Powerball posted the wrong numbers. Now he's suing for $340 million.

The series of numbers on the ticket John Cheeks purchased matched those on a Powerball website. Had he overcome unfathomable odds to win the $340 million grand prize?

Not according to Powerball administrators, who said the numbers Mr. Cheeks saw on the site were part of a test that was “accidentally posted,” rather than the winning numbers for the January 2023 drawing.

However, Mr. Cheeks still wants his prize. He is suing several groups that run Powerball in Washington, D.C., where he lives, for breach of contract, gross negligence and infliction of emotional distress, among other claims, for failing to give him the top prize, according to documents filed in a civil DC court. Mr Cheeks has asked for the $340 million in damages, as well as compensatory damages and interest on profits. The court will begin hearing the case on Friday.

“This isn't just about numbers on a website,” Cheeks attorney Richard Evans said in a statement. “It's about the trustworthiness of institutions that promise life-changing opportunities while profiting heavily from them.”

The Powerball lottery is played in 45 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the winning numbers are posted on the Powerball website and those of other state lotteries. Millions of hopeful Americans play the lottery, and surveys show that they are regular players more often have a low income. But the chances of winning are minuscule: the big Powerball prize, for example, has a chance of 1 in 292 million. (The next drawing, on Wednesday, is for an estimated jackpot of $348 million.)

The numbers on Mr. Cheeks' ticket were not the official winning numbers for the Jan. 7, 2023, drawing, according to a motion to dismiss the case from Taoti Enterprises, a Washington-based contractor that markets the lottery and is a defendant in the business. business suit. The numbers were part of a test, the company said, and an employee “accidentally” posted them on the live lottery website.

“The test numbers were never the actual winning numbers,” the group said, according to court documents, adding that Mr. Cheeks tried to take advantage of “an obvious mistake.”

The test numbers, which were missing the red “Powerball” number, were posted on the local DC lottery site on Jan. 6, before the drawing took place, the group said. They stayed there next to the real winning numbers until January 9, when the workers realized the mistake.

The website, the group said, also included a disclaimer that the site was not “the final authority” for the drawing and that tickets still needed to be validated by the DC Lottery and independent auditors.

“These red flags would ensure that any reasonable person would know that these were not the valid winning numbers,” the contractor said.

Mr. Cheeks discovered that his numbers, a mix of birthdays and other special numbers, had been posted to the site the day after the drawing.

“I got a little excited, but I didn't scream, I didn't scream,” Mr. Cheeks said an NBC interview. “I just politely called a friend.”

He tried to redeem the prize in several ways before being told a mistake had been made.

“They were happy to take his money to play their game, and according to their multiple publications, he had a winning ticket,” Mr. Evans said. Even if a mistake had been made, he added, officials were negligent in not publicly announcing the error. In another recent case, in Iowa, where incorrect Powerball numbers were reported, prizes of up to $200 were paid out for a short period before redemption was suspended.

“There are more Zeros involved in this case, but it is the obligation they have,” Mr. Evans said, referring to the Iowa episode. “They published the wrong numbers and they made the right mistake in paying out the profits.”

Mr. Cheeks, an advocate for public rights, was the only person entered in the drawing for the top prize.

Mary Malloy Dimaio, an attorney for Taoti Enterprises, declined to comment further Monday but pointed to a motion to dismiss the case in court. An attorney for the Multi-State Lottery Association did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment Monday. The Washington Office of Lottery and Gaming and the Washington Attorney General's office also did not respond to emails seeking comment.