Winning Florida Lottery Ticket a Misprint

Everyone has seen them. The "winning" lottery ticket stuffed in someone's stocking at Christmas. The recipient runs around the room screaming and hugging everyone. Minutes later, a slur of profanities gush out, as he realizes he's been duped. That is exactly how Joe Curcio felt when he got a winning lottery ticket in Florida.

CNN News reported this morning that used car lot owner, Joe Curcio, bought the $20 ticket at a service plaza on Florida's turnpike. Scratching it revealed a #1 on the top row. Matching that number to one in the playing field, showed he had won the top prize of $500,000.

Florida Lottery Commission is claiming the ticket was a misprint. A misprint? The commission claims the number at the top was supposed to be a 13.

Florida Lottery is refusing to pay the prize. They say they want to inspect the ticket.

The Lottery Commission prints out approximately 550,000 tickets each year. There is room for error. They feel justified in refusing to pay the winnings.

Cucio's wife disagrees. Annemarie was quoted in an interview with Channel 6 News, in Florida, as saying," "If I make a mistake in anything, I say, 'Listen, I made a mistake. I'm going to eat the mistake. I owe these people. I'm going to pay these people.' That's the way we are and I expect that from the state of Florida, too."

There are various security measures used in the redemption of the lottery tickets. Manual and visual checks are made. A computer scan is used to register the winning tickets with the commission. This ticket failed that scan.

Each ticket has a disclaimer on the back, which reads, "Prizes may be unavailable at the time of ticket purchase due to prior sale or other causes occurring in the normal course of business". The commission stated that each ticket claims that winnings are subject to availability. Lottery tickets also state that "All tickets, transactions, and winners are subject to Lottery Rules and State Law.

Mr. Cucio said a deal is a deal. He feels that it is not his mistake so he should not suffer for it. Cucio wants the commission to pay up.

Cucio has been asked to turn over the ticket for further investigation. "We can't say whether we will pay the jackpot or not until we go through the process", stated lottery spokeswoman, Jacqueline Barreiros, as reported by CNN News.

Cucio has hired an attorney to process his claim. He has not yet filed a prize claim, and will not surrender the ticket.

The numbers are all printed with the actual written numeric word underneath. This ticket has a 1 printed in the top row. The numeric word under it only shows "thir".

This is not the first time this has happened in Florida. In 2005 a woman, Tina Coley, bought the same kind of ticket, a Gold Rush. She thought she had hit the $250,000 jackpot. Again, the lottery commission claimed a misprint. Coley was offered $300 in lottery tickets for her trouble.