Gambling : Missed Opportunity Of A Lifetime

Canadian punter loses out on Cdn$30 million lottery payout.
 
A player in the Atlantic Lottery Lotto Max missed out on a Cdn$30 million win last week by declining to purchase an incorrectly issued ticket in a convenience store.
 
Store owner Shawn Noel told CBC News: "The [clerk] printed it off and made a mistake on the machine, and it came out $27. She offered it to the customer but she said, no, she didn't want it."
 
The customer had ordered a $12 ticket and insisted on a re-issue for this amount. The clerk followed procedure and immediately voided the $27 ticket, meaning that the numbers printed were put back into play.
 
Noel and his store shared in what was truly a major misfortune. As the vendor, he would have pocketed one percent of the prize, or $300,000.
 
Jennifer Dalton, a spokesperson for the Atlantic Lottery Corp said, “There's going to be lots of people out there reconsidering whether they want to cancel tickets!
 
"It was big news for us, certainly, here around the office. To our knowledge, we've never had such a potential of a winning prize, being so large, for a cancelled ticket."
 
Dalton said customers cancel about 52,500 tickets every month, for a variety of reasons.
 
"It's always their choice whether they want to continue with the purchase or not," she said.