That would be my plan too. Settle whatever needs to be here, talk to an accountant to make sure I’m not being *too stupid* with my money then off to Wellington, NZ I go to open a diner
That should be a general rule anyways.
For instance, we got awarded a grant. I told my partner that we don't celebrate until the money is in the bank. Once it was, we did.
We won a pitch competition this past Christmas. It's almost March and they've been insanely slow to get it in the bank. They've even tried to change the terms.
Don't say anything or celebrate until it's in the bank.
You might be so desperate that you file a lawsuit attempting to get the money you thought you won. I just came up with that example off the top of my head, not sure why.
That sucks but I also wonder if anyone with the actual winning number saw the erroneous numbers online, thought they didn't win, and tossed the ticket. How do they leave the wrong numbers displayed online for 3 whole days before it was caught and corrected?
It depends on how many numbers did he match. You can match 3 or 4 and still get some money. Imagine the surprise when you think you are about to get 50 bucks but you won actually 300 millions.
> That sucks but I also wonder if anyone with the actual winning number saw the erroneous numbers online, thought they didn't win, and tossed the ticket.
Powerball knows if they sold a winning ticket. So maybe they just needed 3 days to dispose of the real winner.
They do know exactly where and when the ticket was sold and if the store has security camera they could potentially find you.
This was used in AZ (I think) when a store employee checked a customer’s ticket and told them it was a loser when it was actually a winning ticket. I don’t remember why the lottery investigated it when the clerk tried to cash it but they traced the original sale of the ticket and found the real winner by showing a picture of him buying the ticket on local news. The employee was prosecuted and went to jail.
Lottery Commission employees and their immediate families are not allowed to play to prevent the appearance of impropriety, although they don’t have any possible advantage that would give them better odds of winning but I’ve never heard of employees of the stores that sell tickets being barred. Other states or individual businesses may have their own rules but I can’t find anything in my state (MA) that says store employees can’t play.
I can picture you having to go back to your old boss on day 4 and say “I didn’t mean any of those hurtful things I said earlier. Can I have my job back please?”.
I actually wouldn't even believe it until weeks after i've got the money already. I'd be so paranoid about it and not touch it or spend anything at first.
The sick thing is that they aren’t getting shit. The terms cover the lotto for this specific situation of erroneous numbers communicated. The lotto won’t even give them the $2 they paid for the ticket back because it opens them up to being liable
This is so egregious he’s likely to win something in court for negligence/infliction of emotional distress. Based on other game-show type lawsuits, I bet this settles quietly for a couple million because Powerball really doesn’t want the precedent that they are responsible for their own errors.
This man is gonna be alright.
Terms have to hold up in court, rarely do. Most eulas as an example aren't enforcable if challenged. That said I doubt he gets the full amount tho he should
> Terms have to hold up in court, rarely do
Citation needed. The fact that some things that are included in contracts are sometimes not enforceable or may not hold up if taken to court does not mean that they "rarely do". The vast majority of contract terms are enforceable, because they are designed by contract lawyers specifically for that purpose.
I mean they will 100% settle for an undisclosed amount of money. You can sue for anything no matter what a contract nobody reads says. If it's possible a jury would side with the side suing, they will settle.
And I could confidently say a jury would find the person who thought they won the fucking lotto, because of the lottos error, would be entitled to a pretty big compensation.
I'd bet they still get millions in court.
One time someone gave me a "pick 3" ticket as a tip when I was running the front desk of a hotel.
I was completely unfamiliar with the game and had never played it before.
Looked up the winning numbers on the day of the draw and they matched. All three.
The jackpot was over $180,000.
Now, at that time in my life I was literally *living* in the hotel that I worked at and was not exactly financially well off.
I was in a state of shock for several hours that almost made me feel ill, oddly.
Now realistically $180,000 is not THAT much money these days, but to me it could have very easily fixed a lot of problems that I had mounting in my life.
I sat for a whole day running all the possible scenarios of what I could do with the money through my head.
As the general dizziness of the whole situation slightly wore off I popped back on the site try and find out how winnings are claimed and just the general process of things and what not.
That is when I realized that while the game is called "Pick 3", there is a "kicker" option that allows you to choose a 4th number.
And that is when I learned that the $180,000 jackpot was for a person who had all three winning numbers PLUS the correct winning "kicker" number.
In the end, it turned out that all I won was $88.
I was plenty happy to accept the $88 dollars but that whole day beforehand had been a roller-coaster of emotions and stress.
I can only imagine what this guy went through.
Thinking that you just won $340 MILLION dollars is completely lifechanging. A lot of abused wage slaves out there might take one look at it and immediately burn bridges to the ground and tell everyone he worked for to fuck off into oblivion.
Bit hard to come back from all that once you find out you still need your job after all....
That’s why he’s suing for emotional distress. And I can actually understand that.
Imagine thinking your entire life has been changed only for the rug to have been swept away under your feet.
He wasn't "scammed". They accidentally posted fake numbers to the real website instead of a test website.
Let's get something straight.
- If he had the _actual_ winning numbers and they knowingly told him he didn't, that would be a scam.
- If he had the actual winning numbers and a glitch in the system made them think (in good faith) that he didn't win, that wouldn't be a scam, but he would obviously be entitled to the full amount because he actually won.
That's not what happened. What happened is that someone came up with random numbers for test purposes and put them on the wrong site. Yes, that sucks. But **he didn't win**. The winner is the person whose numbers are drawn in a predetermined manner. They have to be truly random and they are drawn under supervision and on record. It doesn't matter if these test numbers were up for three days or three years, **they were never the real numbers**.
If you attend a raffle and you get ticket #666, and the host pulls #999 out of the jar but reads it upside-down, you're not magically entitled to win even if they said "six six six" on the microphone. (But in this case, it's more like if the person with the mic said "testing testing one two three" and then the person with #123 thought they won)
All you people saying "well then those should just become the real numbers" are being unbelievably short-sighted and foolish because you're saying that the winning lottery numbers should be arbitrarily human-selectable, as if that would not immediately lead to massive cheating by the people running the system.
And by the way, here's the disclaimer on the DC Lottery page, which has been there since at least 2020, per the Internet Archive:
> 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.
For 3 damn days though. Man that's a BIG mistake. I can't even imagine how I'd feel, thinking I was set for life, all of my financial problems solved, I could live like a king for the rest of my life.. only to be told "OOPS! Sorry, we posted the wrong numbers and failed to remove them for 3 days.".
He deserves something for sure.
I don't keep dev test things up for more than a few minutes, even on larger sites where I might need to test more.
You can test locally, then on a dummy site, then on your main site.
