A gambler named Ward Thomas, residing in Long Beach, California, in the United States, filed a lawsuit with the State Lottery Commission.
According to Ward, he is the rightful winner of more than $5 million in lottery prizes that were never paid out.
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The process, which began in 2017, is more complex than it seems. That's because, according to an opinion issued by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where the case is under way, who bought the winning tickets was Ward's son, Benjamin, who at the time was under age.
Ward Thomas does not deny the claims and explains that, unpretentiously, he asked his son to go buy five scratch-off tickets. When the boy arrived, Thomas discovered that one of the tickets was a prize.
After the happy discovery, Ward applied for the prize to be withdrawn from the lottery where the tickets were purchased. However, just two months later he received the reply that the prize would not be awarded because of Benjamin's age, who was only 16 when he bought the scratch cards.
Since then, the nonconformist winner has been waging a legal battle to get his prize released.
Among the allegations made by Ward Thomas are that the California State Lottery Commission is acting in bad faith and denying him a right. Furthermore, Thomas says that at the lottery where his son bought the tickets there is no indication that minors are prohibited from playing.
In the case file filed by Ward, this statement is explicit. "At no time did the lottery inform that Benjamin Thomas could not act as the author's agent [in this case his father] to obtain tickets", questions the document.
To defend themselves, lottery officials say they had in mind that both Ward and his son Benjamin already knew that minors cannot be involved in lottery betting.
Going in this direction, the lottery itself sued Benjamin and Ward Thomas, claiming that the young man presented a forged driver's license to prove that he was 18 years old and able to bet.
As of this writing, the judicial opinion of the Los Angeles County Superior Court Angeles remains unfavorable to Ward and Benjamin, who still haven't seen the color of the $5 million won in the scratch cards.
Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of acting professionally as a Content Writer for the Web, writing articles in different niches and different formats.