$500,000 Winning Lottery Ticket Deemed a ‘Misprint’

A New Mexico resident believes he is owed $500,000 for what appears to be a winning lottery ticket. However, the New Mexico Lottery says the ticket was a misprint so it doesn’t have to be honored.

John Wines purchased the scratch-off ticket in Roswell, New Mexico in December. The ticket showed two winning numbers for $250,000 each, even though the maximum prize for a single scratch-off card is supposed to be $250,000. Some of the winning numbers are also obscured on the ticket. When Wines returned to the gas station where he bought the ticket, to claim his prize, he was told that the card was a misprint. New Mexico Lottery also refused to validate the ticket when he contacted them by email.

Wines believes dismissing the ticket as a misprint is unfair. “It’s like I told them, I didn’t misprint it,” he told KFOR. “I bought the ticket in good faith thinking if I won I was going to get my money.”

As a consolation prize, New Mexico Lottery offered Wines $100—in free lottery tickets.

[KFOR]