Jackpot judgment

For some who bet on the lottery, a cat is a lucky charm.

On 16 February, a guy posted on his Threads account photos and a video celebrating his winning four numbers in a Mark Six lottery draw in Hong Kong, The Standard (TS) reported.

One of the photos showed a cat perched on a windowsill above the Jockey Club branch where he bought his winning ticket. In the post, he joked that the cat had brought him good fortune that won him the prize of HK$1,040.

Netizens reacted to the post by congratulating him and dubbing the feline a “lucky cat” and a “wealth-bringing cat,” according to TS.

Meanwhile, The Pick lottery ticket that won the $12.8-million jackpot in November in the United States is on hold as there is another claimant to the prize.

The management of the Arizona Circle K convenience store branch in Scottsdale, where the winning ticket was sold, asked the court in a 17 February filing to determine who owned it.

The dispute over the jackpot arose when a bettor bought $85 worth of The Pick tickets for the 24 November draw at the store but paid only $60, leaving 25 printed tickets unpaid, the New York Post (NYP) reported.

Robert Gawlitza was the store clerk at the time and the unpaid tickets were left on the counter overnight. He then learned his store had sold the jackpot-winning ticket and he scanned the abandoned tickets before finding the correct one that had the winning numbers 3, 13, 14, 15, 19, 26, according to NYP.

When Gawlitza’s shift ended, he removed his Circle K uniform and bought the abandoned tickets, including the winning one, for $10 from another store employee, NYP cited 12News as reporting.

However, the Circle K management was soon notified of the purchase and ordered the ticket to be held in its corporate office until a judge ruled on who owned the $12.8 million ticket.

In its lawsuit, Circle K invoked the Arizona Administrative Code that states retailers hold property claims to lottery tickets that a customer refuses to pay for and goes unsold.

According to the Arizona Lottery, the dispute could be the first case of a store and its employee with opposing claims to a lottery jackpot.

Under the state’s lottery rules, the rightful owner of a winning ticket has until 23 May or 180 days after the draw, to claim the prize.