One night last year, a man in Washington, D.C., went to bed tired and astonished after believing he had just won $340 million (!) in the Powerball (https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/powerball-player-denied-340m-lottery-jackpot-over-website-mistake/news-story/c27da90ec1912b562a25ac5eba68d606).
He hadn’t.
Yeahbut, yeahbut! He had all the winning numbers that were posted online, where they remained posted for six hours. But no dice, said the lottery authority: those numbers posted online were “human error.” The numbers read off in the live broadcast, said the authority, were different from the ones posted online: but they were the right numbers, the ones online were wrong. Sorry, Charlie.
Well, now in 2024 the poor guy is suing Powerball and the D.C. lottery administration. Lots o’ luck with that.
He wasn’t really a multimillionaire, so it’s not like he lost anything but a deliriously happy dream (“All it takes is a dollar and a dream”). And maybe a chunk of his sanity.
I’ve always felt there’s something creepy, even sinister, about lotteries. It’s that whole idea of getting something–fabulous wealth–for nothing. Don’t you think it has a sort of pagan smell to it?