The joy was short-lived for this American.
John Cheeks purchased a Powerball ticket on January 6, 2023. He then uses the birth dates of his loved ones and other personal information to try to win the jackpot, his chances of winning being around 1 in 292.2 million.
The American is not, however, a gambling addict.
“I'm not a regular, except when the jackpot goes up,”
he said on
NBC Washington
.
Having been unable to attend the drawing on January 7, the player consults the website on his computer the day after the drawing.
Surprise, the numbers displayed are the same as his!
The American remains calm.
“I just politely called a friend.
I took a photo as he recommended, and that was it.
I fell asleep,”
he confided.
The figures published on the site (left) correspond to those on the ticket (right).
NBCWashington
Problem is, John Cheeks claims that he was refused twice when he went with his ticket to a lottery office and to a retailer.
The numbers displayed on the lottery website do not correspond to those of the live Powerball draw on January 7.
The American persisted: his numbers remained displayed on the Columbia Lottery website for three days and the Powerball prize amount at that time was around $340 million.
Worse still, the seller advises him to throw the precious ticket in the trash...
Man files complaint against lottery
Exasperated, he decides to file a complaint and hire a lawyer.
The legal procedure allows him to understand behind the scenes of such a hiccup: an blunder was committed by the subcontractor Taoti Enterprises.
His lawyer Richard Evans learns that an employee accidentally posted wrong winning numbers on the game site. Brittany Bailey, project manager at Taoti Enterprises, justifies herself in
The Guardian
.
At the time, the contractor was testing a new feature that involved a time zone change on the Powerball website.
By accident, test numbers ended up directly on the real site, and not on the dummy interface which had been created for the occasion and invisible to Internet users.
“A man sues Powerball and the DC Lottery” headlines the channel.
NBCWashington
Although he readily admits that his discreet reaction is due to the workload incumbent upon him, the Chicago resident nonetheless remains interested in the jackpot at stake to carry out his solidarity project.
His ambition is to create a trust bank that would grant loans to people who do not qualify for a traditional mortgage loan.
The man says he's concerned about
"the homeownership crisis in the District, Virginia and Maryland
. "
Mr. Cheeks has since revealed that he placed his ticket in a safe.
His lawyer is hopeful that his client will be rewarded.
He pointed to a similar case in Iowa
"where an error was admitted by a contractor and the winnings were paid out
. "
The winners were able to pocket between 4 and 200 dollars, far from the 340 million that John Cheeks claimed.
To be continued…