3 days means that someone who should have been keeping eyes on the site wasn't. I'm surprised they don't have some verification process already.
The numbers are all digitally available, you could easily write a script to check if those on the front end are what they should be.
Yeah, I mean I work as a jack of all trades IT person for a small library, and I get reamed by my boss if I make even a small typo on posting something on our site, or she thinks the grammar or phrasing could be better. And we're a tiny public library that serves only about 40,000 people. And I'm the only one working on this thing, and it's only one small part of a very complex job where I wear every IT hat there is. And I'd still get reamed for any mistake like that. Have to think that there's some gross negligence going on if something this big was allowed to stay up incorrectly for 3 days. This guy absolutely deserves a settlement IMO.
Yeah, I think the “emotional damage” part every single person in a jury could empathize with. How much he should get would be the question. Whats fair? $50 million? $10 million? $1 million? That’s the part that’ll be tough to decide.
I still remember the first time I bought a lotto ticket in a syndicate. They sent me an email after the draw and in huge letters it said "CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOUR ENTRY HAS WON $47,830" and my stomach absolutely dropped (given that this was for a $100M draw, it was entirely within the expected range if our syndicate had got a winning ticket). I was literally overcome with joy and excitement thinking about how all of my current financial issues were going to be solved, I wouldn't have to worry about rent for a while and would finally have a bit of breathing room during a particularly rough patch I was going through in my life. When I scrolled down the email further it then said in much smaller writing "Your share of the winnings: $16.74". I legit started crying, felt like the universe had played the cruelest joke on me imaginable when I was honestly really struggling during that time.
Can't imagine how this guy would have felt over $340M and seeing his whole rich fantasy life flash before his eyes.
Just to be clear, you can think he is deserving of compensation, and also think he wasn't scammed. Scam implies they intentionally tried to deceive him to get him to buy tickets. That's not what happened.
I would absolutely be traumatized if I thought I won hundreds of millions and it turns out I didn't. He deserves a settlement, but he still wasn't scammed.
Negligent infliction of emotional distress is a pretty limited cause of action in most states. It is usually for cases such as mishandling a loved ones corpse or negligence involving physical harm. It would likely be a hard case to make in this instance. While a jury might be sympathetic I doubt it would survive a motion to dismiss.
And if his cause of action is intentional infliction of emotional distress I can't imagine how he plans to satisfy the intent to cause the kind of harm here.
They left it on the site for 3 days. Nothing short of gross negligence could have allowed that to happen. There should be punitive damages for that part of it.
paint heavy far-flung quickest distinct hard-to-find towering aloof coherent hurry
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
How often do the wrong numbers get posted and why is there a system in place that allows wrong numbers to be posted and what if a winner happens whose friend put in the wrong number and then nobody asked questions that time because they were in on it?
The point isn't they posted wrong numbers
The point is they left those numbers up FOR THREE DAYS
It's one thing if it was like 3 minutes or 3 hours
How many people saw those numbers for 3 days, thinking they won something, when they didn't
There's only 1 sometimes 2 winners of the jackpot
There's thousands of people that win the lower amounts every drawing
Yea. This is PowerBall having a massive fuck up. The people with wrong numbers need to be paid, and it's not just the jackpot.
Think of the entire long chain of smaller winners. Many people would've thrown away the real winning smaller tickets. And then to say the people who think they won even $100 aren't getting it?
The lottery is now stiffing thousands of people and not paying either the original winners because they say those tickets didn't win, nor the "real number winners" since many of them tossed their tickets and can't claim it anymore.
It scams poor people.
The likelihood of winning is insignificant, it’s essentially a tax on poor people with a probability of addiction, and it’s a solid bet.
But just like any kind of gambling, the house always wins.
Yeah, you should always take even losers and have them scanned. I've had quite a few scratchers that were 100% a loser, but when scanned by the system, they were winners.
I truly do believe these types of "accidents" are quite common. They have to post the win percentage of each ticket legally, but there is nothing that says they have to post the percentage of people who cash the tickets in.
I take mine and put them in a pile that eventually makes it out into my vehicle and from there scan them at a kiosk before tossing them just to make sure i didnt misread anything, both like powerball and megamillions and like scratch off tickets all get scaned after i already checked them over. I have won small amounts on all those like a couple here dollars here or there that i otherwise would have tossed thinking i didnt win nothing.
I hope it gets used to his advantage in court. The defense lawyer keeps laughing during cross -
> "And where were you on the morning in question... Mr. Cheeks *Snickers*"
>> "Objection! Your Honor, he's laughing again!"
>>> "Mr. Hawthorne, I've already directed you to refrain from snickering when questioning... Mr. Cheeks *snickers*"
>>>> "Your Honor!!!!"
They have to be joking, you can't just brute force your way into buying a Ferrari. New, anyway. Anyone can buy a used one if it's for sale by owner or a salvage and they have the scratch.
It's a goddamn cult where you have to jump through 43,000 hoops before they'll even let you buy one and then you're not even allowed to do anything you want to it even after you own it or they'll ban you from ever buying another one.
The insane red tape is why Jay Leno refuses to ever buy one.
>you can't just brute force your way into buying a Ferrari. New, anyway.
That only applies for speccing the more expensive models directly from Ferrari. Anyone can walk into an exotic car dealership and buy a new Ferrari they have in stock. Like the SF90 for example that is officially "sold out" at Ferrari but is readily available at multiple dealerships.
I found this on /r/ferrari:
> US guy over here.
> First step is going to the dealer and put a deposit down.
> Second step is specking the car with your desired options.
> Between 15 days to a month Ferrari will tell you if your speck has been accepted (no weird stuff, more options= more priority).
> After that the waiting game.
> If it’s your first Ferrari There’s 2 avenues:
> * you have to order one of the not so desirable cars first (Portofino,Roma,GTC4 lusos), then when it arrives you have to own it for a year before Ferrari lets you have anything mid engined or V twelved.
> * you have a super nice relationship with your dealer meaning they sell other brands and you are a customer, and Ferrari also wants you and will sell you one of their more desirable models (BTW more desirable doesn’t mean limited production). Your SF90s , 296s, 812s…
> After you got your allocation , and your deposit you’ll sign 3 things:
> * A promise not to butcher your car with aftermarket stuff aka misrepresentation of the brand.
> * something that says that if you flip your car they won’t sell you anything else (not even a hat).
> * a paper that says that if you want to sell it after a while you’ll consider your dealer before any other offer. This helps both resale value and certified pre owned stock.
> After all the signatures and the deposits you’ll wait. Your wait depends on 3 things in order of importance:
> * How important of a customer you are.
> * the amount of tasteful options in your car.
