you mean "have it both ways"?

On 1/6, the website contractor posted (for example) 1 7 9 10 as winners
On 1/6, man purchases ticket with numbers 1 7 9 10
On 1/7, the live drawing results in number 1 5 6 8
On 1/9, the website is corrected.


no one posted the numbers pulled during the live drawing for a couple days. thats a fact of what occurred.
BMX Bandit
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this is from teh motion to dimiss:

Quote:

Attached as Exhibit to Plaintiff's Complaint is an affidavit by Brittany Bailey, Project Manager for Taoti Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Taoti Creative. It explains in detail Plaintiffs attempted scheme to capitalize on what was an obvious error on the website of the District of Columbia Office of Lottery and Gaming ("OLG").

Rather than random numbers being posted on "test" website by Taoti, as intended, they were mistakenly posted on the OLG website as Powerball winning numbers on January 6, 2023 for the following day. (See Exhibit to Plaintiff's Complaint.)

First, any ordinary person knows that winning lottery numbers are not posted or advertised in advance; they cannot be because they have not been drawn yet. Second, the list of numbers posted did not include Powerball number, but simply blank red ball.

These red flags would cause any reasonable person to know that they were not the valid winning numbers for the following day. OLG posted the correct numbers drawn on January 7 that same day, but the test (and incorrect) numbers, with the conspicuous blank red ball, remained on the website along with the actual winning numbers until January 9, 2023, when Taoti employees saw the test numbers, realized the error, and took them down (Exhibit 1 to Plaintiff's Complaint, second image).

The test numbers were never the actual winning numbers. Plaintiff attempted to cash in on what he knew to be an obvious error. He knew what the winning numbers were when they were posted on January 7, and knew when he attempted to cash in his ticket that it would be denied.
the docs can all be pulled at https://portal-dc.tylertech.cloud/Portal

case number is 2023-CAB-007128

the more you read, the more you see this is a moneygrab scam. he knows he didn't win.

in his lawsuit, he acknowledges there were two sets of numbers shown on the website and includes a photo of the screen.

his ticket numbers were 7 15 23 32 40 powerball: 2

the posted wrong numbers were 7 15 23 32 40 powerball: blank

the correct numbers were posted underneath: 35 36 44 45 67 powerball: 14


YouBet
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I once won a car at Dreamforce. I was contacted and told I had won and everything. When I reached out to our Account Executive to get the ball rolling on getting me my car she regretfully informed me that they had simply given it to someone else instead.

M'fers!!!! Co-workers and I actually laughed about that. I didn't need a car and while I could have just turned around and sold it for cash I never got that upset over it. Was amazed at the bait and switch more than anything.
aggiehawg
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Quote:

no one posted the numbers pulled during the live drawing for a couple days. thats a fact of what occurred.
Why not?
aggiejayrod
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BMX Bandit said:

this is from teh motion to dimiss:

Quote:

Attached as Exhibit to Plaintiff's Complaint is an affidavit by Brittany Bailey, Project Manager for Taoti Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Taoti Creative. It explains in detail Plaintiffs attempted scheme to capitalize on what was an obvious error on the website of the District of Columbia Office of Lottery and Gaming ("OLG").

Rather than random numbers being posted on "test" website by Taoti, as intended, they were mistakenly posted on the OLG website as Powerball winning numbers on January 6, 2023 for the following day. (See Exhibit to Plaintiff's Complaint.)

First, any ordinary person knows that winning lottery numbers are not posted or advertised in advance; they cannot be because they have not been drawn yet. Second, the list of numbers posted did not include Powerball number, but simply blank red ball.

These red flags would cause any reasonable person to know that they were not the valid winning numbers for the following day. OLG posted the correct numbers drawn on January 7 that same day, but the test (and incorrect) numbers, with the conspicuous blank red ball, remained on the website along with the actual winning numbers until January 9, 2023, when Taoti employees saw the test numbers, realized the error, and took them down (Exhibit 1 to Plaintiff's Complaint, second image).

