Judge rejects $750,000 California scratch-off claim and awards lottery $153,200 in legal fees

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has entered judgment for the California State Lottery Commission in a lawsuit over a $750,000 scratcher prize, and awarded the commission $153,200 in attorneys' fees and costs. According to court documents, Judge Kevin C. Brazile signed the judgment on Thursday, ending a breach-of-contract case filed by James Densley in April 2022.

Densley said he bought a poker ticket in September 2021 showing a flush, which he argued beat a hand of three queens for a prize of $75,000 multiplied by ten. He said the commission denied the claim three months later without giving him a reason.

In filings seeking dismissal, the Attorney General's Office contended that the original ticket had been torn into pieces and reassembled with cellophane tape, rearranging the play symbols into a winning hand. Judge Brazile granted the motion. 

Rearranged symbols cannot create a winner

The play symbols printed on a scratcher are not what decides the prize. Each ticket is assigned its outcome before it ever reaches a store, and that outcome is recorded against the ticket's serial number in the lottery's validation system. A claim is settled by scanning the barcode and matching it to that record.

A ticket whose symbols have been moved around still carries the serial number it was printed with, so it validates as whatever the lottery already has on file. Our explainer on what "file a claim" means when you scan a ticket covers what the terminal is doing at that moment.

Accidental damage is a different situation

A torn ticket is not automatically void, and players who damage one by accident are in a different position from the one described in these filings. If the serial number and barcode remain readable, lotteries will generally accept the ticket for review, usually through a district office.

What ends a claim is evidence of deliberate alteration. South Carolina puts the principle directly into statute, barring payment on any ticket that is stolen, counterfeit, altered, fraudulent, unissued or unreadable. Other states carry comparable rules in their lottery acts or game regulations.

Sources

The Independent: California man loses lawsuit over $750,000 lottery prize

South Carolina Code of Laws, Section 59-150-220