2011 Hot Lotto Winner Sues Over Jackpot That Could Have Been Bigger

A lottery winner from five years ago is suing the very entity that runs the games, claiming that he should have won a bigger prize. You may remember the reason why that’s a valid argument: a former security official with the Multi-State Lottery Association has been convicted of rigging the random-number-generating computer that picks the winning numbers for Hot Lotto. Now a 2011 winner is suing, arguing that his own jackpot should have been larger.

The Associated Press reports that the lawsuit was filed by a man from Iowa who won $9,090,000 in the Hot Lotto multi-state game in 2011. If no one had won the previous jackpot, his attorney argues, then the prize would have rolled into the game that his client won.

That December 2010 prize ultimately went unclaimed: you might remember that lottery officials were looking for the mystery man who purchased the winning ticket along with some hot dogs before the statute of limitations on fraud ran out. A corporation based in Belize tried to claim the prize, but the Iowa lottery will only give prizes to winners who have been identified, to prevent exactly this type of fraud.

Ultimately, the money was returned to states that participate in Hot Lotto. The winner from early 2011 argues that the money should be his.

This is the first lawsuit filed by a winner from the period when the lottery fraud was happening: the man and his accomplices allegedly won multiple prizes in four other states dating back to 2005.
First lawsuit in state lottery-fixing scandal seeks millions [Associated Press]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist