A man was stunned to discover he would receive nothing from a lottery prize worth over $14 million due to a validation error with his ticket.
Man believes he won over $14 million lottery prize
Recently, a lottery player was bitterly disappointed after thinking he had won a staggering $14 million jackpot.
He was later informed that he had won nothing at all.
Mark Fletcher, a 49-year-old father from Wigan, was thrilled to see that all six of his numbers had been drawn.
He felt ecstatic when he checked the lottery results.
Fletcher allegedly hasn’t bought the lottery ticket
He then contacted the National Lottery operator, Allwyn, to claim his life-changing winnings.
However, his joy was shattered as the company delivered the devastating news that he had not purchased a ticket for that particular draw.
“I was a bit shocked when I checked the numbers and found they matched,” Fletcher recounted.
“However, when I rang them up to check, I was on the phone for 45 minutes, and the woman was adamant I wasn’t a winner.”
The lottery operator explained to Fletcher that he had likely used the app’s “results checker” feature.
This tool lets users input numbers to see if they would have been winning combinations.
Unfortunately, this did not mean that Fletcher had actually played those numbers and won the jackpot.
“She kept saying, ‘you haven’t bought that ticket, have you Mark?'” Fletcher added.
“When people play the Lotto, they think it’s a trustworthy service, but I’m doubting that now.”
He devastated after realizing he won nothing from the prize
The father-of-one was left feeling utterly devastated by the ordeal, which he said has had a significant impact on him.
“It has impacted me – I’m left thinking about all the ‘what ifs,'” he admitted.
“If they’ve told me I’ve won but in actual fact I’ve won nothing, it’s a bit cruel, and I’ve had sleepless nights.”
A spokesperson for Allwyn, the company operating the National Lottery, clarified that players can save their “lucky numbers” in the app.
They can then check these numbers against previous draws, even if they didn’t purchase a ticket for that draw.
“It has nothing to do with whether a player actually played the numbers or not.
In this case, the player did not play this set of six numbers via his online account for the draw on June 29,
or indeed in any draws prior to the draw on June 29 taking place,” the spokesperson explained.
While the National Lottery’s systems may have been functioning correctly, Fletcher feels betrayed by the experience.
He is now questioning the trustworthiness of the lottery service he has relied on for years.