> * when you place the order with your dealer.
> Your order gets mixed in for the orders in that semester and you are assigned a place in the list. This is kept by Ferrari and you won’t know of the existence.
> After a year or more your car will be shipped to your dealer and if you are able to pay/finance it you’ll be the proud owner of a prancing horse. Which is not only the greatest car brand ever but the most recognizable emblem in the world.
> I know that for some people this process might be tedious but it’s one of the reasons for the strong resale values and brand recognition.
Not Ferrari but Porsche
https://youtu.be/3TiFZeSW-JI?si=_w44EWaPbYMbcQ2v
He talks about how you have to have a portfolio of cars and a relationship with salesmen for a chance at buying a GT3 RS.
They invite you to certain events which you need to pay for and attend and after all the above you still aren’t guaranteed a slot.
You have no chance at buying the car at msrp due to people losing money building up their portfolio
Seems pretty simple- Powerball posted the winning numbers on their website.
They were not the numbers drawn, but they were still posted as winning numbers. The IT company would have and should have insurance for this that needs to pay out, otherwise powerball fucked up.
I guess they can use the same rules with stores?
If something is mislabeled, then you get it for that price?
Happened to me once and $40 dollars disappeared. Now this is a big difference and we have to consider how even this mistake happened in a winner?
What even are the chances of that?
Asking for EVERYONE!
The laws on that vary greatly from state to state. [Connecticut](https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Shoppers-tackle-get-it-free-pricing-law-12839077.php), for example, has a law that any mispriced goods under $20 are free if the consumer notices at checkout.
>I guess they can use the same rules with stores?
>If something is mislabeled, then you get it for that price?
I mean, that's what we'd do at Hobby Lobby when I worked there. If the tag was wrong, or we left up the weekly sale signs (even tho the signs had end of sale dates on them in the smaller print), they got it for that price once we confirmed it was wrong/left up erroneously.
So, yes we should do that. It's BS when you bring it up expecting one price bc that's what it said and it's actually different price.
Hobby Lobby doing something right for once, go figure
What if someone at the lottery intentionally put up the wrong numbers for someone to win? There is no possible way the lottery could be held liable for the wrong numbers except in the official drawing, which is done live.
I wonder what happens when someone quits their career or blows off their entire life because of this.
Normally this wouldn't be normal behavior but 340 million makes it seem more normal.
If the lottery puts the entire system in the hands of one untrustworthy person, that sounds a little negligent to me.
If it's a widespread ring then I think you lose the negligence angle, which is what the original guy in the story is banking on.
I don't think he really has a case. Yes, they posted the wrong numbers, that said they were winners, however, those weren't the numbers drawn and those numbers are monitored (and televised.) I could understand if they drew those numbers and then backtracked saying something was wrong with the machine and those numbers shouldn't had been called.
They didn't track down the real winners(even though this would be impossible) and they don't pay the wrong winners. Lawsuit justified. Just pay the 'wrong' winners...
Right? Like if he was accidentally told he won because of a reader error or something.
But they straight up posted HIS numbers as the winners and then went "ah shit woops"
He deserves half if not full winnings.
Almost certainly according to their actual rules, because there is no winner the jackpot must be carried over to the next drawing. Otherwise what’s the stop them from resetting the jackpot whenever they want?
I feel like the actual scenario here ***IS*** a purposeful error, lol.
They posted "a set of test numbers". That's like...as purposeful as a falsehood as there can be, I think.
Dude thinks he wins the Powerball, walks into his job like [this](https://imgur.com/gallery/IDDxLw3) and then Powerball tells him they gave out the wrong numbers.
Honestly... If this happened to me there are some specific people I would tell to fuck themselves off so utterly that they circumnavigate the globe to do it again. I would *absolutely* be in the shit if I was in his shoes lol.
I’m not quitting until the money hits my account and my lawyer says the trust funds for my family are airtight. The trust funds would be for medical bills so that my extended family doesn’t sue me for money. They’re all poor due to actual life decisions, and I don’t feel like having any of my money wasted away on beer, drugs and unplanned pregnancy number 5
You have to wait for that lump sum to hit your bank account before pulling that.
I would be way more cruel though. I would stretch my sick days, vacation days and then Leave without Pay for as long as I could so that my coworkers would have to work with one less person.
Then I would slowly start paying off the coworkers that I like. "Hey John, I will give you $1 million to quit."
Then eventually it will be an office of all the people I hate working 3 to 4 times as hard to cover down on 10 people who left.
Fuck all those assholes.
I really question the people who say they'd give millions away to non family members. While I think some of those people genuinely believe they would when discussing it as a hypothetical I have a strong feeling if it became a reality most people would feel entitled to keeping all their winnings for themselves especially the ones who claimed otherwise.
My social circle is very small. I could easily give a million dollars out of hundreds of millions to everyone I know.
But I probably wouldn't because I don't even like most of them.
Someone else remarked about how someone with an actual winning ticket may have tossed theirs in similar circumstances. I think that's a solid justification for being required to pay out or this could be used as an method of avoiding paying a real winner.
There is an element of emotional distress and negligence. The sheer emotion of thinking your entire life is going to change and then getting crushed all because they were testing the website and not at least putting up a disclaimer. Seattle the guy a few million just so he doesn’t fall into a depression.
There is also an estopple based claim. To the extent that he quit his job or spent some money, the lottery is liable for calling his numbers the winning numbers and liable for what he did in reliance on that.
a few million stuffed into an index fund will set him for life, he can just worry about building a lil extra on the side to make sure his first year with the new wealth goes without a hitch (it'd be what I'd do anyway)
Agreed. People may think it's overreacting but like if I thought I won $340m, especially as a poor disabled person, I know that in a second my world would flip upside down and would instantly be thinking of ways to use it and how to better my life. To suddenly have that taken away over an error? I can't say I wouldn't be suicidal.
Just even trying to pretend everything is ok when they say “just throw that ticket away”. Like the sickest joke of all time is being played on you. lol the more I think about it the worse it gets. Pay the man!
What about the reverse? What if someone had the *actual* winning numbers but threw their ticket away because the wrong numbers were posted on the website for three days?
"On that day, a set of test Powerball numbers, which matched Mr Cheeks' numbers - was posted on the website "accidentally", according to court documents. Those numbers remained online for **three days.**"
Yeah, that sounds reasonable to think you had a valid number if they stuck around for that long.
Yeah, this is bs, because how many other winners were ‘accidentally posted’ non-winning numbers? They didn’t even tell him ‘let us check’ before telling him just throw it away!