The test numbers were never the actual winning numbers. Plaintiff attempted to cash in on what he knew to be an obvious error. He knew what the winning numbers were when they were posted on January 7, and knew when he attempted to cash in his ticket that it would be denied.
the docs can all be pulled at https://portal-dc.tylertech.cloud/Portal

case number is 2023-CAB-007128

the more you read, the more you see this is a moneygrab scam. he knows he didn't win.

in his lawsuit, he acknowledges there were two sets of numbers shown on the website and includes a photo of the screen.

his ticket numbers were 7 15 23 32 40 powerball: 2

the posted wrong numbers were 7 15 23 32 40 powerball: blank

the correct numbers were posted underneath: 35 36 44 45 67 powerball: 14



reading that he sounds like a scam artist who needs to pay attorneys fees and possibly charged with fraud
BMX Bandit
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aggiehawg said:

Quote:

no one posted the numbers pulled during the live drawing for a couple days. thats a fact of what occurred.
Why not?


Error.

Turns out from reading actual court docs, they were both on the website
aggiehawg
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BMX Bandit said:

aggiehawg said:

Quote:

no one posted the numbers pulled during the live drawing for a couple days. thats a fact of what occurred.
Why not?


Error.

Turns out from reading actual court docs, they were both on the website
Oh, a new defendant?
BMX Bandit
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New defendant? Huh?
A_Gang_Ag_06
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aggiehawg
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You have lost both your humor and sarcasm meters recently.

Lighten up, Francis.
RogerFurlong
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BMX Bandit said:

Quote:

I'm not sure he should get the entire $340MM but he sure as hell should get something for negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
his "damages" are that he was elated he thought he was a millionaire, then it turned out he wasn't.

dumb case

I saw a case last week where a guy had to pay $350 million even though there were no damages.
BMX Bandit
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Another dumb case.

Maybe if this Cheeks fellow can get the state of New York backed by the federal government to back his case with free propaganda from every major media outlet and get the case heard by a crazy judge out to get the lottery people, he might have a chance.


Kansas Kid
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DrEvazanPhD said:

I'm convinced no one actually wins those big lotteries. There's a magical "winner" and the money escheats to the state when not claimed.

A distant friend of my brother won the Powerball with around a $45mm payout. They bought all the fancy stuff, exotic vacations, gave a lot of money to friends and family, and within 6 or 7 years they had to file bankruptcy.

It amazes me how often these stories end up like this with families destroyed by divorce, litigation, etc. I find no redeeming value for the lottery. At least playing blackjack or craps you can get some great social engagement with other players and the dealers.
aggiejayrod
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aggiehawg said:

You have lost both your humor and sarcasm meters recently.

Lighten up, Francis.


If we all keep arguing about this we really need to find somebody to bill
taxpreparer
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BMX Bandit said:

Quote:

That was my thought, also. You guys are such rubes. The lottery commission "said" those were the wrong numbers. Yeah, if I had to pay it out, I might make the same claim.
so you think the actual numbers drawn were the numbers on his ticket? really?

other than racism, whats the reason they wouldn't want this man to win?


Let me see...
If I had control of 340 million, what would be the reason to want anyone to win?

Edit to add: the probability that the incorrect numbers matched his ticket are the same as the winning numbers matching his ticket. Incredibly unlikely.
Kansas Kid
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taxpreparer said:

BMX Bandit said:

Quote:

That was my thought, also. You guys are such rubes. The lottery commission "said" those were the wrong numbers. Yeah, if I had to pay it out, I might make the same claim.
so you think the actual numbers drawn were the numbers on his ticket? really?

other than racism, whats the reason they wouldn't want this man to win?


Let me see...
If I had control of 340 million, what would be the reason to want anyone to win?

Edit to add: the probability that the incorrect numbers matched his ticket are the same as the winning numbers matching his ticket. Incredibly unlikely.

Taxes. The money is controlled by the multistate lottery not the individual state so it isn't like they could magically keep the money. If a state can get a resident to win the prize, they get to tax the entire amount as income assuming state law doesn't exempt lottery winnings like CA or it is a non income tax state. Even in those cases you would likely get a lot of sales and property taxes from what the winner wins.
yell_on_6th st
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I don't play any of that crap but it's fun to watch you idiots waste brain cells arguing both sides! Lol, get a damn life
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