Father Sues California Lottery Over Denied $5 Million After Underage Son Bought Winning Ticket

Posted on: July 25, 2017, 06:00h. 

Last updated on: July 25, 2017, 04:01h.

Casino.org Staff Writer Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming.

An aggrieved Long Beach resident who had a $5 million lottery win whisked from under his nose on a rather glaring technicality is suing the California Lottery Commission and the gas station that sold the “winning” ticket to his 16-year-old son.

That’s right, Ward Thomas sent his 16-year-old son to buy the ticket, an act that invalidated the win on the grounds that underage gambling is illegal.

But Thomas’ suit, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, claims the commission neglected to enforce its own rules, in breach of gambling law, while engaging in false advertising by failing to to publicize that you must be at least 18 to play.

The lawsuit claims failure to discharge a mandatory duty, breach of contract, negligence and both intentional and negligent representation.

Thomas Jr.’s Big Win

Thomas Jr. bought five Scratchers tickets at the Mobil station on October 16 by exchanging other winning tickets. And he hit big, or would have, had he been old enough.

Thomas Sr. validated the ticket at a 7-Eleven store in Long Beach that same day and then again the following day at the lottery office in Santa Ana, according to the suit.

But on December 5, the Lottery Commission dropped the bombshell. It’s not known exactly how the commission discovered that Thomas Jr. bought the tickets and not his father.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, although we’re going to take a wild stab and say they’re somewhere in the mid-seven-figures.

Weird Dual Mirror Dimension Thing

Could it be that the United Kingdom is actually just a strange parallel dimension of Long Beach, California, where everything happens in reverse? We’re going to stick our neck out and say it is.

As evidence, we submit the case of Jane Park, the UK’s youngest lottery winner, who is suing the national lottery provider, Camelot, for negligence in selling her an actual winning lottery ticket that subsequently, she claims, blighted her life.

Park claims she was too young when she won £1 million at just 17 and it has made her life miserable. Had the legal age to buy a lottery ticket in the UK been 18 (as opposed to 16), as she believes it should be , she would have been spared the entire miserable ordeal of winning lots of money.

While we fear both cases may be doomed, Park’s is the more preposterous, since, in the unlikely event she is successful and is awarded damages, she will be further enriched and therefore even more miserable.

Nasty Case of Euphoria

To end on a happier note, a lottery winner in New Zealand was admitted to hospital this week suffering from “euphoria.”

Lou Te Keeti, a Maori man in his seventies, was so overwhelmed when he saw $5.6 million in his bank account that he collapsed and was rushed to hospital. Doctors could find nothing wrong with him other than that he was happy and elated, emotions that had apparently been unfamiliar to him up until this point.