Lottery shop owner ordered to pay customer over $33,000 for missed jackpot

A lottery shop owner in Jiangsu province has been ordered by a local court to compensate a customer over 240,000 yuan ($33,000) for failing to print a lottery ticket that could have resulted in a 5-million-yuan ($685,000) jackpot.

The incident occurred when the customer, surnamed Li, placed an order for a lottery ticket through WeChat and paid for it via the online payment app. However, the lottery shop owner, surnamed Zhang, forgot to print the ticket with Li's chosen numbers.

The oversight resulted in Li missing out on a potential jackpot of over $685,000. The lottery results showed that 10 of the digits Li had selected matched the winning numbers. After deducting individual income tax, Li's winnings would have amounted to over $550,000.

The case was taken to the Zhangjiagang People's Court, which ruled that Zhang, as a professional lottery sales agent, had a duty to exercise reasonable care in processing Li's order. The court found that Zhang's failure to print the ticket constituted negligence and held him liable for compensation.

The court also recognized Li's negligence in not making appropriate reminders or urging Zhang to print the ticket. Li was found to be partially responsible for his own loss and thus was assigned a proportionate share of the liability.

Considering the low probability of winning a $685,000 jackpot, the court determined that it would be inappropriate to base Li's loss amount on the potential winnings. Instead, the court took into account the faults of both parties and ordered Zhang to compensate Li with over $33,000.

Neither party appealed the court's decision, and the lottery shop owner has paid the compensation.