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Topics: Lottery, Money, California
Callum Jones
Topics: Lottery, Money, California
A man who won a whopping $197 million on the Mega Millions is suing the lottery by claiming one detail means he should be walking away with double the amount of money.
Back in June, Faramarz Lahijani publicly came forward to claim his lottery winnings of $197.5 million (to be exact), after purchasing a lucky ticket at a gas station on Ventura Blvd in Encino, California.
Despite claiming such a massive prize, Lahijani is suing the lottery as he claims to have purchased another ticket from the gas station, a winning ticket he lost.
Last week, the lawsuit was officially filed against California Lottery, as the lottery winner hopes to extend his winnings close to $400 million.
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Lahijani filed the suit on December 6, a mere hours before the deadline to claim the winnings from the missing ticket had been reached.
The suit, according to the Patch, states: "By virtue of his having timely submitted the first matching ticket, plaintiff is entitled to the entirety of the jackpot."
The numbers 21, 26, 53, 66, 70, and gold Mega Ball 13 were picked by Lahijani's children according to the man himself, the same digits he claims to have been using for decades.
Many will ask how the same numbers could be played twice at the same store - something lottery officials have had to explain in the past.
Carolyn Becker, a California Lottery spokesperson, said: "While this is incredibly unusual and interesting, it’s not unheard of.
"There are any number of explanations; perhaps one person wanted to try their luck on two different rows for whatever reason, or maybe a couple of buddies wanted to try their chances with the same exact numbers. We won’t know exactly how this happened until the prize is claimed."
Those who take part in the Mega Millions have a one in 302,575,350 chance of winning the life-changing jackpot, so for one to win the jackpot twice really is unheard of.
From a 2023 press release, Becker may have provided an indication as to what may be happening with this mysterious case.
She added: "Only legitimate winners know the answers to some of our most important questions during the standard vetting process; it's one of the ways we determine that the person who claims the prize is, in fact, the rightful winner."
While Lahijani may be hoping for more dollars, the gas station is more than happy with the $1.9 million+ they have bagged for selling the tickets.