Man seeks nearly $1B in lawsuit against lottery organizers after website error listed his numbers as winner
A man is suing Powerball organizers for more than $320 million each after his lottery numbers were mistakenly listed online as the winning ticket for several days last year.
John Cheeks, a 40-year resident of Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association and Taoti Enterprises, which operates the lottery’s website, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Civil Division for just under the jackpot amount – $320 million – plus $72,000 per day of interest payments every day that he is not awarded the winnings since trying to claim the prize on Jan. 10, 2023.
Cheeks purchased a lottery ticket on Jan. 6, 2023, choosing the numbers 7, 15, 23, 32, 40 and the Powerball number of 2. The next day, those numbers were published on the D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming’s website as the winning Powerball numbers. The original winning amount was listed as $340 million, but the D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming later corrected the prize amount to $320.6 million following a hearing on April 13, 2023.
For three days, Jan. 7, 8 and 9, 2023, the website listed two different "winning" sets – the numbers on Cheeks' ticket, as well as the real winning numbers that were called out during the televised drawing. The lawsuit said the defendants "reposted and republished different Powerball numbers without having any public service announcement on their website" about the addition of the televised announced numbers.
The lottery officials said Cheeks' numbers were posted on the website in error by the operator, Taoti Enterprises. Cheeks presented his Powerball ticket on Jan. 10, 2023, but the District of Columbia Office of Lottery and Gaming "said they would not honor the ticket because it was an error posted on their public website and the internet posted numbers of Powerball could not be redeemed."
Cheeks filed a complaint with the lottery office and hearings on the matter continued from May to October that year. A Taoti employee testified in person that "a mistake was made" by posting the same numbers on Cheeks’ ticket in error on the website on Jan. 6, 2023, and the lottery office was notified that those numbers were "invalid." Yet, the lawsuit took issue with the office never notifying the public.
The lawsuit is alleging Powerball and the Multi-State Lottery Association carried out "deceit and misrepresentation" against Cheeks, while Taoti Enterprise committed "theft," and is now demanding the winning amount from each of the defendants, amounting to $961.8 million in "compensatory relief."