Powerball player denied $340M lottery jackpot over website ‘mistake’
A man was left disappointed after buying what seemed to be a winning Powerball ticket, only to be told it was not valid.
Had he been able to claim it, the lottery ticket would have been worth a life-changing $340 million, but the company is claiming that there was a 'mistake'.
John Cheeks, from Washington DC, bought the Powerball ticket on January 6, 2023.
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He was thrilled when the numbers on the ticket matched up with those displayed on the website, meaning the ticket could have won him the $340 million jackpot.
Cheeks missed the live drawing on January 7, and wasn't in any rush to check the numbers given the extremely long odds of winning at the Powerball - around one in 292.2 million.
He claims that he checked the numbers on the DC Lottery's website the day after, and was shocked to find that he appeared to have become the year's first multimillionaire.
The numbers were up on the website for some three days according to a complaint that he is making.
Cheeks is now suing Powerball and DC Lottery after being told that his ticket was not valid, despite the numbers matching up.
Recalling his reaction to thinking he had won, he told NBC4: “I just politely called a friend. I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep."
The problem was that the numbers which were displayed on the website were not the same as the ones which were pulled up live on the programme.
When Cheeks went to the DC Office of Lottery and Gaming prize center to check, he was told the ticket was not valid.
Recounting the incident, he said: “’Hey, this ticket is no good. Just throw it in the trash can.
“And I gave him a stern look. I said, ‘In the trash can?’ ‘Oh yeah, just throw it away. You’re not gonna get paid. There’s a trash can right there.’”
But Cheeks has not put the ticket in the trash, instead placing it in a safety deposit box.
The lawsuit filed by his attorney, Richard Evans, claims that Cheeks was eventually told that contractor Taoti Enterprises made a 'mistake' and accidentally posted the wrong numbers on the website.
Evans told NBC 4: “They have said that one of their contractors made a mistake. I haven’t seen the evidence to support that yet.”
Although Cheeks' numbers do not match to the live draw, Evans argues that due to the mistake something still needs to be done, saying: “Even if a mistake was made, the question becomes: What do you do about that?”
UNILAD has contacted Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association and Taoti Enterprises for comment.
Kit Roberts