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Lottery Error, Players Lose

posted 11:27 pm Mon October 20, 2008

reporter: Shelley Basinger posted by: Webteam

tags: lottery • scratch • ticket

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Across Virginia - They thought they'd won a hefty cash prize, but instead, hundreds of Virginia Lottery (web) players are learning that their "winning" tickets are really just a mistake. The game is Fast-Play Super 7's. It debuted Sunday.

Lottery officials say there was a software problem and they caught on to the glitch by 9:00am Sunday and stopped all sales. But by then 2,300 tickets had already been sold -- 600 of them were misprints. Leaving some players with false hope. A day and a half ago... store clerk Bobby Justis thought the number seven looked pretty good.

Bobby Justis, Thought He'd Won $7,777 - "Turned on my lottery terminal and saw the new game was there so I wanted to see what it was like."

So he printed off this Super 7's ticket and tallied up eight sevens -- that's a $7,777 prize.

Justis - "I was just very overwhelmed. Couldn't believe it."

Across town, Stephanie Robinson was also feeling lucky.

Stephanie Robinson, Thought She'd Won $577 - "I counted my sevens and it said $577 and I said no way.”

But these two didn't get to celebrate for long.

Justis - "I went to check the ticket on the machine and it said I won $2."

Robinson - "So when they scanned it, it said three dollars."

The bar codes on their tickets didn't match the puzzle. Lottery officials quickly called their tickets "misprints."

Robinson - "I was really upset I wanted to cry, because that's a lot of money."

We spoke with a Virginia Lottery official about the mix-up. He said, "When you play the lottery, it should be a fun experience, but when there's a technical problem like this... that's not fun for players. Right now, we're just trying to get all the facts on this situation. We're asking people to hang on to their tickets."

Meantime, both Robinson and Justis say the Virginia Lottery should pay for its mistake. If not, they could lose a customer.

Justis - "Doesn't seem like it's worth it anymore."

And in Robinson's case, credibility.

Robinson - "They're saying that it was a technical error, well what about all the other times that I've played. And I've lost, was it a technical error then, too?"

Each ticket says "void if misprinted." But still, lottery officials are working with the Attorney General's Office to find out if they have to pay the expected prizes.

This isn't the first controversy surrounding the Virginia Lottery this year. You may remember, a Washington and Lee professor has a lawsuit pending against the Lottery. He filed in June, asking for $85 million over defective scratch-off tickets. Scott Hoover says people who bought tickets over the past five years had no chance of winning the top prize, because the lottery kept selling tickets after it was awarded.

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Talkback: Lottery Error, Players Lose

offurrocker

8:41 am on 10/21/08

I hope the Attorney General's Office makes the Va Lottery pay. If the customers purchased the tickets prior to the lottery having knowledge of the misprinting then the lottery should have to pay. By purchasing those "misprinted" tickets under the assumption that they are purchasing good lottery tickets the game has prevented the customer from purchasing another game ticket that could have potentially been a winner.
I'm sure there will be those who cry out and condem the lottery altogether but the reality is this is a business and it needs to make good when it makes a mistake. Most stores still honor a misadvertised price when it is first discovered. After that they may not honor the price and usually put up signs apologizing for the misprint. In the case of the lottery, it stopped all sales of the game, according to the article.

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