Man sues Powerball lottery after being told $340m win was a mistake

Washington DC resident alleges ‘false representation’ by Powerball lottery operator

John Cheeks of Washington DC is suing the Powerball lottery (Screengrab/NBC News)

A man in Washington DC has filed a lawsuit against the Powerball lottery after he was refused a $340m jackpot despite his ticket matching the winning combination shown on the lottery website.

John Cheeks purchased a Powerball lottery ticket on 6 January, using a combination of numbers of personal importance including family birthdates.

Mr Cheeks said he did not see the live draw the next day but saw his numbers listed as the winning combination when he checked the Powerball website the next day.

“I got a little excited, but I didn’t shout, I didn’t scream. I just politely called a friend. I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep,” he told NBC in an interview.

But to his shock, when he went to the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) the next day to redeem his ticket, his claim was denied.

The OLG says the number shown on the Powerball website was part of a test run, and did not match the true winning combination drawn live on 7 January.

As a result the ticket did not show up as a winner when presented at the OLG.

Mr Cheeks said he was told by a staff member to throw his ticket in a bin by the lottery office in DC, but instead he kept it in a safe deposit box and contacted a lawyer.

Powerball lottery tickets are displayed 4 October 2023, in Surfside, Florida (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“’Hey, this ticket is no good. Just throw it in the trash can,’” Mr Cheeks said, recalling the exchange at the office.

“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.’”

Other defendants named in the lawsuit were the Multi-State Lottery Association and game contractor Taoti Enterprises.

“Defendants made a false representation, when they announced a different winning number, two or more days after the announcement of the winning Powerball number on January 7, 2023 thru Janaury 9, 2023 and alleged system error,” the lawsuit said.

Brittany Bailey, the project manager at Taoti, said in a court declaration that the company’s quality assurance team was conducting tests on a task related to adjusting the time zones on the Powerball website from Coordinated Universal Time to Eastern Standard Time.

The quality assurance team accidentally posted a test Powerball number on the website at 12.09pm that day. They were supposed to be running the test in a development environment but accidentally shared the sample number live.

She said the test numbers were not the same combination that was drawn by the Powerball lottery in 7 January.

However, Mr Cheeks’ lawyer Richard Evans has argued that he has not seen evidence to support the claim made by Powerball’s contractor.

“Even if a mistake was made, the question becomes: What do you do about that?”

He said a precedent has been set in a similar case last year when the Iowa Lottery posted the wrong combination online, acknowledging a “human reporting error”. But it allowed the temporary winners to keep their prizes, which were from $4 to $200.

“A mistake was admitted to by a contractor and they paid the winnings out,” Mr Evans said.

The Independent has reached out to the Powerball for comment.