John Wines, a recent retiree from Roswell, said he bought the scratch-off in December from a local Shell station and he scratched the ticket to reveal five winning numbers, two of which were each worth $250,000.
Wines said he took the ticket — which has a stated maximum prize of $250,000 — back to the gas station to show how he had somehow managed to win more than $500,000. “I took it back in and she told me that is not a winner,” Wines told KOB-TV. “They told me that it was a misprint and they don’t pay off for misprints.” Wines contacted officials with the New Mexico Lottery and received a reply via email.
“We did find a flaw in that particular pack of tickets and it’s been reported to our printer. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I did complete a reconstruction of your ticket and it was not a winner,” the email read. Wines said he was crushed by the news.
“If it was $50 or $75, I would not think a thing about it,” he said. “But this is $500,000. That’s a half million.” “It’s like I told them, I didn’t misprint it. I bought the ticket in good faith thinking if I won I was going to get my money. And they told me no, they absolutely, positively told me no.”
