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ROSWELL, N.M. – A New Mexico man thought he hit it big on a lottery ticket, but lottery officials say it was all a mistake.
In December, John Wines bought a scratch-off lottery ticket at a gas station in Roswell, New Mexico.
As he started scratching, he came across multiple winning numbers, totaling over $500,000.
However, the maximum prize for the ticket is $250,000.
On the ticket, you can see part of a number that is supposed to be next to the ones, but it is very faint and you can’t tell what it is.
“There’s a one right here for $250,000,” said Wines. “Right below that is another one and it’s a $250,000 winner.”
John thought he hit the big one, but he says when he went to the gas station to get his money, it didn’t work.
“I took it back in and she told me that is not a winner,” said Wines. “They told me that it was a misprint and they don’t pay off for misprints.”
John says he contacted the New Mexico Lottery who replied in an email saying, “We did find a flaw in that particular pack of tickets and it’s been reported to our printer. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I did complete a reconstruction of your ticket and it was not a winner.”
John begs to differ.
“I mean, if you thought you won $500,000 and somebody tells you that you didn’t, and you can prove to them you did, it’s pretty stressful for somebody to say, ‘no you’re not getting your money,'” said Wines. “If it was $50 or $75, I would not think a thing about it. But this is $500,000. That’s a half million.”
According to KOB, the New Mexico Lottery did offer him $100 in lottery tickets.
“It’s like I told them, I didn’t misprint it,” said Wines. “I bought the ticket in good faith thinking if I won I was going to get my money. And they told me no, they absolutely, positively told me no.”
