John Cheeks, a resident of Washington DC, bought a Powerball ticket on January 6, 2023. The draw took place the next day, but he didn't see it live. However, when he went to the website, his numbers were there. And there was no doubt about it, since his key included a combination of family birthdays and other numbers with personal significance, reports the The Guardian.
"I got a bit excited, but I didn't shout, I didn't scream. I just politely phoned a friend. I took a photo, as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep," he explained.
However, what seemed like a dream turned into a nightmare. When Cheeks went to the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) to claim his winnings, he was told that it wouldn't be possible - and an official on the spot even told him to throw the ticket away, because he wouldn't get any winnings.
"The applicant's prize claim was rejected because the ticket was not validated as a winner by the OLG's gaming system, as required by the OLG's regulations," a letter sent later read.
But John Cheeks decided to keep the evidence he had and then sue Powerball. In court, it emerged that the key was not the lottery winner after all. Apparently, quality tests were being carried out on the site, so Powerball's test numbers were accidentally published instead of in a development environment that mimicked the official page, but which was not visible to the public.
Richard Evans, the plaintiff's lawyer, says that the justification doesn't show how to move the process along. "They said that one of their contractors made a mistake. I haven't seen any evidence to support that. Even if a mistake was made, the question is: what do you do about it?" he asked. He also gave an example of another situation in which figures were published by mistake, in November last year. In that case, the temporary winners - the people who had the numbers in question - were able to keep their prizes, which ranged from 4 to 200 dollars. It now remains to be seen what happens to the 340 million.
The original article via Sapo24 can be read here.
