For three days he was the happiest man in the world, until, through no fault of his own, he became the ultimate unhappy person. When John Cheeks compared the numbers on his ticket to the official Powerball lottery website, all six matched. But when he wanted to cash in his winnings of $340 million (about €316 million), he was told: “None of your numbers are correct!” The lottery company justifies itself with a mistake. Now Cheeks wants to fight for the win in court.
According to court documents, Cheeks had the Powerball ticket issued on January 6, 2023 with the numbers 7, 15, 23, 32, 50 and the additional number 2. He revealed to a local TV station: ‘The numbers are made up of the birthdays of my relatives.’ When he checked his computer the evening after the drawing on January 7, his heart almost stopped: he had won the Powerball jackpot and would have been the first multi-millionaire of the year.
Explanation at the counter: “Your certificate has failed”
The alleged lottery winner took a photo of his computer screen to prove to disbelieving relatives that he wasn’t joking. On January 10, 2023, he brought his winning ticket to the Lottery Winning Center in Washington DC. The reaction of the clerk who put the ticket through the validation machine sent his friends into a frenzy: “He said, ‘Your ticket is a failure. Throw it in the trash!’ I replied, ‘Are you crazy? Take a look at your website.’ But he didn’t want to hear about it.’
In this post you will see the preventable lottery multi-millionaire:
Incorrect figures were displayed on the website
Cheeks left his fate in a safe and hired lawyer Richard Evans. Upon request, he learned from lottery operator Taoti Enterprises that the wrong winning numbers had been displayed on the website – which no one noticed for three days. The fault is said to lie with a third-party advertising agency that manages the DC Lottery website. Evans told Channel4Washington: “The lottery company hasn’t even been able to prove to us that the mistake wasn’t theirs. And even if it was a mistake, the court should decide what my client is entitled to.”
At the draw on January 7, 2023, no player officially had six correct numbers. The jackpot even grew in the following weeks to $756.6 million before being won on February 6, 2023.
Interestingly, a similar website error occurred with the Iowa State Lottery in November 2023. The incorrect winning numbers remained online for six hours overnight. All players who were paid out winnings of up to $200 online during this period (winners must collect their money at the lottery center for larger amounts) were allowed to keep their money.
Source: Krone
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