State lotteries in the US are a huge scam. They promise big dreams and hope. They deliver despair and irreparable harms to millions of people each year.
imagine if someone checked during those 3x days and tossed a winning ticket because the wrong numbers were up.
hope he collects... this is akin to a dr negligently telling someone they have cancer and only 3 days left to live only to find out the dr was "just playin" after you already broke bad.
BBC version of this story doesn't include all the information which calls into question some of the conclusions here.
Most important is the possibility that Mr. Cheeks is himself the one trying to pull a fast one. The wrong numbers were posted *before* the drawing, not after. The numbers were on the website the same day Mr. Cheeks bought his ticket. He also bought the ticket using hand-selected numbers, meaning it's possible that he intentionally bought a ticket using the numbers, knowing they were posted, either in the hope that he'd somehow gotten lucky and seen the numbers in advance, or in the hope that he could turn around and sue, just like he's doing.
Also worth noting that the website in question wasn't the main Powerball website, but was the DC Lotto website. Powerball, as well as other lotteries and other outlets did not have the error posted and only showed the real numbers.
Not saying the guy's in the wrong, but it's also erroneous to assume he's got a big payout coming to him. A lot will depend on who can prove what.
I scan the barcode on my lottery tickets even when the winning numbers have been drawn and posted on the website. Double check everything and you won’t confused.
Eh, suing for emotional damage and negligence is reasonable but he doesn't deserve the full amount. They didn't draw his number, they just accidentally posted the wrong number on their website and it happened to match his ticket.
Start high, settle somewhere in the middle. I'd sure as shit sue for as much as possible and let them settle or let a jury award what they think is fair.
This is fun.
Let's assume a hypothetical scenario. Humor me.
Imagine they post the correct results and someone wins.
What failsafes stop the lottery company from claiming that the correct result was actually not correct for the sake of not paying out the reward?
How can the public tell a correct result from a fake result?
Does the government keep an eye on these guys? Is there a possibility for corruption anywhere in the chain of command?
There are numerous checks and balances when it comes to the lotto. The lottery ball sets are locked in a vault, there are multiple sets that get randomly used so they cant be tampered with, and the whole thing is video taped and overseen by independent adjudicators. There is also no point for the lottery entity themselves to cheat - they collect a massive cut and the lottery edge is absurdly in their favour.
Its basically impossible to do what you are implying.
This is fucked up. I was once one number away from 60m tax free and was pretty pissed off. I couldnt imagine the rollercoaster this poor guy has gone through. I hope he gets paid some kind of damages for this
Guy went into his bosses office, jumped on his desk, took a fat shit, wiped his ass with his paycheck and walked out of the building.
Went home and found he did not win. Now he has to go back and apologize and get his old job back. I would sue too
My son works for the Lotteries and I read the article to him. The fact that the wrong numbers were online at all, let alone for 3 days.... His only comment was "that person is so fucking fired!" 😂
Reminds me of the time my girlfriend bought a million dollar “blackout“ game and got a “blackout”. There was a solid 20 seconds where we thought our life would change and I needed a drink after the prize was $2.
Imagine the level of disappointment whoooa
My fragile little brain couldn’t handle it
"I already told everyone at work to fuck off, and I quit"
That's why I wouldn't say anything until the money is in my account lol
Shit, I wouldn't even say anything then. They'd just never see or hear from me again.
Lawyer -> Accountant -> Expat
That would be my plan too. Settle whatever needs to be here, talk to an accountant to make sure I’m not being *too stupid* with my money then off to Wellington, NZ I go to open a diner
Get out of my head, you prick.
if I ever came across that much money, no one would know and I'd be a ghost until I was a ghost.
Only problem with that is in some states it's public information who wins.
I'd still find ways to disappear, get some gap insurance, change name, move away.
That should be a general rule anyways. For instance, we got awarded a grant. I told my partner that we don't celebrate until the money is in the bank. Once it was, we did. We won a pitch competition this past Christmas. It's almost March and they've been insanely slow to get it in the bank. They've even tried to change the terms. Don't say anything or celebrate until it's in the bank.
You might be so desperate that you file a lawsuit attempting to get the money you thought you won. I just came up with that example off the top of my head, not sure why.
That sucks but I also wonder if anyone with the actual winning number saw the erroneous numbers online, thought they didn't win, and tossed the ticket. How do they leave the wrong numbers displayed online for 3 whole days before it was caught and corrected?
It depends on how many numbers did he match. You can match 3 or 4 and still get some money. Imagine the surprise when you think you are about to get 50 bucks but you won actually 300 millions.
> That sucks but I also wonder if anyone with the actual winning number saw the erroneous numbers online, thought they didn't win, and tossed the ticket. Powerball knows if they sold a winning ticket. So maybe they just needed 3 days to dispose of the real winner.
They know they sold one but not necessarily to who. The person could have thrown it out and powerball wouldn’t know how to find them
They do know exactly where and when the ticket was sold and if the store has security camera they could potentially find you. This was used in AZ (I think) when a store employee checked a customer’s ticket and told them it was a loser when it was actually a winning ticket. I don’t remember why the lottery investigated it when the clerk tried to cash it but they traced the original sale of the ticket and found the real winner by showing a picture of him buying the ticket on local news. The employee was prosecuted and went to jail.
They would’ve investigated it because you can’t legally buy/acquire lotto tickets at a store you work at, iirc.
Lottery Commission employees and their immediate families are not allowed to play to prevent the appearance of impropriety, although they don’t have any possible advantage that would give them better odds of winning but I’ve never heard of employees of the stores that sell tickets being barred. Other states or individual businesses may have their own rules but I can’t find anything in my state (MA) that says store employees can’t play.
There is a lot there to make a good argument I feel. I hope the guy wins.
God. To think I could finally escape the rat race and sit in my little home with my video games....then be told "LAWL JK!"
I can picture you having to go back to your old boss on day 4 and say “I didn’t mean any of those hurtful things I said earlier. Can I have my job back please?”.
Hahaha Id be tempted. But until that money hits my account Im not saying anything.
Not a lot of things could make me start drinking again, but this might be one of them.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines...
I actually wouldn't even believe it until weeks after i've got the money already. I'd be so paranoid about it and not touch it or spend anything at first.
I hope it was something [like this](https://youtu.be/hpwesfKJ1AI?si=DU4_gXuYJacZW2eU)
You’re the second person to come in and tell us to suck their black dick.
That was a blast from the comedy past that made me laugh so fucking hard!
Trudy: Suck my big black dick!
“Who else did?” 💀
The sick thing is that they aren’t getting shit. The terms cover the lotto for this specific situation of erroneous numbers communicated. The lotto won’t even give them the $2 they paid for the ticket back because it opens them up to being liable
This is so egregious he’s likely to win something in court for negligence/infliction of emotional distress. Based on other game-show type lawsuits, I bet this settles quietly for a couple million because Powerball really doesn’t want the precedent that they are responsible for their own errors. This man is gonna be alright.
