Powerball Lottery Sued by D.C. Man Who Thought He Won $340M
A President Washington D.C. adult male is suing Powerball and the D.C. Lottery for $340 million, plus interest, after he claims he was wrongly denied a winning jackpot of the same amount.
On Jan 6, 2023, when the jackpot strike those dizzying heights, John Cheeks bought a Powerball ticket using the birth dates of household members as his select of numbers, according to a cause filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.
Cheeks didn’t take in the January 7 live draw play on TV – because, let’s human face it, who does? But when he checked the DC Lottery’s website the next day, it displayed his winning numbers.
Despite believing he had just now turn a multimillionaire, the Washingtonian took the whole thing in his stride.
“I got a little excited, but I didn’t shout, I didn’t scream,” Cheeks told NBC 4 this Friday. “I just politely called a friend. i took a show as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep.”
Human Error
However, unknown quantity to Cheeks, the numbers on the website were different from those that were actually drawn during the unrecorded Powerball broadcast. And when he went to receive the just the ticket verified at a licensed retailer, he was told it was no good.
He got a similar response at the D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming appreciate center, where he was told to “throw it in the scum can,” according to weeks.
Cheeks was eventually informed that there had been a “human error.” For unknown region reasons, someone at Taoti Enterprises, the D.C.-based digital publicizing government agency inward complaint of DC Lottery’s website, posted the damage numbers. They stayed in that respect for threesome days.
While Cheeks is seeking the total $340 million, it’s difficult to view how that testament stick. If you play on the Niners to win the Super Bowl, for example, and you just now happened to say somewhere that they bunk the Chiefs lowest William Ashley Sunday — despite hundreds of millions of witnesses to the contrary — you can’t simply catch paid out. That’s non how it works.
But since this was the lottery’s possess website, Cheeks’ attorney, Richard Evans, believes it may experience a liability to make up something, if non the total whack.
“Even if a error was made, the inquiry becomes: What get along you come virtually that?” he asked NBC 4.
Legal Precedent
And there is a precedent. In Nov 2023, Iowa Lottery officials blamed a “human reporting error” for posting the incorrect numbers inward a state of affairs where often to a lesser extent money was at stake. Players who cashed their tickets before the misplay was noticed were paid out. The prizes ranged from $4 to $200.
So, if $200, why non $340 million?
Cheeks mightiness follow trying to take a value that may non exist, but someone inwards Sunshine State this week failed to take a treasure that did rattling practically exist — although not anymore.
At midnight on Sunday, February 11, the deadline to title a winning jackpot just the ticket worth $36 million passed without a claimant coming forward. It’s potential the bearer of the ticket, purchased at a Publix foodstuff stack away inward Jacksonville, was oblivious to the situation.
It’s likely best they never encounter out.
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