In a wild case that almost doesn’t seem real, four different people in Arizona claim they are the owners of a $12.8 million winning lottery ticket. And, no, it isn’t because they all went in on it together. It’s one ticket that they all separately claim is theirs.
The dispute dates back to Nov. 24, 2025. That’s when a customer visited the Circle K at 5601 E. Bell Road in Scottsdale. While there, they asked a worker to repeat previously used lottery numbers for the Arizona Lottery game The Pick’s drawing that night. The worker printed tickets for $85. The consumer left the remaining tickets at the store after paying $60.
After the Arizona Lottery revealed the winning numbers that evening, one of the leftover, unclaimed tickets matched all six numbers, making it worth $12.8 million.
This is where the story starts to go off the rails
According to court filings, a Circle K store manager discovered that the store had generated a winning ticket when he arrived for his shift the next morning. So he located the leftover tickets and verified that one of them was, indeed, the jackpot winner.
Then, after clocking out, he took off his Circle K uniform and paid another employee $10 for the winning ticket. According to the Phoenix New Times, he did so “presumably to avoid Arizona Lottery regulations that prohibit lottery vendors from purchasing tickets while on the clock.”
However, after learning what happened, Circle K management ordered employees to keep the ticket in the company’s corporate offices and sued to determine who the rightful owner is. So, now two people, the store manager and the business, Circle K, both claimed ownership of the $12.8 million lottery ticket.
But wait, there’s more… two more
Later, the customer who requested the winning ticket but did not pay for it also claims to be the rightful owner. That person, however, told the Phoenix New Times this week that she hasn’t yet determined whether she will press a claim to the ticket.
A fourth person, the Circle K employee who “sold” the winning Pick ticket to the store’s manager the morning after the drawing, now also claims she is the rightful owner. Adding yet another twist to this case is that this Circle K employee is represented by the same attorney as the Circle K manager who “bought” the winning ticket the day after the Nov. 24 drawing.
The task of determining who is the ticket’s legitimate owner will now go to a county judge. To allow the case to move forward, the Arizona Lottery relaxed the 180-day window for ticket claims.
According to the Phoenix New Times, the decision could be an easy one for the judge to make.
“Arizona Lottery regulations would suggest the ticket belongs to the gas station giant,” reporter Zach Buchanan wrote. “Lottery rules state that printed but unsold tickets represent a legal wager because vendors like Circle K pay the Arizona Lottery for each ticket they print, regardless of whether a sale is made. Rules also state that a printed but unsold winning ticket belongs to the vendor.”