DENVER—A Colorado Springs woman who bought scratch tickets with no chance of winning the top prize is suing Texaco, the owner of the gas station where she bought the tickets a decade ago.
LaVonne Bazemore Watkins said she bought a $2 “Luck of the Zodiac” scratch ticket in hopes of winning the top $10,000 prize. However, she later learned that the last $10,000 award had been claimed more than two months before.
“I’ve been cheated, I’ve been lied to, and I’m not the only one. I want somebody held accountable,” said Watkins, who still buys the occasional scratch ticket.
About 20 states, including Colorado, continue to sell scratch tickets after all of the top prizes have been given away.
For example, in a recent round of the popular “Colorado Millionaire” game, all three $1 million prizes were given away by May 2 but the Colorado Lottery continued to sell another $287,000 worth of scratch tickets until someone won the $250,000 prize.
Colorado Lottery spokeswoman Erika Gonzalez said most games end after the top prizes are gone but she said people aren’t just interested in the top prize.
“In fact, some of our players complain if we end a game while there are still significant second tier prizes remaining,” Gonzalez said.
She said players can ask retailers to check which games no longer have a top prize or check the Lottery’s Web site—coloradolottery.com—before they buy a ticket.
That information wasn’t available when Watkins bought her ticket in 1998.
Watkins’ case has been in the legal system for eight years and was originally filed against the Colorado Lottery. However, she changed the defendant to Texaco after the state Supreme Court recently ruled that she couldn’t sue the state because of the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act.
Watkins’ lawyer, former Arizona deputy attorney general Rob Carey, has filed similar lawsuits in challenges in Arizona, California, and Washington state. None have been successful so far.
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Information from: Rocky Mountain News,
