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Main: John Cheeks, the D.C. man who sued Powerball over unpaid lottery winnings, is shown. (screengrab via WRC-TV); Inset:
A customer fills out a Powerball lottery ticket.(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh).

A D.C. man is suing Powerball and the DC Lottery over a $340 million “mistake” that he says amounts to a civil conspiracy to not only cheat him out of lottery winnings, but to maximize lottery ticket sales for their own profits.

John Cheeks bought a Powerball ticket on Jan. 6, 2023, hoping to win the $320 million jackpot prize. According to Cheeks, he played numbers that were a personal combination of family birth dates and other significant numbers. Cheeks described himself as “not a regular” lottery player and said that he tends to play only for very large jackpots.

Cheeks said he did not tune in to see the live drawing on Jan. 7, but visited the Powerball website via his laptop on Jan. 8 and saw that his chosen numbers were listed as the winning combination. Those numbers, a screenshot of which can be seen below, stayed listed on the website for three days, according to Cheeks.

A screenshot of the winning Powerball numbers for Jan. 7, 2023, is shown. (image via court documents).

Despite the enormous jackpot, Cheeks described himself as having had a relatively low-key reaction to the win.

“I just politely called a friend,” Cheeks told NBC4. “I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep.”

Cheeks said his response was due primarily to being immersed in his work at the time — he claims he is combating the housing crisis by creating financial alternatives for individuals who do not qualify for traditional mortgages in the Virginia, Maryland, and DC areas.

Cheeks said he tried to redeem his winning ticket at a licensed retailer on Jan. 10, only to discover that his numbers did not match those selected at the live drawing. He said he then went to the DC Office of Lottery and Gaming prize center and was told that he was not the winner.

Cheeks told NBC News that a claims staffer at the prize center told him, “Hey, this ticket is no good. Just throw it in the trash can.”

Cheeks said he questioned the staffer’s response with a stern look but was again told, “Oh yeah, just throw it away. You’re not gonna get paid.”

Instead, though, Cheeks put the ticket in a safe-deposit box, then contacted a lawyer and filed a lawsuit in Superior Court for the District of Columbia. The handwritten complaint was filed last November against Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association, and Taoti Enterprises. In the filing, Cheeks demanded all $320,600,000 of the jackpot plus $72,000 per day in interest payments.

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