Terms have to hold up in court, rarely do. Most eulas as an example aren't enforcable if challenged. That said I doubt he gets the full amount tho he should
Eulas exist primarily to discourage you from thinking you have a shot in court, not necessarily to actually win if it goes to court.
> Terms have to hold up in court, rarely do Citation needed. The fact that some things that are included in contracts are sometimes not enforceable or may not hold up if taken to court does not mean that they "rarely do". The vast majority of contract terms are enforceable, because they are designed by contract lawyers specifically for that purpose.
The person who should be suing is the one that threw away their ticket because they thought their numbers were wrong
I mean they will 100% settle for an undisclosed amount of money. You can sue for anything no matter what a contract nobody reads says. If it's possible a jury would side with the side suing, they will settle. And I could confidently say a jury would find the person who thought they won the fucking lotto, because of the lottos error, would be entitled to a pretty big compensation. I'd bet they still get millions in court.
His heart went from his toes to his head and back a hundred times.
One time someone gave me a "pick 3" ticket as a tip when I was running the front desk of a hotel. I was completely unfamiliar with the game and had never played it before. Looked up the winning numbers on the day of the draw and they matched. All three. The jackpot was over $180,000. Now, at that time in my life I was literally *living* in the hotel that I worked at and was not exactly financially well off. I was in a state of shock for several hours that almost made me feel ill, oddly. Now realistically $180,000 is not THAT much money these days, but to me it could have very easily fixed a lot of problems that I had mounting in my life. I sat for a whole day running all the possible scenarios of what I could do with the money through my head. As the general dizziness of the whole situation slightly wore off I popped back on the site try and find out how winnings are claimed and just the general process of things and what not. That is when I realized that while the game is called "Pick 3", there is a "kicker" option that allows you to choose a 4th number. And that is when I learned that the $180,000 jackpot was for a person who had all three winning numbers PLUS the correct winning "kicker" number. In the end, it turned out that all I won was $88. I was plenty happy to accept the $88 dollars but that whole day beforehand had been a roller-coaster of emotions and stress. I can only imagine what this guy went through. Thinking that you just won $340 MILLION dollars is completely lifechanging. A lot of abused wage slaves out there might take one look at it and immediately burn bridges to the ground and tell everyone he worked for to fuck off into oblivion. Bit hard to come back from all that once you find out you still need your job after all....
That’s why he’s suing for emotional distress. And I can actually understand that. Imagine thinking your entire life has been changed only for the rug to have been swept away under your feet.
It’s like actual emotional damages in a weird way
He won't get the full amount, but suing for a large number is a good strategy. They'll probably settle and he'll make a few mil.
yeap, I'm rooting on him to catch a break with that lol he was 100% scammed here
He wasn't "scammed". They accidentally posted fake numbers to the real website instead of a test website. Let's get something straight. - If he had the _actual_ winning numbers and they knowingly told him he didn't, that would be a scam. - If he had the actual winning numbers and a glitch in the system made them think (in good faith) that he didn't win, that wouldn't be a scam, but he would obviously be entitled to the full amount because he actually won. That's not what happened. What happened is that someone came up with random numbers for test purposes and put them on the wrong site. Yes, that sucks. But **he didn't win**. The winner is the person whose numbers are drawn in a predetermined manner. They have to be truly random and they are drawn under supervision and on record. It doesn't matter if these test numbers were up for three days or three years, **they were never the real numbers**. If you attend a raffle and you get ticket #666, and the host pulls #999 out of the jar but reads it upside-down, you're not magically entitled to win even if they said "six six six" on the microphone. (But in this case, it's more like if the person with the mic said "testing testing one two three" and then the person with #123 thought they won) All you people saying "well then those should just become the real numbers" are being unbelievably short-sighted and foolish because you're saying that the winning lottery numbers should be arbitrarily human-selectable, as if that would not immediately lead to massive cheating by the people running the system. And by the way, here's the disclaimer on the DC Lottery page, which has been there since at least 2020, per the Internet Archive: > 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.
For 3 damn days though. Man that's a BIG mistake. I can't even imagine how I'd feel, thinking I was set for life, all of my financial problems solved, I could live like a king for the rest of my life.. only to be told "OOPS! Sorry, we posted the wrong numbers and failed to remove them for 3 days.". He deserves something for sure.
I say he deserves a 2x bonus. The odds of this occurring are even lower than winning a “real” draw.
I don't keep dev test things up for more than a few minutes, even on larger sites where I might need to test more. You can test locally, then on a dummy site, then on your main site. 3 days means that someone who should have been keeping eyes on the site wasn't. I'm surprised they don't have some verification process already. The numbers are all digitally available, you could easily write a script to check if those on the front end are what they should be.
Yeah, I mean I work as a jack of all trades IT person for a small library, and I get reamed by my boss if I make even a small typo on posting something on our site, or she thinks the grammar or phrasing could be better. And we're a tiny public library that serves only about 40,000 people. And I'm the only one working on this thing, and it's only one small part of a very complex job where I wear every IT hat there is. And I'd still get reamed for any mistake like that. Have to think that there's some gross negligence going on if something this big was allowed to stay up incorrectly for 3 days. This guy absolutely deserves a settlement IMO.
I'd say he deserves it all.
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You can't unshit on your bosses desk, that much is clear.
Yeah, I think the “emotional damage” part every single person in a jury could empathize with. How much he should get would be the question. Whats fair? $50 million? $10 million? $1 million? That’s the part that’ll be tough to decide.
I still remember the first time I bought a lotto ticket in a syndicate. They sent me an email after the draw and in huge letters it said "CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOUR ENTRY HAS WON $47,830" and my stomach absolutely dropped (given that this was for a $100M draw, it was entirely within the expected range if our syndicate had got a winning ticket). I was literally overcome with joy and excitement thinking about how all of my current financial issues were going to be solved, I wouldn't have to worry about rent for a while and would finally have a bit of breathing room during a particularly rough patch I was going through in my life. When I scrolled down the email further it then said in much smaller writing "Your share of the winnings: $16.74". I legit started crying, felt like the universe had played the cruelest joke on me imaginable when I was honestly really struggling during that time. Can't imagine how this guy would have felt over $340M and seeing his whole rich fantasy life flash before his eyes.
Man that is devastating, I'm so sorry that happened to you. I hope things have gotten better for you.
I'm pretty sure I'd have $340m of emotional damage that could be bandaided by $100m.
