'Zero' Chance Lottery Tickets Stun Some PlayersThis is not legal advice, and I am not a lawyer... That said, this guy's going about his lawsuit the wrong way.
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He discovered the Virginia State Lottery was continuing to sell tickets for games in which the top prizes were no longer available. Public records showed that someone had already won the top prize one month before Hoover played. He is now suing the state of Virginia for breach of contract.
I'll do some math to explain. His odds of winning the $1 million dollar scratcher ticket from the State of Virginia would be 1 in 408,000. In other words:
Percentage chance, rounded to the nearest hundredth of a percent, of winning the top prize if someone else has already bought the winning ticket a month ago:
00.00%
Percentage chance, rounded to the nearest hundredth of a percent, of winning the top prize if no one's won it yet:
00.00% ,
Without the rounding: 00.000245098039% I suppose that's technically, better, but not by any practical difference. Buying a ticket increases your odds of winning by far less than a ten thousandth of a percent over your odds of winning if you don't buy a ticket.
In order to get a 1% chance of winning the jackpot, you'd have to buy nearly 40,000 tickets.
In other words, if he's trying to sue based on "the odds of my winning were significantly less because some one else had already won", then he's without a leg to stand on. That the winning ticket had already been sold has virtually zero impact on his chance of becoming a millionaire.
However, he'd have a good shot at winning his lawsuit if he based on slightly different legal grounds. I'm pretty sure his lawyer could win a criminal case based on "the State of Virginia discriminates against stupid people".
Unlike the good state of Michigan, where stupid people do get to win the lottery:
Article #2:
Sex Offender Wins Lottery JackpotSome guys have all the luck, huh?
(LANSING, Mich.) — The winner of last week's $57 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot is a registered sex offender who also pleaded guilty to two breaking and entering charges in the 1980s.
1 comment:
Sweet Zombie Synchronicity Jesus! This morning I read an article on the Lotto Rapist who purchased his lotto ticket while on day release from prison and is now being sued by one of his victims.
As for the 'Zero Chance' case, the guy must have missed the part where they state that lottery games are for entertainment purposes only. Just like sex is for entertainment purposes only. Should a man sue his partner if he fucked her only to find out she was already pregnant with someone else's kid? He had his fun, too.
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