A Powerball player claims that he was rejected a $340 million prize despite having numbers that matched the lottery’s website, which Powerball describes as a “mistake.”
The plaintiff, John Cheeks, sued Powerball and the DC Lottery after purchasing a ticket on January 6, 2023, during the jackpot’s climb. Cheeks, who chose his ticket numbers based on family birthdates, missed the live drawing but checked the DC Lottery’s website the following day, according to the New York Post.
He wasn’t in a hurry because he understood the odds of winning the jackpot were one in 292.2 million. But, to his surprise, when he checked the DC Lottery’s website, his numbers matched, and he believed he had won the jackpot despite the overwhelming odds.
“I just pleasantly called a friend. I took the image he advised and that was it. “I went to sleep,” Cheeks explained.
He discovered his ticket numbers listed on the DC Lottery website for three days following the drawing, only to discover that they did not match the live broadcast numbers when he sought to redeem his ticket on January 10.
Despite his efforts, he was notified by a merchant and the DC Office of Lottery and Gaming’s reward center that he had not won the jackpot.
“Hey, this ticket is no good. “Just throw it in the trash can,” Cheeks told the site. “I gave him a stern look.” I asked, ‘In the trash can?’ ‘Oh yes, just toss it away. You won’t get paid. “There is a trash can right there.”
Cheeks has stored the disputed ticket in a locked deposit box. His lawyer, Richard Evans, revealed that a lottery contractor alerted Cheeks that Taoti Enterprises, a digital advertising agency in DC that manages the lottery website, had made a mistake by uploading incorrect numbers.
“They have said that one of their contractors made a mistake,” Evans explained to NBC 4. “I haven’t seen the evidence to support that yet.”
Evans argues that even if Cheeks did not have the precise numbers from the live drawing, action should be taken to resolve the matter for his client.
“Even if a mistake was made, the question becomes: What do you do about that?”