John Cheeks was convinced that his life would change forever in January 2023, when he noticed the Powerball winning numbers were exactly the same as his ticket. He was correct, but not in the manner he had expected. Mr. Cheeks’ claim was denied when he presented his ticket at the Office of Lottery and Gaming. The office told Mr. Cheeks that he didn’t have the winning tickets and told him instead to throw the ticket away. Mr. Cheeks, instead, filed a lawsuit to recover the $340million jackpot plus any interest he could have earned per day.
Powerball and Taoti Enterprises in Washington, DC, both claim that the numbers were the result of a technical mistake. Taoti’s employee says that a team of quality assurance testers was testing the website on January 6, 2023. Taoti posted a set of test Powerball numbers online, which just happened to match Mr. Cheeks’ numbers. These numbers were online for 3 days, up until 9 January 2023. Taoti denies that Mr. Cheeks’ ticket was drawn at the last lottery draw.
Mr. Cheeks has filed eight different counts of lawsuit, including breach, negligence, fraud and infliction. The lawsuit claims that Mr. Cheeks is entitled to the entire jackpot or damages for the “gross…