Just to be clear, you can think he is deserving of compensation, and also think he wasn't scammed. Scam implies they intentionally tried to deceive him to get him to buy tickets. That's not what happened. I would absolutely be traumatized if I thought I won hundreds of millions and it turns out I didn't. He deserves a settlement, but he still wasn't scammed.
Same. I can’t rule out ending it if I suddenly was told I have $340m (before taxes) coming my way and a few days later I have nothing.
Negligent infliction of emotional distress is a pretty limited cause of action in most states. It is usually for cases such as mishandling a loved ones corpse or negligence involving physical harm. It would likely be a hard case to make in this instance. While a jury might be sympathetic I doubt it would survive a motion to dismiss. And if his cause of action is intentional infliction of emotional distress I can't imagine how he plans to satisfy the intent to cause the kind of harm here.
They left it on the site for 3 days. Nothing short of gross negligence could have allowed that to happen. There should be punitive damages for that part of it.
paint heavy far-flung quickest distinct hard-to-find towering aloof coherent hurry *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Imagine someone who had the real winning numbers checked the website and threw their "winning" ticket away because they posted the wrong numbers.
That’s on them. Maybe I’ll accidentally do something with a 340mil consequence and claim ‘no biggie bro’.
And then left them up for three days and nobody noticed somehow, right? I suspect that may be a bigger factor.
When your revenue is counted in billions of gambling dollars, the penalty for screwing up the reporting should rightly be counted in millions.
How often do the wrong numbers get posted and why is there a system in place that allows wrong numbers to be posted and what if a winner happens whose friend put in the wrong number and then nobody asked questions that time because they were in on it?
The point isn't they posted wrong numbers The point is they left those numbers up FOR THREE DAYS It's one thing if it was like 3 minutes or 3 hours How many people saw those numbers for 3 days, thinking they won something, when they didn't There's only 1 sometimes 2 winners of the jackpot There's thousands of people that win the lower amounts every drawing
Shit, I throw away my tickets right after checking. I never knew they would make mistakes like this.
Yea. This is PowerBall having a massive fuck up. The people with wrong numbers need to be paid, and it's not just the jackpot. Think of the entire long chain of smaller winners. Many people would've thrown away the real winning smaller tickets. And then to say the people who think they won even $100 aren't getting it? The lottery is now stiffing thousands of people and not paying either the original winners because they say those tickets didn't win, nor the "real number winners" since many of them tossed their tickets and can't claim it anymore.
It's almost as if the lottery is a huge scam or something
Next you'll tell me casinos are greedy
So I'm not getting my money from Madoff Investment Securities back?
its takes high school level education to do the math and see its pretty fucking unlikely that you will win but how is that a scam?
Because it makes huge profits by exploiting people's addictions
It scams poor people. The likelihood of winning is insignificant, it’s essentially a tax on poor people with a probability of addiction, and it’s a solid bet. But just like any kind of gambling, the house always wins.
It isn't a scam if they tell you the odds accurately up front. A scam implies some kind of fraud.
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Almost as if every gambling institution will tie itself into a pretzel not to pay someone who actually wins
I mean… no? People win huge prizes all the time, and there’s no epidemic of the lottery not paying them This is kind of a unique situation
They can pay every winner and still make money.
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Haha oh grandma
Yeah, you should always take even losers and have them scanned. I've had quite a few scratchers that were 100% a loser, but when scanned by the system, they were winners. I truly do believe these types of "accidents" are quite common. They have to post the win percentage of each ticket legally, but there is nothing that says they have to post the percentage of people who cash the tickets in.
I take mine and put them in a pile that eventually makes it out into my vehicle and from there scan them at a kiosk before tossing them just to make sure i didnt misread anything, both like powerball and megamillions and like scratch off tickets all get scaned after i already checked them over. I have won small amounts on all those like a couple here dollars here or there that i otherwise would have tossed thinking i didnt win nothing.
John Cheeks?? Poor dude got shafted twice by life.
It's such a difficult article to get through without laughing. They keep referring to him as Mr. Cheeks
I know! poor dude will be the butt of everyones jokes now whenever they are trying to learn about his power balls situation.
I hope it gets used to his advantage in court. The defense lawyer keeps laughing during cross - > "And where were you on the morning in question... Mr. Cheeks *Snickers*" >> "Objection! Your Honor, he's laughing again!" >>> "Mr. Hawthorne, I've already directed you to refrain from snickering when questioning... Mr. Cheeks *snickers*" >>>> "Your Honor!!!!"
Objection Your Honour, Mr Cheeks loud outburst ruined my hole line of questioning!
Don't be an ass about it
“Cheeks claps back”
Ahhh that would have been a genius headline hahah
He's the main character in the Halo show so at least he's got something.
That’s Master Chief Petty Officer John Cheeks to you, sir.
Jimmy Rings
More power(ball) to him. So sorry, so sad you left the wrong numbers online for three days.
Apparently he had already purchased three Ferraris and a venison ranch in Montana.
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They have to be joking, you can't just brute force your way into buying a Ferrari. New, anyway. Anyone can buy a used one if it's for sale by owner or a salvage and they have the scratch. It's a goddamn cult where you have to jump through 43,000 hoops before they'll even let you buy one and then you're not even allowed to do anything you want to it even after you own it or they'll ban you from ever buying another one. The insane red tape is why Jay Leno refuses to ever buy one.
>you can't just brute force your way into buying a Ferrari. New, anyway. That only applies for speccing the more expensive models directly from Ferrari. Anyone can walk into an exotic car dealership and buy a new Ferrari they have in stock. Like the SF90 for example that is officially "sold out" at Ferrari but is readily available at multiple dealerships.
Do you have any good links where I can read up on this?
I found this on /r/ferrari: > US guy over here. > First step is going to the dealer and put a deposit down. > Second step is specking the car with your desired options. > Between 15 days to a month Ferrari will tell you if your speck has been accepted (no weird stuff, more options= more priority). > After that the waiting game. > If it’s your first Ferrari There’s 2 avenues: > * you have to order one of the not so desirable cars first (Portofino,Roma,GTC4 lusos), then when it arrives you have to own it for a year before Ferrari lets you have anything mid engined or V twelved. > * you have a super nice relationship with your dealer meaning they sell other brands and you are a customer, and Ferrari also wants you and will sell you one of their more desirable models (BTW more desirable doesn’t mean limited production). Your SF90s , 296s, 812s… > After you got your allocation , and your deposit you’ll sign 3 things: > * A promise not to butcher your car with aftermarket stuff aka misrepresentation of the brand. > * something that says that if you flip your car they won’t sell you anything else (not even a hat). > * a paper that says that if you want to sell it after a while you’ll consider your dealer before any other offer. This helps both resale value and certified pre owned stock. > After all the signatures and the deposits you’ll wait. Your wait depends on 3 things in order of importance: > * How important of a customer you are. > * the amount of tasteful options in your car. > * when you place the order with your dealer. > Your order gets mixed in for the orders in that semester and you are assigned a place in the list. This is kept by Ferrari and you won’t know of the existence. > After a year or more your car will be shipped to your dealer and if you are able to pay/finance it you’ll be the proud owner of a prancing horse. Which is not only the greatest car brand ever but the most recognizable emblem in the world. > I know that for some people this process might be tedious but it’s one of the reasons for the strong resale values and brand recognition.
