ST..JOHNS (CBC) - A St. John's lottery player may have saved a dozen dollars while cancelling an overcharged lottery ticket, but missed out on a $30-million jackpot.
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A customer at the Corner Store, a convenience store in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John's, ordered a $12 ticket on May 21, leading up to that night's Atlantic Lottery Lotto Max jackpot.
"The [clerk] printed it off and made a mistake on the machine, and it came out $27. She offered it to the customer and she said, no, she didn't want it," store owner Shawn Noel told CBC News on Thursday.
The clerk followed procedure and immediately voided the ticket, meaning that the numbers printed were put back into play.
However, no other ticker buyer in Atlantic Canada purchased them, meaning that a $30-million jackpot went unclaimed.
"Bad, bad luck," Noel said with a chuckle.
"It's nobody's fault. Rules were followed, right to the T. Right by the book."
Noel and his store shared in the loss of luck. As the vendor, he would have pocketed one per cent of the prize, or $300,000 or, as he called it, "a nice little chunk" of cash.
"[But] I feel bad for the customer. That's a lot to play on your mind. What's 10 or 12 dollars on 30 million?" he said.
Jennifer Dalton, a communications official with Atlantic Lottery Corp. in St. John's, said the incident is highly unusual.
"It was big news for us, certainly, here around the office," she said Thursday.
"To our knowledge, we've never had such a potential of a winning prize, being so large, for a cancelled ticket."
Cancelled tickets are actually quite common. Dalton said customers cancel about 52,500 tickets every month, for a variety of reasons.
"It's always their choice whether they want to continue with the purchase or not," she said. However, she acknowledged that the jackpot that got away may make some customers think twice when they see a set of numbers that don't meet their initial fancy.
"I'm sure there's going to be lots of people out there reconsidering whether they want to cancel tickets," she said.
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A customer at the Corner Store, a convenience store in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John's, ordered a $12 ticket on May 21, leading up to that night's Atlantic Lottery Lotto Max jackpot.
"The [clerk] printed it off and made a mistake on the machine, and it came out $27. She offered it to the customer and she said, no, she didn't want it," store owner Shawn Noel told CBC News on Thursday.
The clerk followed procedure and immediately voided the ticket, meaning that the numbers printed were put back into play.
However, no other ticker buyer in Atlantic Canada purchased them, meaning that a $30-million jackpot went unclaimed.
"Bad, bad luck," Noel said with a chuckle.
"It's nobody's fault. Rules were followed, right to the T. Right by the book."
Noel and his store shared in the loss of luck. As the vendor, he would have pocketed one per cent of the prize, or $300,000 or, as he called it, "a nice little chunk" of cash.
"[But] I feel bad for the customer. That's a lot to play on your mind. What's 10 or 12 dollars on 30 million?" he said.
Jennifer Dalton, a communications official with Atlantic Lottery Corp. in St. John's, said the incident is highly unusual.
"It was big news for us, certainly, here around the office," she said Thursday.
"To our knowledge, we've never had such a potential of a winning prize, being so large, for a cancelled ticket."
Cancelled tickets are actually quite common. Dalton said customers cancel about 52,500 tickets every month, for a variety of reasons.
"It's always their choice whether they want to continue with the purchase or not," she said. However, she acknowledged that the jackpot that got away may make some customers think twice when they see a set of numbers that don't meet their initial fancy.
"I'm sure there's going to be lots of people out there reconsidering whether they want to cancel tickets," she said.
