OCALA, Fla. (AP) — An Ocala man thought he won $500,000 from a scratch-off ticket, but officials say the Florida Lottery is refusing to pay until it can inspect it.
A Lottery spokeswoman says Joe Curcio has failed to file a prize claim and turn over his ticket for a full inspection. The ticket appears to be a misprint.
Curcio got the ticket at a service plaza Sunday on Florida’s Turnpike. The Gold Rush ticket has the numeral One on the top row and a numeral One above the scratch-off piece, making the ticket appear to be a winner.
But Curcio says lottery officials told him the top number actually was a “13” that was misprinted. And the ticket’s bar code showed it was not a winner when it was scanned.
Curcio has hired an attorney to press his claim.
Whos fault is this? I guess the courts will decide.
Make the State pay up.
Reading the Florida lottery’s official rules as stated on their website, it is the responsibility of the winner. not the state, to determine if the ticket numbers match the winning numbers and that the definition of winning number means “numbers printed in a horizontal row”
There appears to be no “fine print” regarding misprints.
I would say that they are going to get the money. (and a change of the rules!)
Pay up Florida, the man deserves this money!
What do you expect from a state that can’t even count votes and has a Bush for a governor? A real lottery ticket whose numbers match the bar code?
Florida is hereby officially nominated for Hop’s Ultimate King Kahuna Moron Award.
Florida invented that award… and Bush is no longer our gov…thank goodness.
#4, Hop, sorry, that should have been “had” instead of “has” Pesky D key is right next to S (and brain was not fully engaged due to upcoming Preakness and wagering today.)
He could argue that the misprint is in the bar code, not the numbers. Pay up!
Image of the ticket here.
#4, wouldn’t this nomination be an insult to past winners?
This is not the first time Florida has claimed this, in 2005: “Florida Lottery Says $250,000 Scratch-Off Ticket Is Misprinted”
http://www.wftv.com/news/4788259/detail.html
From the article: “There is a printing defect which could make the 22 appear as a 2.” They said, no dice, and offered her $300-worth of lottery tickets for her trouble.”
#9, Mr.Fusion, wouldn’t this nomination be an insult to past winners?
Got me there, it +would+ be an insult. Let me research the Quantum Ultimate King Kahuna Moron Award and post it here in the near future (or past?) Best thing about a quantum award, it can can oscillate between recipients. Patent now pending for the QUKKMA. 🙂
It is totally up to lottery operators which tickets are winners. If the lottery officials can produce records, (and you know they will) that that ticket is not a winner, and that X number of official winners for that game have been claimed, then they are off the hook.
This is to protect them in case they have a printing mistake that makes every ticket a winner. Would you like your state to be on the hook for all the money on they planet in case of a printing mistake? If they say that there is 1 500K winner and that winner is ticket number XXXXXXXX, then that is all they have to pay.
For all we know some mope modified the ticket to appear to be a winner. If that is the case, I hope he enjoys prison, as that is where he belongs.
Don
Looking at the picture of the ticket……it looks like a winner.
#8…Framecrash….good job on finding that pic. This guy is no idiot….unlike the woman in the article linked by sirefelix. She gave them the original….BIG mistake. This guy refuses to give them the original….very smart move. He will be half a million richer and possibly get his legal costs paid as well.
#12….Don…..thats what a group called **quality control** is for. Anytime you are producing any amount of a product(food, cars, or lottery tickets) you must have quality control to stop these kinds of errors.
They lottery glady pays winners. I am sure they want to inspect the ticket to verify that the buyer did not modify the ticket. The picture above shows the word “one” under the number one. I dont see how they could claim it was a misprint
“This is not the first time Florida has claimed this, in 2005: “Florida Lottery Says $250,000 Scratch-Off Ticket Is Misprinted”
http://www.wftv.com/news/4788259/detail.html”
If you look at the picture of this ticket, the text and the numbers dont match, it probably was a misprint. The current one looks like a good winner to me.
You can tell it isn’t a normal misprint, as it’s just not missing a “3”. The pic is really small but truly appears to say “ONE” below both ones.
He’s getting paid.
I would bet money that he WILL NOT be paid.
This would set a dangerous precedent. What if the company that prints the tickets makes an error and 10,000 one million dollar tickets are printed and released? If forced to pay, the lottery (and perhaps the state) would be bankrupted.
That being said, I feel really bad for the guy. If this happened to me I would probably have no job (and several burned bridges) by the time I found out it was a bad ticket.
Florida Statutes Title IV Chapter 24.115 (c)
No prize may be paid arising from claimed tickets that are stolen, counterfeit, altered, fraudulent, unissued, produced or issued in error, unreadable, not received or not recorded by the department by applicable deadlines, lacking in captions that confirm and agree with the lottery play symbols as appropriate to the lottery game involved, or not in compliance with such additional specific rules and public or confidential validation and security tests of the department appropriate to the particular lottery game involved.
The important part was “produced or issued in error”
Also the sentence about play symbols. The FL scratch off games have codes under the numbers in the play area. O N E means 1 and T H R T N is 13. The photo copy o the ticket showed a partal code for 13 not 1.
I feel for the guy he plunks down 20 bucks and belives he has a winner but no sorry FL law is clear on the subject to bad so sad.
Bubba,
You’re an idiot.
Bush has been gone (thankfully) for months!
Climb out of your cave of ignorance before speaking!
Any bets on when this other useless Bush runs for President?
I bet he does…
Here’s a thought……..If a ticket can be misprinted, and the code at the bottom of the ticket is the confirmation of a win or loss….then…..who is to say that a person may have a losing ticket & yet yhe confirming code at the bottom of the ticket is actually a winner. How would we know…..Who besides the Florida lottery can decipher the code?
Total bullshit, they better pay this guy off. Why would anyone buy a lottery ticket after this, I sure wouldn’t. Some jackass from the lottery commision just tells you it’s a loser and you have no recourse….what a joke. If I go to vegas, bet black on the roulette wheel and it comes up black, you better believe I’m getting paid. If the casino was in Florida, they’d just tell you, Sorry, it was really a green number, YOU LOSE.
We have a $50.00 winner & Lotto refused to pay. Hello!!!
the lottery is a crock of deception,fraud, scam and easy way to steal money from people.