A man is suing Powerball and the Washington D.C. Lottery after being denied his $340 million prize, being told that the lottery’s website had made a mistake, despite his winning numbers showing up on the website, according to reports.
D.C. man, John Cheeks, said he bought his Powerball ticket on Jan. 6, 2023, using a combination containing family birthdates and other things.
“I’m not a regular, except for when the jackpot goes up,” Cheeks told NBC affiliate WRC.
Cheeks hadn’t seen the drawing on Jan. 7 but looked up the winning numbers on the lottery’s website the next day, and to his surprise, he saw his numbers staring back at him.
“I got a little excited, but I didn’t shout, I didn’t scream,” he said. “I just politely called a friend. I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep.”
But according to WRC, the winning numbers posted on the D.C. Lottery website were not the same Powerball numbers drawn on Jan. 7. Cheeks lawsuit claims his numbers remained on the lottery’s website for three days, and at the time, the prize was $340 million.
Cheeks’ lawsuit goes on to explain that when he tried to redeem the ticket at a licensed retailer, the prize was denied. He was denied the large sum at the D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming prize center, as well.
WRC said Cheeks also received a request from a claims staffer telling him the ticket was no good.
“‘Hey, this ticket is no good. Just throw it in the trash can,'” he told WRC. “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.'”
However, the man did not throw the ticket away but instead put it in a safe deposit box and contacted a lawyer.
According to WRC, the lawsuit, which attorney Richard Evans filed, states that Cheeks was eventually told that a lottery contractor Taoti Enterprises accidentally posted the wrong numbers, saying that it was a “mistake.”
“They have said that one of their contractors made a mistake,” Evans told WRC. “I haven’t seen the evidence to support that yet. Even if a mistake was made, the question becomes: What do you do about that? There is a precedent for this, a similar case that happened in Iowa, where a mistake was admitted to by a contractor, and they paid the winnings out.”
WRC reached out to Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association, Taoti Enterprises, and other D.C. government officials named in the lawsuit. The station said the entities are not allowed to comment on ongoing lawsuits, per policy.