She thought she won $250,000 in the lottery, but the lottery said it's not paying. The lottery said what appeared to be a winning ticket was a misprint.
Tina Coley buys her scratch off tickets at the same store every week. She said she almost had a heart attack when she matched a number for a quarter of a million dollars. But the Florida Lottery said the ticket is a misprint and Coley's only entitled to $20.
Coley and her family raise German Shepherds. They have enough puppies to keep them smiling, despite a weeks-long roller coaster ride.
Coley bought a ticket at the Sunoco Food Mart just outside Oviedo and scratched it at a stoplight.
"I'm sitting at the light and I scratched the ticket and realize that the two matched the two on the ticket and it was worth $250,000. My hands started shaking. I couldn't drive. The people behind me were tooting their horns," Coley explained.
Right away, she drove to the lottery office in Casselberry, where they copied the ticket and sent the original to Tallahassee. Two weeks later, a lottery official called to say the ticket was a pretty big mistake.
"They said it's a misprint. They misprinted the ticket and they say it's not their responsibility to pay me any of the money," Coley said.
In fact, they put it in writing with a letter to Coley saying, "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.
"Whether they misprinted it or correctly printed it, it's not my fault that they didn't print the ticket properly and, as far as I was concerned, I won $250,000.
Friday, the Lottery issued a statement saying they print 500-million tickets a year and that "the very nature of any mechanical printing process can never guarantee 100% accuracy."
They said, under the number two, a partial printing of an abbreviation for 22 appears, so the lottery decided the mistake should play out in their own favor.
"I think God has a really strange sense of humor, to give you $250,000 and take it away in the next breath," Coley said.
Lottery officials originally told Coley she could have her winning ticket back, but now that they've said 'Sorry, Charlie,' they decided they'd keep the questionable ticket.
Now that is not like the Florida Lottery.
amen brother
I mean, I coudn't see any lottery outside of Indiana doing this, and Florida is the pinnacle of integrity and honesty. For shame.
your right that does sound like something indiana would pull not florida.
They offered her $300.00 worth of scratch offs? to hell you say..! My next move would be to a good lawyer...! They say they print 500 million scratch off tickets a year and they can't be held responsible? My arse, they can take your money though can't they, but can't be held liable? BULL.
i agree maddog.....florida is going to end up making themselves look like fools to the lottery community.florida has one of the best if not the best lottery in america so i hope they pay up.....
It wouldn't hurt them to pay for the mistacke. Come on FL lottery. Do what's right!
Sue them for 1 million. 750,000 pain and suffering and for their arrogance.
lol,good one...
Did the guy from Texas get a job in Florida?
I agree with all of the comments,thats not her fault they ticket was faulty if she still has the original ticket sue them for her and me because it may happen to me and if they get away doing it to her they may want to try it again.I like my Florida scratch and win so please lottery officials do what is right.
[They said, under the number two, a partial printing of an abbreviation for 22 appears, so the lottery decided the mistake should play out in their own favor.]
Printing error is a weak statement coming from the lottery. I would want to know what the bar code said for a payout figure.
They said it was a twenty dollar winner. I would guess NO TICKETS out there have two winners on the ticket for 20 bucks and 250000 bucks. Therefore it probably was really a misprint, but it is absolutely appalling for the lottery to not pay this out, unless they are fearful there are hundreds of others out there. Then they better recall the game. But pay this woman, it is bad enough the lottery is the absolute worst bet in the history of bets. Now I know why more people go to the casinos.
I don't care if it was a misprint, THEY SHOULD PAY HER. It's THEIR stupid mistake. She's had the thrill and shock of winning, let her have the money too!
Any good lawyer should probably be able to at least get her half or 100K in a settlement.
I'm scared now because when ever i'm in Florida I like to buy scratch and win,now i'm having second thought surpose this happen to me,you get happy then finding out oops its a mistake,I say no! no !no !no tell them correct it now or I guess they will see tickets sale going down.
This is ridiculous for the lottery. What an embarrassment
i believe it would not make good sense to ever play florida again.
sue/sue/sue
Sunday July 30th, 2005
I agree with Tina Coley when she said"Whether they misprinted it or correctly printed it, it's not my fault that they didn't print the ticket properly and, as far as I was concerned, I won $250,000."
She is correct and they should have told NO ONE of the printing error and just paid her. No one would have been any wiser. Now the Florida Lottery looks like cheaters, trying to steal this woman's money. After all, she did not ask the clerk to sell her a misprinted ticket, she thought she was buying a scratch off.
I think she has a good case in court, and I hope that she sues and that she wins her case.
They could have just paid her, then pulled the game and not sell any more tickets. Why do they think anyone is going to buy that game now, with misprints among them?
I know that I would avoid that game like the plague.
Unfortunely I think Texas has the same rules governing their scratch off's, too! I buy very few of those tickets for this reason.
Michael
meporter@myway.com
It would be interesting to see a scan of that ticket. Could be one of those deals where it should have been obvious to anyone looking at it that there was something wrong. If so, it might explain the behavior of FL lottery folks in the way they handled it. There's some nuance in the story that might hint that such is the case, though they didn't come out and say it.
This has the looks of a story that won't end for a while. There'll probably be a lot more information available before it goes to sleep.
Let's hope for the sake of this ticket buyer that she got a receipt for a 250K winning ticket when she handed it over to the lottery offices. If not, I'd bet someone has already managed to misplace that pesky little piece of cardboard.
Jack
You LP posters from FL...... is this event getting a lot of media coverage there?
J
They offered her $300.00 worth of scratch offs? to hell you say..! My next move would be to a good lawyer...! They say they print 500 million scratch off tickets a year and they can't be held responsible? My arse, they can take your money though can't they, but can't be held liable? BULL.
I am with MD here.
They would have to come up with a lot more than 300.00 worth of scratch off tickets.
All I can say is I Wish it had been me.
I don't live in FL, but stories like this of "misprints", rules printed under the wrong game, cheating clerks, tickets that are sold after the grand prize has been won, etc. have made me stay away from scratch tickets. They are not random enough and too vulnerable to cheating and ripoffs like this poor woman just experienced. I hope she sues and wins. I wonder what would happen if each time an incident like this occurred, everyone boycotted scratch tickets for 90 days.
My feeling about "misprints" is this. The rules say if you match the numbers, you win. She matched the numbers. It matters not a damn if the numbers matched because that's what the lottery intended or a so-called "misprint" left off a digit. She matched the numbers so she won. If I were her lawyer, I would try to find out if the lottery knew about the "misprint" problem before she won. At that point the lottery should have pulled the game, or if they didn't they were de facto deciding to honor any "misprints." They can't be allowed to continue selling "misprint" winners without consequence.
If the lottery wants to prevent this, they can abandon matching number games and just have a single square in the center of the ticket saying "You win" and "You lose."
Aug...4th.....................
This is tooooo incredible. It makes me gun shy about playing scratch offs period, regardless of the State...and I'm not trying to say that other States would have handled this "mistake" as badly as FLORIDA HAS....but we all try to learn from the misfortunes of others....BTW....God didn't have anything to do with this fraud.....She suggested God gave it to her and took it away in one breath.
No....The .FLORIDA LOTTERY
took it away in one breath....and to maintain the integrity of the the Scratch- offs....they definately owe her $250.00.000..otherwise they can kiss the Integrity of the Florida Scratch-offs goodbye.
tg:
You especially want to stay away from the MA annuity-only scratches.
aaahhhh...yes....."CASH ONLY"......I must make a note of that because the only thing worse than
"ANNUITY ONLY" is being told you won $20.00 as opposed to $250,000.00 .....................