A man is suing Powerball after seeing his winning numbers appear online before the company then claimed it was a "mistake".
John Cheeks thought he had won $340million on a lottery draw but was informed it was a "website error" and saw his winnings revoked.
According to the alleged lottery winner, the ticket was purchased in January last year and when checking the Washington DC Lottery website, he claims his numbers matched the selected winning numbers.
Cheeks explained that the following day, the DC Lottery numbers on the site had changed from the Powerball drawn on January 7.
A man is suing Powerball after seeing his winning numbers appear online before the company then claimed it was a 'mistake'
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"I'm not a regular, except for when the jackpot goes up," he told NBC.
"I got a little excited, but I didn’t shout, I didn’t scream, I just politely called a friend.
"I took a picture as he recommended, and that was it. I went to sleep."
In a lawsuit against Powerball, he now claims that the winning numbers remained on the DC Lottery website for three days.
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Cheeks said he tried to redeem his prize of $340million at a licensed retailer but was denied.
He said he made a second attempt at the DC Office of Lottery and Gaming prize centre, but this saw another denial.
Attorney Richard Evans said Cheeks had been told by a lottery contractor that the company had published the incorrect numbers online and that his ticket had matched with the "mistake" posted on their web page.
Evans said: "They have said that one of their contractors made a mistake.
Cheeks said he tried to redeem his prize of $340million at a licensed retailer but was denied
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"I haven't seen the evidence to support that yet.
"Even if a mistake was made, the question becomes: What do you do about that?
"There is a precedent for this, a similar case that happened in Iowa, where a mistake was admitted to by a contractor and they paid the winnings out."
