You’re probably a really nice person. However, that doesn’t mean that the winner of last week’s record Powerball multi-state lottery jackpot wants to be your pal on social media, or wants to give you money. Profiles that impersonate the real winner and promise to give money away to her followers are not real. [More]
lottery winners
Man Sues California Lottery Claiming Officials “Destroyed” Evidence Of His Winning $63M Ticket
By 2.4.16
While California Lottery officials are urging the winner of the $63 million jackpot to come forward, one man said he tried to do just that, but instead, officials took his winning ticket and destroyed it. [More]
Clerk Sells Wrong Lottery Ticket, Customer Wins $381K In Powerball
By 10.29.15
Many years ago, I had a job that included selling lottery tickets. Sometimes I’d make a mistake, maybe printing out a quick-pick when the customer wanted to dictate numbers to me, or printing off a Win 4 ticket instead of a Take Five. “That’s okay,” some customers would say. “Maybe it was a lucky mistake. I’ll buy that one.” This never translated to big payouts for my customers, but won a convenience store customer in California $380,774. [More]
Illinois Can’t Pay Its Lottery Winners Right Now
By 8.31.15
Current lottery winners in Illinois might have to delay their joyful reactions for a little while. The state hasn’t passed a new budget, which means that they’re unable to pay lottery winners whose prizes are $25,000 or more. That’s a total of 29 lottery winners still waiting for their money since the current fiscal year started on July 1st. [More]
Guy Who Chucked Winning Lottery Tickets Saved From Eternal Regret By Convenience Store Worker
By 8.5.15
We’ve all had that moment: something you need is suddenly missing — a receipt, a paycheck, your kid’s birth certificate — and a horrible thought strikes you — “Did I throw it out?!?” A Georgia man had the weight of certain lifelong regret sitting on his shoulders when he realized he’d chucked two lottery tickets worth $10,000, thinking they weren’t winners. [More]
New York Lottery Seeks Missing Buyer Of $7 Million Ticket
By 7.23.15
A year ago, someone walked into a bodega (or, as we say in the rest of the country, a “convenience store”) in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and bought a lottery ticket. Perhaps he or she lost the ticket, or missed checking the winning numbers, because the buyer won $7 million, yet has not come forward. They need to do so before tomorrow. [More]
Lottery Officials Looking For Guy Who Won $75K But Walked Away From Gas Station With Only $75
By 5.4.15
Man Wins Lottery Without Knowing It, Loses Ticket, Probably Cries
By 3.13.15
A man in southern California is living the nightmare of all lottery players: he bought a Powerball ticket in September of last year, and won the game without realizing it. The California Lottery tried to identify the winner as the deadline loomed, releasing surveillance camera footage of him to news outlets. He recognized himself…but he no longer has the winning ticket. [More]
Lottery Winner From 2006 Awarded Stolen $5 Million Prize
By 8.29.13
The lottery winner duped out of his prize by the sons of a convenience store owner will finally receive his $5 million. Back in 2006, a man in Syracuse, N.Y. won the huge prize in a scratchoff game, but the cashiers on duty, the store owner’s sons, told him that he had only won $5,000. They bought the ticket from him for even less than that, then did nothing. For six years. [More]
Lottery Winner Grabs Burger In Canadian Midwest, Leaves $10,000 Tip
By 7.1.13
Passing through Saskatchewan, a man from British Columbia, Canada happened to stop in a little restaurant to grab a burger. The visitor wrote a $10,000 check and told the restaurant owner to take his bill out of that and keep the rest. Was it some kind of scam? No, just a very generous lottery winner. [More]
Man Stuffed $4 Million Lottery Ticket In Cookie Jar, Forgot About It For 3 Months
By 5.16.13
I have a secret fear that I will win a huge lottery prize, but never know it because I had stuffed the ticket in a coat pocket or a drawer. I deal with this fear by not buying lottery tickets. But this actually happened to a man who lives near Chicago. He says that he had stuffed old lottery tickets in a cookie jar, then took them to the store to see whether they had maybe won a couple of bucks for hitting a few numbers. They had: one ticket won $3. Yay, he could almost buy a gallon of gas! Then another ticket in the pile won more than $4 million. [More]
Fake Lottery Winner Enrages Burlington Coat Factory Shoppers
By 10.17.09
Earlier this week, a lottery winner pulled up her stretch Hummer in front of a Burlington Coat Factory store near Columbus, Ohio. In an Oprah-esque share of largesse, she promised to buy every shopper in the store $500 worth of merchandise. But she turned out to be no fairy godmother. She wasn’t even a real lottery winner. When customers discovered the lie, they took their frustration out on the store, trashing it.
