It’s a pretty exciting time to be playing the lottery. Your chances of winning are really, infinitesimally low. You’re more likely to be crushed by a meteorite than win the lottery, for example. However, the promise of a $1.3 billion payday has many people who otherwise wouldn’t be playing the game lining up for a ticket.
Occasionally, there are some pretty crazy winning stories. For example, one guy accidentally bought two identical lottery tickets and won a million dollars—twice. Another bought 162 identical tickets and won a record-breaking $811,000.
However, sometimes, a lottery ticket purchase doesn’t go as planned. That’s what recently happened to TikTok user Abby (@abbyradtech). She shared her plight in a post with over 129,000 views.
What Went Wrong With This Lottery Ticket Purchase?
In her post, Abby shows a lottery ticket where barely anything is visible: no numbers, no barcode, and no other identifying information.
“Literally the ticket I got at the gas station and he said I can’t reprint… come in tomorrow and l’ll enter it manually to see if it’s a winner,” she writes in the text overlaying the video. “Umm what number?!?!?”
Above this, she adds, “Gotta be good luck right???”
Her issues with the ticket didn’t end there. In a follow-up video, she says she returned to the original location where she bought the ticket. There, she says she was told that she was not a winner. However, she questions how one could even determine this, given that the numbers and barcode are not visible.
“I went to two different gas stations. I got other tickets for tonight, but also I asked them if there was any way they could scan that at all,” she recalls. “They, both of the places I went to, looked at me like I was crazy. And they’re like, ‘Did somebody sell you this?’”
The gas stations affirmed that they could not scan the ticket.
“So, now what? Do I report it? Do I call?” she asks.
What Should You Do in This Situation?
While Abby can be certain that her ticket was not a jackpot winner, as there is presently no winner, that still leaves open the question of what one should do in this situation.
According to LegalClarity, one can reach out to their local lottery commission in order to figure out whether their damaged ticket is a winner. They may ask for additional details and evidence surrounding the ticket, such as a receipt of purchase or the owner’s social security number.
With regard to a reprint ticket, this may vary from state to state. But in many cases, reprint tickets are not valid by themselves. They are only valid in conjunction with the original ticket with the error. For example, the Wisconsin lottery notes that “Reprint tickets can not be sold or used to collect winnings. The only purpose of a reprint ticket is to send into the Lottery to receive credit for an unreadable ticket transaction.”
In Abby’s case, she should likely reach out to her local lottery authority while returning to the original place she purchased the ticket with a receipt in order to secure a reprint.
Commenters Aren’t Happy
In the comments section, users agreed that she should report the issue to the relevant authorities while also offering other advice.
“At least it’s registered in the system and the results would report if there was a jackpot winner from those numbers. Zero winners again,” wrote a user.
“Report it and don’t lose the ones you have,” offered another.
“You can’t reprint the same ticket but he could have printed you another one , theirs also no way to redeem this ticket without the bar code to manually type the numbers in so this is a loss,” declared a third.
We’ve reached out to Abby via TikTok direct message and comment and the Multi-State Lottery Association via email.