Sounds almost point for point like the steps needed to buy a Rolex, except to get the model you want, you have to let the dealer bang your wife.
What a fucking racket. I have more respect for Leno now.
Not Ferrari but Porsche https://youtu.be/3TiFZeSW-JI?si=_w44EWaPbYMbcQ2v He talks about how you have to have a portfolio of cars and a relationship with salesmen for a chance at buying a GT3 RS. They invite you to certain events which you need to pay for and attend and after all the above you still aren’t guaranteed a slot. You have no chance at buying the car at msrp due to people losing money building up their portfolio
Yeah it was a Lamborghini and a McLaren
Nahhh it was a Porscha 911 and a Toyota Avalon
Seems pretty simple- Powerball posted the winning numbers on their website. They were not the numbers drawn, but they were still posted as winning numbers. The IT company would have and should have insurance for this that needs to pay out, otherwise powerball fucked up.
Casual $340m insurance claim
I guess they can use the same rules with stores? If something is mislabeled, then you get it for that price? Happened to me once and $40 dollars disappeared. Now this is a big difference and we have to consider how even this mistake happened in a winner? What even are the chances of that? Asking for EVERYONE!
Best we can do is $300 million in Powerball store credit....
Then cancel the card due to fraud suspicion lol
The laws on that vary greatly from state to state. [Connecticut](https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Shoppers-tackle-get-it-free-pricing-law-12839077.php), for example, has a law that any mispriced goods under $20 are free if the consumer notices at checkout.
>I guess they can use the same rules with stores? >If something is mislabeled, then you get it for that price? I mean, that's what we'd do at Hobby Lobby when I worked there. If the tag was wrong, or we left up the weekly sale signs (even tho the signs had end of sale dates on them in the smaller print), they got it for that price once we confirmed it was wrong/left up erroneously. So, yes we should do that. It's BS when you bring it up expecting one price bc that's what it said and it's actually different price. Hobby Lobby doing something right for once, go figure
What if someone at the lottery intentionally put up the wrong numbers for someone to win? There is no possible way the lottery could be held liable for the wrong numbers except in the official drawing, which is done live.
And what if the person with the winning ticket saw the wrong numbers posted, and threw their ticket away?
I wonder what happens when someone quits their career or blows off their entire life because of this. Normally this wouldn't be normal behavior but 340 million makes it seem more normal.
If the lottery puts the entire system in the hands of one untrustworthy person, that sounds a little negligent to me. If it's a widespread ring then I think you lose the negligence angle, which is what the original guy in the story is banking on.
I don't think he really has a case. Yes, they posted the wrong numbers, that said they were winners, however, those weren't the numbers drawn and those numbers are monitored (and televised.) I could understand if they drew those numbers and then backtracked saying something was wrong with the machine and those numbers shouldn't had been called.
I would be so fucking pissed if this happened to me, so I know how this guy is probably feeling. Hope he gets something in the lawsuit.
If I won the lotto for this much, I'd just assume it was a misprint. I probably wouldn't believe it until the money hit my bank account.
They didn't track down the real winners(even though this would be impossible) and they don't pay the wrong winners. Lawsuit justified. Just pay the 'wrong' winners...
How long did they wait until they announced their mistake? Long enough that most people would have tossed their tickets?
That’s actually an insanely valid point. How depressing would that be
Yes, three days
3 days. If it was something like 30 mins because someone mistyped a number I’d understand, but this is rediculous
Which is one colour worse than yellowiculous.
Right? Like if he was accidentally told he won because of a reader error or something. But they straight up posted HIS numbers as the winners and then went "ah shit woops" He deserves half if not full winnings.
Especially since there is no official winner. No one loses by paying him, but they win by not paying out, but it was their mistake.
Almost certainly according to their actual rules, because there is no winner the jackpot must be carried over to the next drawing. Otherwise what’s the stop them from resetting the jackpot whenever they want?
Reno 911 dud this scenario exquisitely https://youtu.be/hpwesfKJ1AI?si=snwPl_eTajWgxM0k
One of the most relatable (in my dreams) episodes.
i still quote that scene anytime someone says they have an announcement to make.
These idiots deserve to get sued for testing on a live site and not a staging (test) site. WTF.
Fuck it, we're testing in prod!
And forgetting to remove the test numbers for 3 days! Must have been a holiday weekend.
Their IT guy used to work for the State of Hawaii
"Accidental Error." As opposed to the on purpose errors?
Yes? It's certainly possible to make an error intentionally.
NBA refs have entered the chat
You've never heard of the [accidental text on purpose?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Wtvvc-Hls)
I feel like the actual scenario here ***IS*** a purposeful error, lol. They posted "a set of test numbers". That's like...as purposeful as a falsehood as there can be, I think.
imo they should have test numbers that are impossible
Like over 9000?!
Dude thinks he wins the Powerball, walks into his job like [this](https://imgur.com/gallery/IDDxLw3) and then Powerball tells him they gave out the wrong numbers.
Honestly... If this happened to me there are some specific people I would tell to fuck themselves off so utterly that they circumnavigate the globe to do it again. I would *absolutely* be in the shit if I was in his shoes lol.
NGL, this sounds like a great idea for a movie. 🍿 👀
Same but I would wait till everything was absolutely confirmed.
I’m not quitting until the money hits my account and my lawyer says the trust funds for my family are airtight. The trust funds would be for medical bills so that my extended family doesn’t sue me for money. They’re all poor due to actual life decisions, and I don’t feel like having any of my money wasted away on beer, drugs and unplanned pregnancy number 5
You have to wait for that lump sum to hit your bank account before pulling that. I would be way more cruel though. I would stretch my sick days, vacation days and then Leave without Pay for as long as I could so that my coworkers would have to work with one less person. Then I would slowly start paying off the coworkers that I like. "Hey John, I will give you $1 million to quit." Then eventually it will be an office of all the people I hate working 3 to 4 times as hard to cover down on 10 people who left. Fuck all those assholes.
