Lawrence Walters discusses his case against the Florida Lottery

all right what would you do right now 10:30 what would you do if you thought you had a winning lottery ticket but then found out the printer that printed it made a mistake on that ticket well how's that possible well it is Fox 13's Doug Smith has been investigating the Lottery's printing practices and now you're going to see why you've got to go beyond those magic numbers to see if you really are a winner and Joe Curcio had every reason to feel down on his luck just a year earlier he and his wife Anne Marie got the ultimate rush after scratching off a gold rush ticket and thinking they'd won the big jackpot we decided let's go get a ticket and somebody I skipped and I said that sounds good and it turned out to be a half a million dollar ticket when they got back to Ocala they quickly packed up and left early Monday morning before sunrise for Tallahassee with what they thought was a winning ticket they got a lighter we take a check and they said a misprint and we were like they couldn't believe it when the state refused to hand over the $500,000 prize the Cursillo attorney calls it fraud they knew that miss Prince we're going to occur this is a copy of the ticket the original is in safe storage it appears to have a 1 on the top row and a one above the $500,000 scratch off piece the tickets not a winner according to the lottery because first it didn't scan and second see the letters th and a partial n below the number 1 the lottery claims it indicates the number 13 the three didn't show up therefore it's a misprint they knew that Inc would develop on the heads of these printers and that this is just simply an unavoidable problem they would have to live with and yet they continue to sell lottery tickets did the lottery really know miss Prince were happening yes concluded this report by the Florida lotteries inspector general the lottery was aware of problem but says it's 18 out of 12 twelve point three billion that means our misprint rate is zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one four six it rarely happens the lotteries David Bishop defends the integrity of scratch-off games even after the inspector of general's report recommended several changes involving the lottery and SGI the Georgia company that prints the tickets one would require SGI to pay a claim on a winning ticket misprint another would define what is a misprint the lottery has an easy answer but it doesn't seem fair to some people good enough there is no such thing as a payable misprint to take us either a winner or it's not a winner clear and simple it's it's black and white black and white that's what folks who play the lottery think it's easy to know if you've won the matching numbers you know so you don't know there are four numbers on the top then they have to match the ones on the bottom that's not always true as the Cursillo found out it's not just a matter of scratch and match there's a triple verification system number one the winning numbers number two the caption of that winning number right below the winning number and finally we have embedded those numbers in the ticket so that when you scan the ticket either at a lottery retailer or here the lottery office you know if it's a winner or not are all these conditions clearly spelled out on the ticket not really this is all it says to try to claim that there are additional terms that are imposed in this contract after you buy the ticket based on what's on the back is just ridiculous no other business could get away with doing that so what about tickets that appeared to be losers but might actually be winners that's a real problem because people are throwing away tickets all the time that could very well be winning tickets if these misprints are out there most people we spoke with had no idea that was even a possibility I think I'll stick with the lotto instead you know scratchy scratchy you know I haven't been very successful with these it's been a five-year legal battle for the Kerr SEOs Joe has now passed away his wife hopes that she lives long enough one day see the money john-boy now you can imagine what kind of upset when they got here sure but you mentioned 17 other misprints that the company is made here yeah mister printing tickets have they ever paid out enough not once the lottery has never ever paid out for a misprint instead they'll offer the customer another ticket and that's essentially all they'll do but they do not pay out for Miss Prince all right now does the state law protect the lottery in terms of how much they have to pay out and the lawsuit and surely they've been sued before yeah well you know about sovereign immunity yeah yeah the lottery claims that they are protected by sovereign immunity which would limit the damages to 200 thousand dollars but that limit doesn't apply in a breach of contract case according to the Kerr CIO's attorney and that's what they're moving forward on this is also the first time someone has challenged the lottery so-called sovereign immunity in court claiming it operates more like a revenue generating business than a state agency so we'll keep you posted on how this lawsuit develops and you know it would be interesting to see how a jury would respond to all this and perhaps one day that's where it's all headed well we wish the Cursillo as well and whoever else gets a ticket is printed and thinks they've won the lottery Doug thank you very much Kelly

Channel: Walters Law Group

Views: 15,375

Rating: 4.5949368 out of 5

Keywords: Florida Lottery, Lottery, Gold Rush, Lawrence Walters, Walters, Attorney, scratch off, ticket, misprint, Curcio, lawsuit, litigation, Tampa

Id: y9o3Hrxdn_w

Length: 5min 36sec (336 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2012