Washington DC Powerball player denied $340M lottery prize over DC Lottery website mistake

US News

By Richard Pollina

The unluck of the draw.

A Powerball player claims he was denied a life-changing jackpot worth $340 million despite his numbers matching the lottery’s website last year, which the company claims was a “mistake.”

Now, he’s suing Powerball and the DC Lottery

John Cheeks bought a Powerball ticket on Jan. 6, 2023, when the jackpot rose to the $340 million prize, according to a complaint filed last November.

Cheeks, who told NBC 4 he purchased the ticket using his family birthdates, missed the live drawing on Jan. 7, but wasn’t in a rush to check his numbers since the odds of winning a Powerball jackpot is about 1 in 292.2 million. 

He claimed he checked the DC Lottery’s website the following day and saw his winning numbers, believing he had become the year’s first multimillionaire.

“I just politely called a friend. I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep,” Cheeks told the outlet.

For three days, the DC Lottery website showed his ticket numbers, according to the complaint.

The numbers posted on the website, however, differed from those pulled during the live Powerball broadcast.

He tried to redeem the ticket at a licensed retailer on Jan. 10 and discovered none of his numbers matched up to what was drawn live.

Cheeks claimed he then went to the DC Office of Lottery and Gaming prize center to check with them, but again, he was told he was not the winner.

“’Hey, this ticket is no good. Just throw it in the trash can,’” Cheeks recalled to the outlet. “And I gave him a stern look. I said, ‘In the trash can?’ ‘Oh yeah, just throw it away. You’re not gonna get paid. There’s a trash can right there.’”

Cheeks has since placed the ticket in a safety deposit box.

Cheek’s attorney, Richard Evans, said his client was eventually informed by a lottery contractor that Taoti Enterprises — a DC-based digital advertising agency that manages the DC Lottery’s website — made a “mistake” and posted the wrong numbers.

“They have said that one of their contractors made a mistake,” Evans told NBC 4. “I haven’t seen the evidence to support that yet.”

Despite Cheeks not having the correct numbers of the live drawing, Evan feels that something needs to be done for his client.

“Even if a mistake was made, the question becomes: What do you do about that?”

The jackpot eventually grew to $754.6 million before a ticketholder in Washington claimed the prize on Feb. 6.

In Nov. 2023, Iowa lottery officials blamed “human reporting error” for posting the incorrect numbers, which remained on its website for over six hours.

Those who were up and cashed their tickets were able to claim their prize, which ranged from $4 to $200, according to Fox 9.