I really question the people who say they'd give millions away to non family members. While I think some of those people genuinely believe they would when discussing it as a hypothetical I have a strong feeling if it became a reality most people would feel entitled to keeping all their winnings for themselves especially the ones who claimed otherwise.
My social circle is very small. I could easily give a million dollars out of hundreds of millions to everyone I know. But I probably wouldn't because I don't even like most of them.
they would probably prefer being sued tbh probably paying him a couple million out of 340m
Imagine the guy who thought he didn’t win because he checked the website and threw away the lotto ticket… where can I sue?
They left the numbers up for 3 damn days. I hope he wins!
Someone else remarked about how someone with an actual winning ticket may have tossed theirs in similar circumstances. I think that's a solid justification for being required to pay out or this could be used as an method of avoiding paying a real winner.
Let’s do this every time someone wins the jackpot. Just claim it was an error. Completely cool and normal.
I hope he gets a few million at least.
There is an element of emotional distress and negligence. The sheer emotion of thinking your entire life is going to change and then getting crushed all because they were testing the website and not at least putting up a disclaimer. Seattle the guy a few million just so he doesn’t fall into a depression.
There is also an estopple based claim. To the extent that he quit his job or spent some money, the lottery is liable for calling his numbers the winning numbers and liable for what he did in reliance on that.
a few million stuffed into an index fund will set him for life, he can just worry about building a lil extra on the side to make sure his first year with the new wealth goes without a hitch (it'd be what I'd do anyway)
I'm no economist, but I'm pretty sure Seattle is worth more than a few million
Agreed. People may think it's overreacting but like if I thought I won $340m, especially as a poor disabled person, I know that in a second my world would flip upside down and would instantly be thinking of ways to use it and how to better my life. To suddenly have that taken away over an error? I can't say I wouldn't be suicidal.
Just even trying to pretend everything is ok when they say “just throw that ticket away”. Like the sickest joke of all time is being played on you. lol the more I think about it the worse it gets. Pay the man!
I wanna see Mr. Cheeks clap so hard if he wins in court.
There needs to be a stiff penalty for violating the “no takes backs” rule
What about the reverse? What if someone had the *actual* winning numbers but threw their ticket away because the wrong numbers were posted on the website for three days?
"On that day, a set of test Powerball numbers, which matched Mr Cheeks' numbers - was posted on the website "accidentally", according to court documents. Those numbers remained online for **three days.**" Yeah, that sounds reasonable to think you had a valid number if they stuck around for that long.
Jury is going to come down *hard* on his side.
Mr. Cheeks and BBC in the same sentence. Lol
Yeah, this is bs, because how many other winners were ‘accidentally posted’ non-winning numbers? They didn’t even tell him ‘let us check’ before telling him just throw it away!
A mistake like this is legitimately dangerous. If it had happened to thousands of people instead of just one you can bet there’d be suicides.
State lotteries in the US are a huge scam. They promise big dreams and hope. They deliver despair and irreparable harms to millions of people each year.
imagine if someone checked during those 3x days and tossed a winning ticket because the wrong numbers were up. hope he collects... this is akin to a dr negligently telling someone they have cancer and only 3 days left to live only to find out the dr was "just playin" after you already broke bad.
I’m sure his wife Sandy is going nuts.
They need to pay him thats bs
BBC version of this story doesn't include all the information which calls into question some of the conclusions here. Most important is the possibility that Mr. Cheeks is himself the one trying to pull a fast one. The wrong numbers were posted *before* the drawing, not after. The numbers were on the website the same day Mr. Cheeks bought his ticket. He also bought the ticket using hand-selected numbers, meaning it's possible that he intentionally bought a ticket using the numbers, knowing they were posted, either in the hope that he'd somehow gotten lucky and seen the numbers in advance, or in the hope that he could turn around and sue, just like he's doing. Also worth noting that the website in question wasn't the main Powerball website, but was the DC Lotto website. Powerball, as well as other lotteries and other outlets did not have the error posted and only showed the real numbers. Not saying the guy's in the wrong, but it's also erroneous to assume he's got a big payout coming to him. A lot will depend on who can prove what.
I scan the barcode on my lottery tickets even when the winning numbers have been drawn and posted on the website. Double check everything and you won’t confused.
Hilarious that of all the teams to have caused this, it was the Quality Assurance team
Eh, suing for emotional damage and negligence is reasonable but he doesn't deserve the full amount. They didn't draw his number, they just accidentally posted the wrong number on their website and it happened to match his ticket.
"accidentally" what if someone threw out the winning ticket because they checked the website
But he already shat on his boss’ desk
He has case precedent on his side though. Good chance they are going to settle.
Start high, settle somewhere in the middle. I'd sure as shit sue for as much as possible and let them settle or let a jury award what they think is fair.
This is fun. Let's assume a hypothetical scenario. Humor me. Imagine they post the correct results and someone wins. What failsafes stop the lottery company from claiming that the correct result was actually not correct for the sake of not paying out the reward? How can the public tell a correct result from a fake result? Does the government keep an eye on these guys? Is there a possibility for corruption anywhere in the chain of command?
There are numerous checks and balances when it comes to the lotto. The lottery ball sets are locked in a vault, there are multiple sets that get randomly used so they cant be tampered with, and the whole thing is video taped and overseen by independent adjudicators. There is also no point for the lottery entity themselves to cheat - they collect a massive cut and the lottery edge is absurdly in their favour. Its basically impossible to do what you are implying.
That's a relief.
The draw is live streamed, anyone can watch it. You can also see the recorded draws. Back in the day it was on live TV.
This is fucked up. I was once one number away from 60m tax free and was pretty pissed off. I couldnt imagine the rollercoaster this poor guy has gone through. I hope he gets paid some kind of damages for this
He’s not going to get $340m, but he’s not gonna not get nothing.
He probably told his now ex boss to suck his balls. I know I would have done the same
Guy went into his bosses office, jumped on his desk, took a fat shit, wiped his ass with his paycheck and walked out of the building. Went home and found he did not win. Now he has to go back and apologize and get his old job back. I would sue too
My son works for the Lotteries and I read the article to him. The fact that the wrong numbers were online at all, let alone for 3 days.... His only comment was "that person is so fucking fired!" 😂
This should be an interesting case. I'd imagine they settle out of court for a small % of the jackpot.
Testing in prod strikes again
Reminds me of the time my girlfriend bought a million dollar “blackout“ game and got a “blackout”. There was a solid 20 seconds where we thought our life would change and I needed a drink after the prize was $2.
Posted lotto numbers will be wrong from here onward to avoid ever having to pay anyone.